Naturally Earth Friendly

This guest post is by Phil Nauta, the Smiling Gardener.

Naturally Earth Friendly is all about moving towards a more sustainable future, so when I was given an opportunity to write about how to improve your soil, I decided to focus on two of the most sustainable methods.

There are other methods I still advocate, such as bringing in organic fertilizer in order to get your food garden producing healthier, tasty food more quickly than would otherwise happen, but I know we can’t keep digging up rock deposits and shipping them around the world as fertilizer forever.

We need more local solutions, starting in our own backyards. So here are my two favorites:

1. Cover Crops

You may have heard of them before, but perhaps not in the context of sustainability. Cover crops are seeded mostly during the fallow season in a vegetable garden, generally to improve the soil. Grasses such as ryegrass and legumes, such as vetch, are especially useful for this.

Once you figure out the best cover crops for your soil, and get good at growing and managing them (which may only take a couple of seasons to figure out), you now have:

• Fertilizer. A decent fertilizer supplying carbon and nitrogen to your soil, along with some other minerals, when you turn the crop in before planting your food plants.
• Mulch. An excellent mulch layer when you allow at least some of the crop to grow big before you cut it, and then leave it on top of the soil (grasses are great for this).
• Compost. A great source material for your compost bin, because otherwise composting can be rather unsustainable if you’re having to import materials all the time, or import compost itself.

So with a good cover crop, you have part of your fertilizer, your mulch and your compost pile growing for you right on site.

2. Homemade Microbial Inoculant

There’s always a lot of talk about supplying enough nutrients to the garden, which is important, but I’m excited to see that people are starting to refer more to the other side of the equation, which is supplying beneficial microorganisms.

These microbes are the ones who feed those nutrients to our plants, and also protect our plants from predators. And more often than not, these organisms are lacking more than the nutrients. Fortunately, we can bring them back into our gardens. The best way is well-made compost, but there isn’t usually enough compost around.

That’s why aerated compost tea is becoming more popular, which is when you put a few handfuls of good compost into a bucket of water and move air through that bucket with a pump. That physically removes the microorganisms from the compost and gives them air to breathe.

When you also give them some food, such as a couple of tablespoons each of liquid kelp and blackstrap molasses, they will multiply tremendously over the course of a day or two.

But I’ve written about compost tea elsewhere and I’m not going to get into it today because I’d like to offer another solution – it’s admittedly not quite as biologically diverse of an inoculant as compost tea, but it’s much easier to do well and certainly more sustainable because you don’t need any equipment. Anyone can do this if they have access to rice and milk.

What you do is rinse a small amount of rice and pour that rinse water into a container, leaving the container at least 50% empty and putting on a loose lid so that air can still get in. The rice can be used elsewhere, but is not needed anymore for this process. Keep the container at room temperature out of the sun for 7 days.

Once you see a thin film on the surface, strain the liquid into a bigger container and add ten times as much milk. In another week or so you may have some solids floating on top that can go into the soil or compost, and a clear, yellow fluid underneath that contains the bacteria. Separate this fluid into another container and add an equal amount of unsulphured molasses to keep the bacteria well fed.

You’ve now made your own microbial inoculant! You can store it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Mix it with 20 parts water and spray it on plants, soil and compost to inoculate them with these beneficial microorganisms.

These 2 methods go a long way to sustainably building up your soil fertility, organic matter and soil food web, so you can grow healthy plants and healthy food.

Sidenote: Phil Nauta is author of the book ‘Building Soils Naturally‘, to be released by Acres U.S.A. this summer. He’s a SOUL Certified Organic Land Care Professional who taught for Gaia College and operated successful organic fertilizer and organic gardening businesses prior to launching SmilingGardener.com in order to teach practical organic home gardening and organic vegetable gardening methods to home gardeners.

This post was contributed by a guest writer. If you’d like to guest post for Naturally Earth Friendly please check out our Become An Author page for details on how YOU can share your tips with our readers..

1. Provide Food Sources

With the urbanization of most areas, cities in particular are not providing natural food sources that are readily available to local wildlife. Everyone needs to eat and by including native plants or hanging feeders in safe places in your own backyard you’ll help many wildlife species thrive. By planting local foliage and plants you’ll have the added benefit of less maintenance and water than other species because native plants grow easier. This will add to your local ecosystem as well.

*Try to include three of the following types of plants or supplemental feeders:

• Seeds from a plant
• Berries
• Nectar
• Foliage/Twigs
• Nuts
• Fruits
• Sap
• Pollen
• Suet
• Bird Feeder (Providing multiple feeders will disperse bird activity. Also keep predators in mind, like local cats, and keep your feeder out of their reach.)
• Squirrel Feeder
• Hummingbird Feeder (Download this handy “Attracting Butterflies” Tipsheet from NWF - Butterflies_TipSheet_Final.pdf)
• Butterfly Feeder

2. Have Clean Water Sources

The easiest water source to add to any backyard garden is a bird bath. Simple and easy to add, it’s a wonderful start. You’ll want to change the water every 2 to 3 days in the summertime to avoid mosquitoes breeding and add a heater in the winter if you live in a climate with cold winters. Keep your bird bath at least 10 feet from dense shrubbery or predators will have a good hiding spot to capture their prey.

*Try to include one of the following water sources:

• Birdbath
• Lake
• Stream
• Seasonal Pool
• Ocean
• Water Garden/Pond
• River
• Butterfly Puddling Area
• Rain Garden
• Spring

3. Provide Cover for Local Wildlife to Feel Safe and Secure

Wildlife needs to feel safe and prefer to hide from people, predators, and bad weather. By offering native vegetation such as shrubs, thicket and brush piles you’re providing a safe haven. Bushy leaves and thorns are sure to help keep predators at bay while dead trees can work for others. If you’re trying to attract local birds you might invest in a birdhouse. Other great wildlife to invite to your backyard that help with pollinating include butterflies, bats and bees. Ponds provide cover for aquatic wildlife, such as fish and amphibians. A “toad abode” can be constructed to provide shelter for amphibians on land.

*Try to include two of the following places for local wildlife to find shelter from predators and the weather:

• Wooded Area
• Bramble Patch
• Ground Cover
• Rock Pile or Wall
• Cave
• Roosting Box
• Dense Shrubs or Thicket
• Evergreens
• Brush or Log Pile
• Burrow
• Meadow or Prairie
• Water Garden or Pond

4. Arrange for a Place Local Wildlife Can Raise Their Young

Wildlife needs to have a safe place where they are able to reproduce, then bear and raise their young into adulthood. Surviving depends on a place that is going to protect them from bad weather, human intervention and predators. Think about your local wildlife you would like to have in your backyard, and then about their life cycle; tadpole to frog or caterpillar to butterfly. Build your shelter for the entire life cycle. Many habitats will serve as cover and a place to raise their young: from wildflower patches where butterflies and moths lay their eggs and small mammals burrow into the undergrowth, to constructed birdhouses, ponds for amphibians and fish, or caves where bats roost and form colonies.

*Try to include two of the following places for wildlife to engage in courtship behavior, mate, and then bear and raise their young:

• Mature Trees
• Meadow or Prairie
• Nesting Box
• Wetland
• Cave
• Host Plants for Caterpillars
• Dead Trees or Snags
• Dense Shrubs or a Thicket
• Water Garden or Pond
• Burrow

5. Sustainable Gardening

To help you conserve and protect our natural resources, you’ll want to adopt sustainable gardening practices on your backyard wildlife habitat. What we do can either have a positive or negative effect on the health of our planet. The health of your soil, air, water and vegetation in your backyard can be healthier with a more sustainable gardening approach.

*Try to include two of the following ways you can manage your backyard habitat in a sustainable and Earth friendly way:

Soil and Water Conservation:

• Riparian Buffer
• Capture Rain Water from Roof
• Xeriscape (water-wise landscaping – Great if you are in a drier climate!)
• Drip or Soaker Hose for Irrigation
• Limit Water Use
• Reduce Erosion (ex: ground cover, terraces)
• Use Mulch (Keep water in the soil instead of it evaporating into the air.)
• Rain Garden

Controlling Exotic Species:

• Practice Integrated Pest Management
• Remove Non-Native Plants and Animals
• Use Native Plants
• Reduce Lawn Areas (Grass is made of plants that most animals do not consume so they do not provide a lot of value for wildlife.)

Organic Practices:

• Eliminate Chemical Pesticides
• Eliminate Chemical Fertilizers
• Compost

Now that you have a beautiful and sustainable wildlife habitat in your backyard you have the opportunity to certify it through the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program. *By providing food, water, cover and places for wildlife to raise their young – as well as incorporating sustainable gardening practices, your garden can join the more than 125,000 Certified Wildlife Habitats™ across the country.

Want more? Check these articles out from the archives:

• How to Make Your Garden Bee Friendly in 4 Easy Steps
• Plant a Colorful Garden to Attract Helpful Bees and Beautiful Butterflies