Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit… Moses 2:11
- Food
- Plant-based eating
- Soil
- Regenerative gardening
Another part of my personal journey is not only learning what and how much to eat but how to grow nutritious and delicious food utilizing seeds, photosynthesis, and the soil food web.
My family and I watched the Kiss the Ground documentary last fall 2020 and were very inspired to find out more. Jessica, my oldest daughter, and I are studying to become a Soil Advocates. I am learning so much about how truly amazing healthy soil is and how intricate and interconnected are the processes of soil regeneration. I am finally learning some specific things I can do to help my little piece of the planet.
I have become a worm farmer, a composter, a want-to-be food forester, and a true believer that I can make a difference in some very positive ways for my planet.
“All the world’s problems can be solved in a garden.”
Geoff Lawton Permaculture Expert
My garden is fairly small and very much a work in progress. But, it has truly been so important to me to spend time getting my hands dirty, smelling the soil, watching the hummingbirds and songbirds flit around, the bees move ceaselessly from one flower/blossom to the next, and see the staggering variety of life in roughly 144 square feet. Gardening engages all of my senses touch, smell, vision, taste, and hearing as well as my spiritual connections to the earth and sunlight.
I have been harvesting my garden through the year it seems.. a few juicy red strawberries, sweet/tart cherry tomatoes, crisp green beans, fresh peas. As the weather has gotten colder, I have picked green tomatoes, unripe green peppers and eggplant and dug up 3 to 4 pounds of Jerusalem artichokes. I am learning to practice no-till gardening so instead of pulling everything up and tilling, I am chopping up vines, leaves and leaving them as compost material. I am going to plant more cover crops like clover and spread my almost completed compost on the ground and maybe put some straw down as mulch.
Below are a few of the sources I have been using to help me learn how to do no-till/regenerative gardening.
LDS EarthStewardship https://ldsearthstewardship.org/
Kiss the Ground https://kisstheground.com/
Lots of Ted Talks on Youtube about regenerative farming/gardening, permaculture, sustainability.