What Grows in a Prairie Food Forest?

Putting the terms prairie and forest together in the title of this piece may seem like (and is) a contradiction. To be clear, I’m not talking about or advocating for finding a piece of virgin prairie on which to plant fruit, grains and vegetables; nor am I proposing that my objective is to grow a forest. What I’m talking about is growing food, including fruit trees and shrubs but also herbs and vegetables together on ground that happens to be located in the prairie region and is subject to its sometimes brutal climate and weather. The forest can be rural or urban, large or small. Specifically, I’m talking about south and central Saskatchewan, but the principles and plant selection is valid for other prairie provinces and northern plains states.

Think about the “forest” as a variety of fruit and nut trees and shrubs, along with herbs and vegetables, all grown together in a mutually beneficial way, on a prepared plot of land.

What follows is a list of plants that will grow and thrive in the prairie region, and provide food for people (and some other animals). There is no one perfect way to combine the plants. For example, you could row plant a monoculture apple or saskatoon berry orchard. Much better though, from an ecological and diet point of view, is to plant a polyculture or guild comprised of, for example, an apple tree or two, a few saskatoon, haskap and raspberry bushes, with an understory and groundcover layer of vegetables like potatoes and beans and herbs like dill, wild ginger and oregano. A healthy polyculture food forest can also include plants that don’t feed people but do attract pollinators like bees and also the beneficial insects including predators like hover flies, lacewings and ground beetles that will eat pests that threaten your food forest. Some plants such as clover will build soil fertility. Healthy soil is critical. Of course, most of your plants will need sunshine, and water. See some of my previous postings for information on how to build healthy soil and attract and support pollinators and beneficial predators.

This is a list of trees, shrubs and plants that grow well in the prairie climate zones 2 and 3. Supplemental watering will be necessary when establishing the forest, and then in drought periods. The list is not all inclusive. These are my recommendations because I know they grow in the prairie climate and are available for purchase in most local garden centres. Your research may inspire you to try other fruits and vegetables.

Trees:

• Apple: there are many suitable varieties for fresh eating and cooking, including Prairie Magic and Prairie Sun;

• Plum: several suitable varieties, including Patterson Pride, Prairie, Superb, and Supreme.

Shrubs:

• Saskatoons: several suitable varieties;

• Sour Cherry: several suitable varieties;

• Haskap: several suitable varieties. Very nutritious. Require two or more different varieties for pollination;

• Chokecherry: several suitable varieties;

• Nanking Cherry: very productive. Similar in use and taste to sour cherry;

• Golden Currant: also consider the related red, white and black currants, and gooseberries;

• High Bush Cranberry: for jelly and sauce - taste improves if harvested after frost;

• Hazelnut: the nuts are nutritious and delicious when roasted;

• Raspberry: many varieties, very tasty, productive and nutritious, but need room to spread;

• Blueberries: delicious and nutritious but need acidic soil and will fail in prairie areas like southern Saskatchewan where soil is alkaline.

Perennials: (these can be planted in sunny areas under and around trees and shrubs)

• Rhubarb: an under-appreciated very nutritious food plant;

• strawberry: many varieties, including wild and cultivated varieties. Need room to spread;

• Herbs like chives, oregano, dill, coriander are not technically perennials, but their seeds will overwinter and sprout in the spring. They are excellent for flavour and nutrition and also for attracting beneficial insects. There are many herbs, both native and introduced, that grow well on the prairies;

Annuals: (these include vegetables and flowers for planting in sunny areas of the forest as space and enthusiasm allows)

• Many choices, including garlic, beans (bush and climbing), tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, squash, peas, potatoes, etc.

Groundcovers: (these are forbs and grasses planted in the food forest to cover and improve the soil, preserve moisture, prevent weeds, provide habitat and pollen and nectar for beneficial insects, and provide seeds for overwintering birds). Note: Never use landscape fabric as a groundcover in the food forest or around shrubs or vegetables because it restricts natural soil building processes.

• groundcovers include clover, creeping thyme, pasture sage, wild bergamot, anise hyssop, little bluestem grass, goldenrod, sunflower, aster, wild ginger, Western Canada violets, three-flowered avens, etc.

There are some excellent reference books available:

- Growing Fruit in Northern Gardens, by Sara Williams and Bob Bors.

- Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway. Describes polyculture and guild food forests in detail.

- Vegetable Gardening for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, by Laura Peters.

- Herbs & Edible Flowers, by Lois Hole.

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Some Pollinator Plants for Regina & Area

Pollinators include bees (both introduced honeybees and native wild bees), flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, hummingbirds, bats, and beetles. None of these sets out each day specifically to pollinate plants. Rather, they go hunting for the nectar, pollen, resins and oils that plants produce and that the pollinators eat or take back to nests to feed their young. Pollination is a happy and essential by-product of this search for food, because as the pollinator moves from flower to flower, pollen grains from plants they just visited fall from their bodies into the female reproductive parts of the flower and a seed is formed.

Humans are beneficiaries of the work of these (mostly insect) pollinators. Thirty-five percent of the food crops we eat require insect pollination, and 90% of all plants on earth require insect pollination to reproduce. It would be a desolate world without pollinators. More accurately, it is becoming a more desolate world because pollinators (and many beneficial insects and the birds that eat insects) are in trouble due to habitat loss and pesticide use.

We can help save the pollinators (and the planet) by creating habitat for them, even if we live in an urban area. To create habitat where pollinators and other beneficial insects can live means putting plants in the ground – the right plant in the right place.

The right plant starts with the native plants that have grown here for thousands of years and that have co-evolved with the insects and wildlife that have also lived here for thousands of years. The plants and insects have a mutually beneficial relationship: the plants get pollination and the insects get food. It has been this way for eons.

Below is a partial list of native plants that pollinators love and that will grow easily here in Regina, despite its special urban soil that tends to be compacted clay but that can be improved through the addition of compost. The “right place” for the plants listed here is a sunny location. They are available at specialty native plant garden centres or organizations (e.g. seeds from Nature Regina’s Native Plant Garden) as seeds, plugs, or in pots. I have included the scientific names for these plants because that is the best way to be sure you are getting the native species.

Following the list of native plants is a partial list of non-native plants that have important value to pollinators. These are plants that have been brought over from Europe and Asia (e.g. herbs such as oregano from the Mediterranean region), or that are native to other parts of North America (e.g. purple coneflower from Ontario). These plants are available at most regular garden centres as seeds or in pots.

Native Plants for Pollinators (perennials)

Wild Bergamot (Beebalm) – Monarda fistulosa

Dotted Blazing Star – Liatrus punctata

Low Milkwood – Asclepias ovalifolia

Whorled Milkweed – Asclepias verticillata

Rough False Sunflower – Heliopsis helianthoides

Narrow-leaved Sunflower – Helianthus maximilianii

Giant Hyssop (Anise Hyssop) – Agastache foeniculum

Blanket Flower – Gaillardia aristata

Wild Columbine – Aquilegia Canadensis

Smooth Aster, Lindley’s Aster, etc. – Symphiotrychum leave, Symphiotrychum ciliolatum & others

Three Flowered Avens – Geum Triflorum

Smooth Blue Beardtongue – Penstemon nitidus

Yarrow – Achillea millefolium

Stiff Goldenrod and Low Goldenrod, etc. – Solidago rigida, Solidago missouriensis, and others

Purple Prairie Clover – Dalea purpurea

Canada Anemone – Anemone Canadensis

Early Blue Violet – Viola adunca

Native Plants for Pollinators (Shrubs)

Highbush Cranberry – Viburnum trilobum

Nannyberry – Viburnum lentago

Saskatoon – Amelanchier alnifolia

Red Osier Dogwood – Cornus Sericea

Shrubby Cinquefoil – Dasiphora fruticose

Bush Honeysuckle – Diervilla lonicera

Prairie Rose – Rosa arkansana

Non-native Plants for Pollinators

Herbs (allow to flower): Oregano, Dill, Coriander, Borage, Basil, Catnip, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme, Chives

Annuals: Cosmos, Scarlet Runner Bean, Annual Tickseed, Sweet Allysum, Bachelor Button, annual Salvia (blue variety)

Perennials: Russian Sage, Salvia nemerosa, Clover (White Dutch, Crimson, Alsike), Globe Thistle, Stonecrop (sedums), Catmint, Purple Coneflower (Echinacea)

Shrubs/vines: Ninebark, shrub Roses, Spirea, Nanking Cherry, Haskap, Scarlet Trumpet Honeysuckle

A Good Book

 Book Review: Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, by Douglas W. Tallamy. Timber Press Inc., 2019. Review by Phil Johnson 

This is a book about the critical importance to our ecosystem of native plants - the plants that have grown in a specific region for eons, and have co-evolved with the vast diversity of native wildlife. In this book we learn just how important that relationship is for the continuation of all life on this planet. We learn what is going wrong, but more to the point, what we can do to set it right.

Douglas W.Tallamy, Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, focuses on the relationship of plants with insects in particular – “the little things that run the world”. Insects run the world by pollinating 90% of all flowering plants, by being food for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and freshwater fish, and by acting as predators of other insects and thereby keeping the ecosystem in balance.

We have lost our balance. The wild things are disappearing. Currently, there are 8500 species of plants and animals at risk of extinction in North America. We have too much appetite for sterile monocultures of annual crops and lawns, for Eurasian ornamental plants that provide no wildlife food, and a mad passion for pesticides that kill insects whether beneficial or pests.

This book offers an alternative to despair

Tallamy is at his most ambitious when he envisions a linking of private yards and parks into what he calls “Homegrown National Park”. These linked landscapes of diverse native plants would be wildlife corridors, and homes, way-stations, food-stops for migrating and nesting birds, foraging bees and egg-laying butterflies.

To build the park, the final chapter lists ten things we can do in our garden and community to help restore nature, even in an urban setting. We already know some of them: shrink the lawn and stop spraying poisons. Most intriguing for me is the evidence that adding just a few carefully selected keystone native plants can remake our yards into healthy habitat for wildlife while meeting our own human needs too.

For keystones here in Saskatchewan, think willows, green ash, saskatoons, dogwoods, goldenrod, asters, giant hyssop, milkweed, and little bluestem. There are many others. They provide food and shelter for the wild things. They are beautiful. And they are available at garden centres!  

Grow Plants and Save the World

Our world is solar powered. The plants we eat, and the animals we eat after they eat plants, are fueled by the sun. Most of us learn a bit about photosynthesis in school, but fail to appreciate how crucial it is to life on this planet.

As a reminder, photosynthesis is a process that takes place in the chloroplasts of green leaves. Incoming sunlight is captured by the plant and stored as energy in the form of a simple sugar (glucose). The plant performs this miracle by taking carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil, and releasing oxygen to the atmosphere. Through various chemical reactions, the sugar that was formed in the plant is turned into carbon compounds - carbohydrates, proteins, organic acids, waxes and oils - which are then stored in the plants and in the soil beneath the plants. These are the fuel for life on this planet. Humans and other animals must eat these fuels in order to live.

In order to fuel our vehicles and warm our houses, we currently burn the coal, oil and natural gas that was captured and stored by plants as carbon eons ago - the burning of which has helped create our current climate crisis, with too much carbon dioxide in the air, and not enough remaining as carbon in the plants and soil.

A certain amount of the carbon compounds that were created through photosynthesis - the amount depends on the plant species and soil conditions - will travel down through the plant’s roots and out into the soil. The plant does this in order to attract beneficial microbes into its root zone. These microbes are primarily bacteria and fungi, and their role is to convert soil organic matter (i.e. dead leaves, roots, twigs, other microbes, insects, etc.) into essential nutrients that the plant can use. Those carbon compounds sent out of the roots are delicious to the microbes, which show their appreciation by multiplying their numbers and increasing their production of nutrients for the plant. For example, nitrogen-fixing bacteria make nitrogen available to the plant, and mycorrhizal fungi extend their mycelial threads many metres out and down in the soil to find and bring back phosphorus, water, and the many hard to get micro-nutrients needed by the plants. In this way, plants are made healthy and vigorous by the work of the microbes, which in turn are made healthy and vigorous by eating the carbon compounds provided by the plant.

But the effects of photosynthesis don’t end there. Some of the carbon compounds are converted by the microbes into humus, which is a very stable, long lasting and fertile substance of infinite value to the soil and everything growing on and in it. Fungi produce a gluey substance called glomalin, which also builds humus and improves soil structure so that it better cycles and retains moisture and air, the pH is buffered, pesticides and toxins are inactivated, and nutrients are made available to plants.

This conversion into humus is good not only for the plants and soil, but is key to capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil. Estimates vary, but it is clear that soil, if properly managed, can sequester a large portion of the man-made carbon dioxide gases now heating and choking our atmosphere. What is a crisis in the atmosphere could be a blessing in the soil. Scientists and farmers are working on getting the carbon dioxide out of the air and into the soil via farming practices, especially through regenerative farming. These scientists and farmers are finding that atmospheric carbon dioxide captured by plants and moved into the soil by smart farming practices increases soil fertility and produces better crops.

Those smart practices involve growing lots of green plants for as much of the season as possible.

Where does the home gardener fit into this picture? Well, one home gardener may have a small yard and little impact beyond the neighbourhood, but a million small yards growing plants and capturing carbon can make a difference. All kinds of plants help. Trees, shrubs and perennials are the best carbon collectors and soil builders. Their roots go deep into the soil where they are less likely to be disturbed and the carbon can be stored for years and decades.

Annuals have a smaller impact. The carbon they add through leaf drop and root growth stays in the top layer of the soil and is easily disturbed and returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, many of our food crops are annuals, and the plot or field where we grow them is left bare of plants for much of the year.

I’ll say more later about the best plants and methods for your backyard carbon capture and storage program. Even if saving the planet is not your thing, all gardeners want fertile soil for growing their nutritious and delicious fruit and vegetables. For that, you want carbon in your soil.

Organic Garden Design

For the many of us who came to gardening via the conventional route, designing the organic garden requires a change of perspective and the embrace of some new ideas.  Many people think that to be an organic gardener simply means you don’t use chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Of course it’s true that the organic gardener doesn’t use, want, or need chemical pesticides and fertilizers. After all, we are not at war with nature. We have chosen to work with nature. So what does this mean when it comes to selecting and placing plants? Here are some things to consider:

-          Organic gardeners recognize that many of the critters in the garden will be our allies, if we let them. Soil bacteria, fungi, and other microbes make our soil fertile and our plants healthy. Beneficial insects and birds will drive away or eat the pests that want at our flowers and vegetables.

-          Organic garden design is the planning of an ecosystem. All parts of the garden are related, and each part impacts and supports the other parts. Every plant and structure serves more than one purpose. That apple tree has beautiful flowers and scent, gives shade and privacy, builds soil structure and health through its roots and fallen leaves, sequesters carbon, attracts pollinators, raises a family of insect-eating birds every year, and feeds us (and the birds) tasty and nutritious apples.

-          The foundation of the garden is the soil. Healthy, fertile soil will grow healthy plants. Compost is the best soil amendment. Make your own and add it to the soil every year - especially to the vegetable garden soil, because you are taking off a crop every year, thus removing soil nutrients. Locate the compost bin(s) near the vegetable garden.

-          Think about shelter from the wind, cold, sun. Do you want privacy, quiet? A hedge serves these purposes well, as do strategically placed trees interspersed with shrubs and flower beds. I like a fence around the vegetable garden to keep out the wind but let the sun shine in. And a wooden fence doesn’t send out thirsty roots. I like the idea of a composting fence – two walls of chicken wire set 8-10 inches apart and the area in-between stuffed with leaves, small twigs, plant trimmings, etc. The materials compost over time and build enriched soil at the base of the fence, wherein vegetables thrive.  

-          Water is precious. Collect rain water in barrels from every roof and downspout.  Tap water contains chlorine which, by design, is not good for green things. Don’t channel rainwater into the storm sewer or ditch. Build healthy soil which will absorb moisture, recycle water, and prevent pooling. Rather than concrete, install permeable surfaces so water can pass through. My front walk is hard-packed crusher dust which allows water to drain through. Use mulch around plants - never leave soil exposed to drying winds and sun.

-          Of course, to prevent water getting into the basement, grade the soil away from the foundation.  

-          Practice diversity in planting the vegetable and the ornamental garden. Some plants attract beneficial insects that protect other plants from attack by pests. Learn what plants live together happily - companion planting. Good companions will have complementary nutrient, light, moisture, and space needs. Put nitrogen fixers beside heavy feeders (e.g. beans beside corn). And don’t put that small plant in the shade of a larger plant, unless it loves shade.

-          Choose plants that you know will do well in your area. Proven vegetables/fruit, native plants and trees (or their relatives), those from similar climates and soil types, and those that don’t need winter protection, are best. Exotics are way too demanding of time and resources.

-          Grow your salad herbs and vegetable near the house for quick and easy access. Some things do better in pots. I plant tomatoes in large pots in the sunniest place in the yard (south side of house), and keep a barrel of rainwater nearby.

-          Don’t try planting flowers under the spruce tree – the spruce tree puts out a toxin that will make life impossible for the flowers. Use a mulch of leaves, cones, needles, and/or shredded bark, under spruce. And please leave the spruce tree’s skirt in place. Trimming the bottom branches from a spruce tree is bad for the tree’s health and dignity.

-          Never mono-crop, even if that vast field of canola we’ve all seen is so pretty in flower. Like that field of canola, a large bed of potatoes, grown in the same place every year, is a magnet for all kinds of pests, and will rapidly deplete soil fertility so that yield and quality declines. Similarly, large beds of roses or lilies are an open invitation to insect and disease attack. A most common mono-crop is the standard Kentucky Bluegrass lawn – a glutton for water and food. I like lawns, but a mix of grasses and nitrogen-fixing white Dutch clover stays green longer, needs less water, looks great, and mows just as well. Why do conventional lawn aficionados hate broadleaves so much?

-          Some good resources on design to refer to are Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway, and The Prairie Short Season Yard, by Lyndon Penner.

Making Leaf Mould

Here is one of the easiest and least costly ways to build healthy soil: collect excess leaves in October, put them in a pile, dampen them a little, and place a tarp over the pile to keep the leaves from blowing into the neighbour’s yard. That’s all you have to do. Turn the pile a couple of times if you want the exercise. Let nature do the rest.

Be sure to put the pile in a corner of the yard where it is out of the way. It will take a year for the leaves to break down enough to be ready for digging into the garden soil. The smaller the leaves are to start with, the faster the bacteria and fungi will chew them up. Large poplar leaves, for example, will take longer than small elm leaves. To speed things up a little, I sprayed my pile this year with an organic microbial inoculant generically called Effective Micro-Organisms (EM). This liquid is similar to compost tea, in that it contains a multitude of beneficial bacteria that will transform the leaves into plant nutrients.       

The end product is a fluffy brown material that is one of the best conditioners for heavy clay soils. When lightly worked into the soil, it reduces compaction, improves air flow, increases water-holding capacity, and adds nutrients (especially potassium). It has a neutral pH (around 7), which is in the ideal range for most plants (6.2 – 7.0).

When it is ready, spread a couple of inches of it over your soil and turn it in with a garden fork to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. It doesn’t matter if the leaf mould is not completely broken down when you apply it - the soil microbes will soon finish the job.

Leaf-mania

It is mid-October and everywhere the leaf blowers are moaning a dirge. As if the heavy grey skies and bare trees were not grim enough.

Yesterday, two young men from a lawn-care company spent the afternoon blowing leaves across the grass at the ambulance station opposite my house. They arranged the leaves in windrows, then jumped in the truck and left for the night. They returned this morning with a walk-behind leaf vacuum. It moves very slowly, and sounds like a bag-pipe stuck on a bad note. It is rolling over the windrows, sucking the leaves into a large bag. No leaf is left behind. From the bag, the leaves are transferred to the back of a truck to be taken for disposal somewhere, probably the dump, probably not a compost pile.

A less mechanically-equipped gardener could have raked and removed the leaves at least three times over the same period.

But really, why would any gardener want to remove the leaves at all?

Well, I have read this week’s yard-care advice section of the local newspaper, where-in the very conventional expert says you need to rake up the leaves at this time of year. If you don’t, calamity will ensue – matting, moulds, rot, and perhaps worst of all for the perfect-lawn enthusiast, messiness.

I spent an hour on the weekend giving my lawns a light raking. I left a lot of leaves out there, so that my work probably looks a little shoddy to the passer-by. I poured the collected leaves into the vegetable, perennial and shrub beds to cover any bare soil and act as a three inch deep layer of mulch for the winter, and as microbe food in the spring. The mulch insulates the soil, prevents erosion, keeps weeds from sprouting, helps retain moisture, and protects roots. The bacteria, fungus, and other beneficial microbes and insects in the soil will eat the leaves and produce the nutrients needed for next spring’s plant growth.

For the same mulching and microbial reasons, I never rake any leaves from under the lilac or cotoneaster hedges, or from under the fruit trees and bushes. In fact, I spread excess leaves from the lawn (and those collected from friends and neighbours) to these areas to replenish mulch being eaten and transformed into plant nutrients by the soil critters.

From time to time throughout the winter, I’ll sprinkle some of the leaves onto the compost heap. This will add carbon to balance the nitrogen from the kitchen scraps that we continually add to the heap over winter.

The gardener’s Law of Return says that for plants to be healthy and productive, what is taken away by the gardener (or nature) in the form of fruit, vegetables and leaves, must be returned to the soil and the plant. A thriving garden eats leaves. Leaves are not garbage. They are not crumbs on the carpet. You can let most of them stay where they fall, shred them and spread them, or add them to the compost pile to later return as brown gold. Do this every year, and watch your garden grow.     

Slithery Slugduggery

In a previous piece I fingered the flea beetles as the biggest pest in my garden. I mentioned how we control them using natural means. About a week after posting that article, as if in response, the slugs arrived to stake their claim as the worst pest ever. The flea beetles were soon forgotten. The slugs were legion, and they were ravenous. They enjoyed some of my beloved tomatoes, especially the fruit if they could find an opening in the skin. But they didn’t like all tomatoes. They didn’t touch the Juliets, but I had to wipe them off the Brandywines and Black Krims. Pepper flowers disappeared overnight. They nibbled on the strawberries – the fruit but not the leaves. They stripped the leaves from some types of potatoes, but not others. They chewed on the beet leaves. I transplanted 2 salvia from the front yard to the back, and the plants disappeared in hours, as did one of the two newly planted delphiniums.

The terrible roar of a million slugs at their dinner should have been deafening, like a jet at take-off. But it was a quiet carnage, happening under cover of darkness.

So why such an outbreak? What happened to my natural allies in the air and in the soil? And what could I do about it now? So much for the natural balance in my eco-garden, I feared.

Our natural allies – the slug predators like toads, beetles, birds, and centipedes - were dragging their feet. Immediate human intervention was required, or this year’s crop would be decimated. Of course, we did not choose a chemical response. Commercial slug bait is hazardous to kids and pets, probably to birds, soil, and karma too.

First, we got some cheap beer, found some bowls and trays, and placed the beer and bowls around the garden every evening. Slugs love beer, or more accurately the yeast in beer. They partied hard every night, but the hangover was fatal. In the morning, we put masses of the critters in a pail of soapy water to stew for the day (i.e. make sure they were really dead, and not just passed out). Then they went on the compost as a good source of nitrogen and other nutrients for the friendly microbe herd there to devour. We soon bought yeast to put out with water and save a little money on beer.

I also sprinkled diatomaceous earth around the plants most susceptible to slug attack, in theory to irritate and cut their bodies as they slid over the jagged particles, but rain quickly washed the DE away.

I never tried laying copper strips around the garden. The theory is that the copper shocks the slugs when they travel over it, a sensation they apparently find unpleasant. That would have taken a lot of copper in our case – wasteful and unnecessary I think.

Garlic pepper tea used as a spray over the plants on which slugs feed is said to be a great deterrent. I didn’t try that – too many plants, too little time, too many beneficial insects driven away. Something more certain was required.      

We have planks in the vegetable garden for walking. We turned these over one sunny day to find the slugs snoring in their beds, as thick and numerous as cooked macaroni at a buffet. These were easily scooped into the soapy water, or crushed underfoot or by back of shovel. We also found them sleeping in the space between the garden’s wooden edge and the soil, and under thick mats of the oregano hedging the garden.

The number of slugs soon dwindled, the serious damage stopped, and most of the crop was saved. So how and why did so many arrive this year in the first place?

Reports talk about the eggs coming in with the bedding plants. This may be so, but once here, they need the right conditions. The outbreak coincided with rainy and humid weather in July. Slugs like rainy and humid weather.

They also like a cool shady place to sleep and lay their eggs. They found that here in our intensively planted and mulched yard.  Some conventional gardeners insist that all fallen leaves and other debris be cleaned away and put in the garbage every fall. But from an ecological point of view, that is wasteful and contrary to the health of the garden, and particularly the fertility of its soil. The mulch and intensive planting shade is home to the slugs but also to the insects that will eat the slugs – the ground and rove beetles, and the centipedes. I found centipedes wherever I found slugs. They are eating the slug eggs, which is good news for next season. The beetles are common here but apparently more shy than the centipedes, because I didn’t see many enjoying a meal of fresh slug. However, they apparently dine at night, and I am confident they are eating their share.

So why not just bare the garden of mulch and debris, and plant sparsely so the slugs won’t find a home? Well, the mulch and plant debris are good for the soil – its temperature, moisture level, structure, and longer term fertility. It is home to predators that the garden needs, like beetles and centipedes. Earthworms eat the mulch and debris and convert them into incredibly fertile poop. Intensive planting is a good use of space, prevents weed competition, and, in healthy soil, results in bigger and better yields.

All considered, the solution to the slug problem is not bare soil and sparse plantings. This was an exceptional year, weather wise, with perfect slug conditions. They have laid their eggs, but so have our friends the predators, which are always slow to respond, but extremely effective once they arrive. The predators will dine on eggs this fall, and be hungry for more next year. Even if the perfect weather conditions repeat, the slugs won’t have a chance because the predator population will be ready.  

As will the gardeners. Starting early in the spring, bowls of beer will be put out in the evening, and examined in the morning. The planks and any other hiding places will be turned over every day. The sleepers found there will be composted, transformed by microbes into plant nutrients, and returned to the garden – to feed the plants, rather than feed on them.

Summer Maintenance

It is now summertime, and the gardening is easy. There has been enough rain, the alfalfa fertilizer is quietly working, I’ve given the yard a shot of beneficial microorganisms in the form of compost tea, and the worst of the weeds have been pulled –they’ll return to the soil transformed as healthy compost in a few months. So for now I wander the yard in search of something to do. I’m amazed at the growth that has happened in such a short time.

There are things to do, of course. The lawn gets mowed, with the clippings left on. In addition to spreading alfalfa fertilizer at the start of June, I sprayed the lawn with EM (Effective Microorganisms). EM is a microbial innoculant, a special combination of various species of beneficial bacteria. I mix it with de-chlorinated water and sprinkle it on the lawn and vegetable garden using a watering can. It is very similar to compost tea, but easier to use. I highly recommend it. You can’t make your own, however, like you can compost tea. You have to buy the stuff that’s been combined in the lab. Gardenerspantry.ca sells it online – one litre of activated EM costs $14. That much will do my large garden for the season. I’ve yet to see it on a shelf in Regina, but it is available in garden centres elsewhere throughout North America. It has been used in Asia for 4 decades. EM is a probiotic for plants. It is an unsung hero of the garden, like mycorrhizal fungi. Studies and experience show both EM and mycorrhizal fungi significantly improve plant growth and disease/pest resistance.

I will give the entire yard another shot of compost tea and EM (combined) in early July, and again in early August. If your yard is just beginning the transition to organic, or it has poor soil and signs of disease, you can spray it with the tea/EM combination more frequently - probably once per week this summer would be enough. Also at about the same times, I will spread alfalfa pellets over the lawn and vegetable garden. The tea and EM adds beneficial microbes (bacteria and fungi) to the soil and plant leaves. The microbes eat the alfalfa, converting it into plant food. They also control bacterial and fungal pests on leaves and in the soil.

I did some pruning on the weekend, to make headroom under trees and bring some sprawling shrubs back into shape. I cut the prunings small and returned them as mulch under the shrubs and trees. Nothing went into the garbage.

Now that the garden plants are bigger, I have added leaf mulch over any bare soil. This will suppress weed growth, help retain moisture, and feed the microbes which then feed the plants.

We’ve had enough rain that I’ve seldom had to resort to irrigation. The rain barrels are full, ready for hand-watering of pots and new bedding plants.

Pest watch is underway. This is not the obsessive fetish in my yard that it is in the conventional (i.e. chemical) garden. There were a few tent caterpillars, but they did no damage. Those on the lower branches were hand-dropped into a pail of water. They swim poorly. When they massed on a branch for the night, I pruned the branch and put the branch and its guests into a garbage bag. Those caterpillars clustered out of reach at the top of the tree (a mature Schubert Chokecherry) got to live on - temporarily though as many became food for birds and for parasitic wasps and flies. (Few would recognize the parasitic wasps as wasps – they look nothing like the Yellow Jacket and do not pester humans at all).

Since balance is so important in any ecosystem, it is crucial that a few pests remain in order to encourage our friends the predators. The predator birds, flies, and wasps, for example, stick around because there is food available. They eat enough of the pests to prevent outbreaks. The key to pest control is balance and diversity. If you fall prey to the marketer’s cry and use a chemical (or “natural” or “organic” pesticide) to kill the pests, you will also kill the beneficial predators, whether through direct contact with the pesticide, or because you have destroyed their food source. Your intervention will have created a vacuum quickly filled by the rapidly rejuvenated pests, which multiply far faster than do their predators, and another major outbreak becomes inevitable.

Any other insect pests are similarly hand-picked and squashed in my garden. This method will never get rid of them all, and, as explained above, this is a good thing.

The worst pest I find in the garden is the flea beetle. They ate a few leaves this spring. They like radish leaves a lot. I knock them off with my fingers, knowing this is no real solution. Patience is the solution – their seasons are short. Some pepper/garlic spray will drive them off. I made sure the ravaged plants got some compost and alfalfa, and the plants soon bounced back. Aphids enjoy honeysuckle and the dogwood in my yard. They get a blast of water from the hose to knock them off the leaves. It is a long crawl back, during which many of them will become food for Ladybugs.

Any bacterial of fungal problems in my garden are dealt with by compost tea and EM. Keep in mind that healthy plants will not be attacked by disease (or insects). My efforts are directed at keeping the plants healthy, through rich, fertile soil, and a diverse microbial community. If a plant does get sick or infested, I look for what made the plant susceptible – usually stress due to drought, lack of soil fertility/nutrition, or injury – and set to work fixing that problem. Disease and pest infestation are the symptoms, not the cause. In organic management, we fix the actual cause rather than go hard against the symptoms.

I should add that harvest has begun, and will continue all summer and into the fall. These days,  we are enjoying lettuce, kale, chives, nasturtiums, basil and parsley.     

Late April Garden Prep

The sap is flowing, the buds on the trees and shrubs are fat or open, the grass is greening up, and the tulips are out. What gardener doesn’t want to be out there, helping things along?

Some things are best done inside, like starting the tomatoes and basil. They should be coming along well by now, there in your window or under the lights.

Outside, the radishes and lettuce are up, as is the garlic planted last fall. The peas will go in soon, but most things in the vegetable garden will have to wait until the May long weekend for planting. But you can pass some time planning what you’ll grow and where each will go. Be sure the pea fences, tomato cages, bean poles and other structures are ready.

You should be able to plant trees and shrubs now. For fast and healthy growth, add some mycorrhizal fungi to the roots or to the soil in which the roots are placed. I’m also adding these amazing fungi to most vegetable seeds and roots for the plant health benefits.

By now, your rototiller should be cleaned and polished, drained of oil and gasoline, and shipped off to the museum or to a wrecker of some sort. You don’t need it. Your soil doesn’t want it. That rototiller has the ability to pound your soil to dust in the short term, and to make it into hard clumps in the longer term. Neither is good. Instead, fork some compost and organic alfalfa pellets into the top 2 or 3 inches, and let the earthworms and microbes feast on them and till and feed the soil for you throughout the spring and summer.

When the garden soil is dry enough I’ll bring out the broadfork (or garden fork) and push it into the ground for aeration, being very careful not to turn the soil and its microbe-cities upside down.

If you rake the lawn, do so lightly, pick up the twigs, and compost it all (except for the dog fertilizer, which goes in the garbage). Don’t walk on the lawn when it is wet, because it will compact the soil.

I don’t de-thatch the lawn, because it doesn’t need it. Thatch build-up is the result of chemical lawn care. The chemical fertilizers and pesticides kill the soil microbes that in a healthy lawn will eat the thatch and in the process create better soil structure and nutrient availability. Heavy thatch in a lawn is a sure sign of poor soil.

I’ll spread some alfalfa pellets as slow release fertilizer on the lawn in May and again in late July.

I’ve removed the dead, broken or rubbing stems from the roses and other shrubs and trees. The up-to-thumb-size prunings are composted. The somewhat larger pieces from shrubs and trees are cut into 8-10 inch lengths and used as slow-decaying mulch in the shrub beds and under trees. The largest limbs - those that require the talents and equipment of an arborist/tree pruner – will be ground up by them and returned to me for use as an excellent mulch and compost feedstock.

My (many) rain barrels around the house and garage are open and in place to collect rain, which I will use to water seedlings and bedding plants. I’ll also use the rainwater for brewing compost tea. The leaves and soil get a drink of compost tea monthly, starting late May.

I’ve filled the bird bath and bee pond with water. The birds are back and busy multiplying themselves – thirsty work - while the bees will soon be gathering nectar and pollen from the sudden rush of spring flowers. The bees get thirsty too, and can’t swim, so give then a stone or plate to stand on while they drink from the pond.

Tillage Tools

It is a spring ritual in Saskatchewan to haul out the rototiller and “work” the garden soil in preparation for spring planting. The conventional thinking is that tilling loosens the soil, breaks up clumps and hardpan, lets air into the soil, kills the weeds, and makes planting easier.

The reality is that tilling, whether by machine or by spade, doesn’t do any of these things very well, if at all. Mostly, it is counter-productive to the longer-term health of your garden. It loosens the soil to the point of pulverizing the soil aggregates – those fertile cake crumbs that are the foundation of healthy soil structure and plant nutrition. Tilling destroys beneficial microbial life, reduces water holding capacity, and sends valuable carbon floating into the atmosphere as CO2. The loss of aggregates leads to soil compaction. Tilling brings weed seeds to the surface for germination. It mangles the earthworms that build humus and aerate the soil.

So, what’s a gardener to do? How do I loosen up the soil and get those seeds into the ground? Here are some ideas:

-  Practice minimum or scratch-tilling in the vegetable garden, where only the surface is broken to mix compost or organic fertilizer with topsoil;

-  A good scratch tool is the garden fork;

-  To aerate the soil, drive the fork deep and wiggle it. Don’t turn the soil. Some use a broadfork for this, but a garden fork works also;

-  Hand pull weeds;

-  Never till the perennial or shrub beds, or around trees. Use mulch, and practice chop-and-drop;

- Never allow bare soil – use mulch and groundcovers;

-  Feed the microbes and insects in the soil with mulch, compost, and organic fertilizers. The microbes and insects will till the garden for you, and do it much better than you can. They create plant nutrients at the same time that they are improving soil structure.

In a future posting, I’ll talk about how to build new garden beds, whether using existing or new soil.  

Sunshine Makes Topsoil

One way to make healthy topsoil and therefore healthy plants and food is to add compost and use mulches. For even better results, in addition, keep green plants growing on the soil for as long as the season will allow.

Green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to produce carbohydrates, proteins, organic acids, and other carbon compounds. This is photosynthesis. The green plants keep a portion of the carbohydrate (or “sugars”, or “organic carbon”) to support their own growth and health. When grown in the garden and on the farm, they are eventually eaten by people and other animals.

At the same time, another portion of the plant’s carbohydrate travels through the roots into the soil to attract and feed and multiply the beneficial soil microbes living near their roots, such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. In return, the soil microbes deliver water and nutrients - including hard to find  essential trace elements - to the plant. It is a happy two-way street.

All this is good, but it gets better. The microbes fed by the roots also create stable humus, which holds plant nutrients, buffers the soil pH, and increases the soil’s ability to hold and deliver water. In addition, humus holds carbon, and lots of it, and in this state the carbon is good for the soil and for plants. We have too much of this stuff in the air, but no longer enough of it in the soil due to conventional growing methods.

This "regenerative" form of farming and gardening has achieved phenomenal results in soil building, food production, and carbon sequestration.  

So how does the backyard/community gardener grow great plants and save the world from climate change at the same time? Here’s how:

• Avoid tilling the soil because it destroys/harms microbes and releases carbon to the atmosphere;

• Keep the ground covered with a variety of green plants for as long as the season will allow;

• Use compost, mulch, and organic fertilizers to feed microbes and protect soil structure;

• Grow predominantly perennials, shrubs, and trees in the ornamental garden. Use annuals in pots and as fillers in the perennial beds;

• Most vegetables are annuals. Don’t pull the pea and bean and other plants when you’ve picked the crop. Let them build soil for a while. Then practice chop and drop, or pull and drop. Cover the garden with a mulch of leaves for the winter;

• If you have the space, consider cover crops to improve the garden soil;

• Never use chemical pesticides or fertilizers, unless you want to reverse everything you’ve gained from doing the above.

An excellent website for more information on building healthy soil, growing more nutritious food,  and storing carbon is www.amazingcarbon.com  . Prominent soil bio-chemist Christine Jones has a focus on agriculture, but her articles and videos certainly apply to gardening as well.    

Mycorrhizal Fungi

This spring I will be adding some mycorrhizal fungi spores to the seeds and roots of my vegetables, shrubs, and trees at planting time. The spores can also be added to the lawn if I happen to aerate it this season. Your garden will likely have some of this exceptionally beneficial fungus present. It grows naturally. But if you have been regularly tilling your soil, and consequently pulverizing, slicing and dicing the life in the soil, there won’t be very much if any of this fungus left, since tilling cuts the hyphae and kills the fungus. And if you use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, you can be sure that this highly beneficial fungus died as collateral damage in your battle with nature.    

Why do we want mycorrhizal fungi in the garden? The fungus forms a partnership with the roots of almost all plants (about 95% of them). The fungus attaches itself to the roots, and acts like friendly extensions to the roots. In exchange for getting carbohydrate and other food it needs from the plant, this fungus reaches out through the soil and delivers back to the plant the water and nutrients that the plant roots alone couldn’t reach.  Studies show that vegetables and fruit grow much faster and produce bigger crops when mycorrhizal fungi is added to the seeds and roots at planting time. Plants growing in association with the fungus also show much greater disease and pest resistance.

The vegetables that do not form associations include crucifers (e.g. cauliflowers, cabbage), and beets, swiss chard and spinach. On the other hand, potatoes, tomatoes and most other common fruits and vegetables thrive in the partnership.   

The good news is that you can now easily find soil for pots and the garden that contains specially added mycorrhizal fungi. Most garden centres in Saskatchewan sell it. As well, mycorrhizal fungi can be purchased online from www.gardenerspantry.ca .   

Improving Soil Fertility

After a recent talk, I was asked what could be done to increase the soil fertility in a vegetable garden where the soil had proven to be poor for growing food but great at weed production. The answer is to begin by pulling the weeds. Anyone interested in soil fertility should never poison the weeds and soil with herbicide. Cut the seeds off and put them in the garbage. I also remove the roots of the most noxious/persistent weeds - creeping bellflower for example - and put them in the garbage with the seeds. The stems and leaves can stay on the garden, or be put in the compost pile. The soil or compost microbes will make a healthy meal of the weeds and return their nutrients to the garden.

Next, if you can make aerobic compost tea (and everyone can, with a pail, dechlorinated water, an aquarium pump, and 4 cups of good compost), spray the bare soil with the tea. Then spread a couple of inches of finished compost over the entire garden, and scratch-till it into the top two or three inches of soil with a garden fork. You can buy organic compost, or use your own.

Use the garden fork to poke air holes into the soil, as deep as you can get the tines, and move the fork back and forth gently to loosen the soil. Never rototill, and don't chop, cut, or turn the soil with a spade, because that will harm or kill many of the beneficial fungi and bacteria already living in the soil. Your objective (and crucial role as a gardener) is to grow more soil microbes. It is the microbes that create the nutrients that feed your plants. The microbes also improve the structure of the soil so that it retains more water, nutrients, and carbon.

Next, spread some organic alfalfa pellets as a fertilizer. These will make a wide range of essential nutrients available to the plants over the growing period.

Finally, when you've planted the garden, cover any bare, unplanted areas with a couple of inches of fine-textured mulch, such as the partially-rotted leaves you saved from last fall.