Step 5: Everything From The Earth Should Go Back Into The Earth.
We have already developed a key strategy to employ to reverse global warming. The basic premise is that nature holds the secrete and we can play a part in helping nature. Our air is polluted and this has caused catastrophic climate change that is upsetting a very delicate system of life that exists. The United Nations formed a group of scientists the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change. Hundreds of leading scientists have concluded several green house gases are responsible for global warming. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories, and electricity production. The gas most responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Nature has a way of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and we need to be aware of our role to help facilitate this.
As our ice caps are melting in the North and South poles. Our oceans will fill with more water and our coast lines will erode. Miami is in danger of sinking into the ocean by the end of the century. The melting of our ice caps will create havoc, destruction and pain to our coastal cities and towns but will also shrink our land mass. There is a delicate balance that nature has set up for us where we can live. Our role has to be to help nature do her job and to not take action that will destroy her ability to play her important role. We have inhabited land areas and have made many changes to make life comfortable for us. The process of maximizing our own comforts has come at the expense of nature’s ways in solving problems. If we understand nature’s ways, we can help: but if we don’t consider her in all our decisions we end up abusing her. When we consider her and realize the importance she plays in our lives, we can make compromises that will lower the negative impact we are making. We can contribute in ways that will help her. When we add pollutants to the air, we also need to learn how to take them out. We need to develop fertile organic land to grow organic plants. We need many healthy organic plants to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. We need to be a part of nature’s cycle and support and intensify her important roles.
We have built our homes on the land. We have replaced much of the soil with brick mortar and stone. The soil portion that remains we need to make more productive by putting back into the soil everything that comes from the earth. We need to fill every inch of our properties with plants that we grow organically. We need to do this whether they are trees, shrubs, evergreens, ground covers, grass, flowers or any other type of plant material. We need plants to help nature remove CO2 from the air.
We pay high prices for areas with a great ocean view. Many of our luxury hotels are built on these sites and we pay high rents to have great views. We have built up villages, towns and cities on coastal areas where people prefer to live. If we don’t change our ways, we will have a great view of the ocean washing away our towns, cities and our homes. The devastation, confusion, fear and pain will be unbearable. We all live on the land and we must preserve it for everything comes from its soil. The answer for saving our land is in the soil.
Studies performed by the British government show that to avert disaster in relation to global warming greenhouse gas must be reduced by approximately 80%. We need to wage this war on many fronts. There is the logical choice of finding ways to reduce the pollutants that we pump into the air. We all need to strive to find ways to do this. Special interest groups fight against global warming but proponents against it say it does not exist. Lots of money is made in the fossil fuel industry and they will fight tooth and nail to protect their industry. To dismantle them and find clean air energy alternatives will be a monumental task. They will not accept global warming because to accept it will affect their pocket book. So they spread the lie that global warming does not exist and they know if they say it enough times people will believe them.
We know that there is clean energy technology out there that can help us reduce the greenhouse gases that we pump into our air. We need to support this technology. We need to invent and find new ways to produce our products, run our machinery, heat our houses and transport ourselves. This is where our governments needs to play an important role. The problem is that many politicians say they don’t believe that global warming exists. They are supported by contributions from the fossil fuel industry to support their campaigns. It is the people who must rise up and have their concerns heard. It is they who must become involved so that countries will look after the health of its people and understand the dire consequences of their actions when we do not partner with Mother Nature. The process of reducing greenhouse gases is going to take a long time.
The great new inventions on the horizon will not only find ways to reduce greenhouse gases but many will add more. So realistically the road to reduction is going to be a long one and may even be a losing battle unless we employ nature to be on our side. We need to ingrain in the minds of every person that organically grown plants can take carbon dioxide out of the air. This is something that every land owner can play a part in. They need to feel an obligation to fill their properties with plants and follow an organic approach in growing them.
To build up our soils on our properties there are things that we can do. ‘Everything that comes from the earth needs to go back into the earth. This is an important concept we need to embrace and employ.
So what are some of the small things that we as home owners and land owners can do?
1. Grass clippings should be returned to your lawn. This is a simple practice to change if we are not already doing it. Since collecting and bagging grass clippings is more time consuming and cumbersome and is considered less environmentally sound this old practice on manicured lawns is losing popularity. Gardeners and homeowners find it easier to leave grass clippings on the lawn than to have to rake them up.
Recycling grass clippings returns valuable nutrients back into your soil. Penn state has shown that over a three-year period, leaf clippings from Kentucky bluegrass contained 46 to 59 percent of the nitrogen applied as fertilizer. Recycling grass clippings reduces fertilizer needs, helps build up the microbial population and saves you money and time. We should do several things to insure quick decomposition. In high growth periods your lawn may need to be mowed more frequently than once a week. Keep your pH up to 7 to increase microbial activity which will increase the speed of decomposition. If you use mulching mowers to cut your grass, they will cut grass clippings into finer pieces that lead to faster decomposition. Apply 1 inch of water to your lawn weekly and if it is not supplied by rain, do it by applying a ½ inch twice a week. Organically grown lawns are among the most efficient ecosystems for tying up atmospheric CO2. This is because the rich fibrous root system of grass plants, fortified by a large bacterial build up from grass clipping decomposition, sequesters large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. If you follow an organic lawn program you can remove a lot of CO2 from our air.
2. Leaves need to be recycled back onto your property. Bagging your leaves and having them picked up by your municipalities is a tremendous carbon loss for soils. Everything from the earth should go back into the earth. Carbon is essential for the life of the microbes in the soil. When the leaves cover your lawn they can be composted providing rich leaf mold to add to your soils. Leaves can be chopped up using mulching mowers that you run over your lawns several times. This reduces the size to small bits that fall between the blades of your grass and add carbon to the top layer of your soil. Microbial life needs carbon to survive to utilize this in their life process. The food web cycle consumes this and utilizes it in their cycle. If there are excessive amounts of leaf grindings they can be raked up and used as mulch on your existing plants. Remember never leave a piece of land uncovered instead mulch organic material on top of it
One mistake you don’t want to make is to mulch your beds deeply with leaves that have not been grinded up. My father grew a large field of young hardy Azaleas which he propagated from cuttings. He decided it would be a great idea to mulch them with the leaves that gardeners were dropping off for us to compost. He mulched them heavily with whole leaves. The following spring he lost his entire field of Azaleas. This was a harsh blow. He called Cooperative Extension to see what went wrong. The experts from Cornell University came down. They told my father what happened was the leaves as they break down give off heat which did not allow the stems to mature and harden for the upcoming winter. When the temperatures dropped really cold, bark splitting occurred and the young plants died. This is a lesson we learned the hard way. I never recommend mulching with whole leaves or applying any mulch over a 3 “depth. My recommendation is to apply a 2 “layer of ground up mulch. We learn from Mother Nature and our mistakes.
3. Organic mulches come from products grown. Mulching is one of the greatest things you can do for your plants. Mulches conserve moisture, increase water penetration when it rains, prevent erosion, reduce weeding, prevent alternate freezing and thawing in winter, prevent soil compaction from heavy rains, keep the surface from crusting and prevent splashing water and disease that comes from the soil. Organic mulches return nutrients to the soil and provide a neat aesthetic look. Mulching is the greatest time saver that you can employ. It started to become a fashion to pile large trees with 12 to 18 inches of mulch in a mound or cone shape surrounding a tree. Many people thought it looked real cool until the trees started dying. Misusing mulch in this fashion can lead to a disastrous result. Mulch should cover the soil but not the trunk of a tree. My recommendation has always been mulch to a 2” depth unless you are in a drought situation and then mulch to a 3” depth.
4. Manures from animals need to be added back into the soil. Manure is a good source of nutrients, including major and micronutrients, but its high nitrogen content is what it is most valued for. I have always heard gardeners tell me stories how great their gardens grow when they add chicken or cow manure to it. When you buy these products from a garden center in bags, it usually means that it has already gone through an aging process making it safe to apply. There are many animal types of manure on the market and they all have great nutritional value when added to the soil. They contribute to growing great organic plants which are our goal to capture CO2 and purify our air. Everything that comes from the earth needs to go back into the earth.
5. Food scrapes are usually thrown out and do not get returned to the earth. There is great diversity and nutritional value in them. Compost them and return them to your soil. There are many compost methods that can be followed. It is well worth your effort. Food scrapes are of great value in building up a rich organic soil. Rich organic soils will always reward you with more than what you put into them.
6. Bare ground always needs to be covered. The quality of your soil is depended on the microbial population in the soil. Covering your bare ground with organic matter seals the carbon in and protects and enhances the microbial population in the soil. Bare ground can release greenhouse gases into the air. Bare ground is subject to erosion. Bare ground can become dry and is subject to wind damage. Always mulch your beds, alternate freezing and thawing can cause damage in the winter time and sun drying your soil causes damage in the summer. When bare ground is not covered, you are asking for problems. What we are finding is that good gardening practices support growing plants the organic way which in turn sequesters carbon.
My son is a musician and he played on a weekly basis for an organic farmer’s market. One of the small local farmers who brought his weekly produce to the site told him about the very unique way he was growing his vegetables. He had wide walks and built a berm in long rows between the walks. He then collected organic matter from wherever he could. Wood chips from tree companies, manures from farmers, leaves and grass clippings from gardeners, food scrapes from restaurants, hay that he cut from his own fields. He let the berms go through a composting process and when he felt the soil was ready for seeding, he proceeded to sow his crops into the long berms lining his fields. He then put together various combinations of vegetable seeds he wanted to grow mixed with seeds from companion plants. He developed 5 different combinations all in separate bottles. He shook up the seed until he had a nice mixture. He then spread it evenly over a berm ending up with 5 berms each one growing a different combination of vegetables. These berms had many growing advantages over growing on level ground. They acted like a raised bed which we all in suburbia have learned because of greater air circulation we can achieve greater production and many feel greater nutritional value. The plants that liked it drier took over the top of the pile and the plants that liked more moisture predominated on the bottom of the pile and the rest of the plants that preferred it somewhere in-between picked their favorite location. He said the plants chose the place they wanted to grow. He said it was the best crop of nutritious vegetables that he ever had grown. He allowed about a year for composting to take place. He covered the bare ground in the winter with a layer of organic mulch. He had a soil teaming with a rich microbial life and a sustainable method to keep his soil organically rich year after year.
I am sure you can think of many other ways to incorporate organic material back into your soils. Everything that comes from the earth should go back into it . It’s a concept that we must follow for it is nature’s way of building up soils. I have given you a few examples but what is important is the mind set we need to develop. Once we understand its importance we can help Mother Nature reverse global warming. We are all in this together and we need to work together to do our part to grow great plants to sequester carbon.
