Tag Archives: weeds

Episode 326. Into Year 8

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 6th of February 2023.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Way back in the dim dark past of 2016 in those halcyon pre-covid days, on the first of that month, this feed first hit the interwebs in all my naive, open eyed wonder.  A full seven years, that number so beloved of Celtic heroes and their times in the wilderness, the time required to develop a given itch for those of us of a certain age. For the younger listeners, I have provided a link in the show notes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Year_Itch) In the interests of accuracy, it was released a full six years before I first burst upon this planet but still a part of my cultural milieu but I digress.  Continue reading →

Episode 325. Loving your soil – the ecology of weeds

I’m going to focus on the three principles of the Fukuoka method, as I have applied them in my systems. I’m in process of changing homes and so a review is helpful for both your narrator and I hope, my listeners.

The three principles are:

  1. No digging,
  2. No weeding &
  3. No bare soil.

Back on episode 17 of the Organic Gardener Podcast, I was being interviewed by Jackie, the host, and I brought up the idea of no dig gardening. This was something new to her and, I suspect, to many of the listeners. Continue reading →

Episode 323. Weeds!!! ~ From Work to Ecology

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

There were a couple of posts this week on the gentle topic of weeds. 

And they got me to thinking about my own journey to my current understanding of the little buggers and how they don’t bother me anymore.

My first ever garden as a child was a small one metre square attempt at growing wheat from my Irish neighbour’s chook feed.

Without knowing it, this was the first time I would re-enact the Neolithic. Making stone tools at uni many years later as part of my degree in archaeology, was another but that’s an entirely different podcast episode.

With the wheat garden I barely got my seed back. Continue reading →

Episode 319. Splitters!

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 19th of December 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

“Real” Organic Systems

We have a problem. I was listening to a podcast, no names, no pack drill, about the “Real” Organic movement. I can see the point. The USDA Organic Standards have been interrogated by corporate lawyers to find loopholes. So hydroponic growing, a thing laughably not organic, is included in the USDA system and relabelled as container growing, even if the containers only hold pebbles and the nutrients are coming from the fertigation. Clearly this has nothing to do with improving soil health over time, the actual point of organic growing. Other things like a concrete pad alongside a chook shed with doors for the chooks to go outside passes as “having access to fresh air, sunshine and soil”. 5000 head dairies milking three times a day with hay being trucked in and manures mechanically spread on the newly cut hay fields also can qualify as organic under the standard.  Continue reading →

Episode 203. First Principles Continued: Weeds

This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of  February 2020.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

After last week’s rant I’m in a happy frame of mind and I hope you are too. This week I’m continuing the “Back to First Principles” series with weeds.

Talking to non gardeners who want to be gardeners there are two issues that stop them starting: The thought of all the work, digging mostly and the fear of being overrun with weeds. No-dig I think we’ve covered sufficiently for now but if you’re new have a listen to Episode 198 where I cover it in some detail. Continue reading →