This first year at our new home in the Valley, I had invested in what I thought would be some fantastic organic, peat-free soil from the big-box store, one that never carried anything this sustainable in the past. While I'd always used organic potting soil in my gardens, it was only in the past few years that I learned about the extreme danger of draining peat bogs for agriculture. Kind of like eating organic, we often assume that means 'nothing bad is in it' when that is not always the truth.
And folks, to quote my (s)hero Ms Maya Angelou, when you know better, you do better.
Here's a bit about the extraordinary crisis largely ignored in the US and Canada (the latter where much of it is produced, in the same province where fracking is destroying the land, water, and indigenous livelihoods to benefit a few assholes who the government is apparently happy to get into bed with....
"When drained or burned for agriculture (as wetlands often are) they go from being a carbon sink to a carbon source, releasing into the atmosphere centuries of stored carbon. CO2emissions from drained and burned peatlands equate to 10 per cent of all annual fossil fuel emissions." - UN Environmental Programme
"Peat moss harvesting releases twice as much CO2 into the atmosphere every year as the entire airline industry. Because of the environmental damage that can come from harvesting peat, it’s been banned in Europe...Once (peat's) been harvested, it takes hundreds and hundreds of years for it to regenerate...In the process of harvesting peat, usually the entire bog and ecosystem is destroyed.” - from What is Peat Moss? And Why You Should Avoid It
“Peat bogs are nature’s water purifiers...It is estimated that peatlands filter 10% of all freshwater resources worldwide... the atmosphere...Holding around 30% of the globe’s soil carbon – more than all the world’s forests combined, when peatlands are drained and dug up, centuries of stored carbon is released. So far, disturbances to peatlands has contributed 1.3 gigatonnes of CO2 globally - and counting. To make matters worse, peatlands drained of water are highly flammable. Peat fires can smoulder beneath the ground surface undetected for months, years, and even centuries, and can be difficult to extinguish." ~ from 4 Reasons to Stop Using Peat Moss
Ok, so now you know about why this ingredient prevalent in 99% of potting soils is a disaster for the planet. And for those who already knew this, you'll know that it is VERY tough to source peat-free soil mixes at nurseries, and if you do find it? Most are VERY expensive. A large bag at most nurseries now runs close to $20 - just priced it out last week. And the only affordable option called "NearSource" (which comes in a pink bag at Home Depot)? Utter garbage. I learned that the hard way in this garden, where I filled the top planting layer of our beds with several dozen bags, and it ended up being a fking nightmare to put it mildly. There was ZERO water retention in 90% of the beds with that soil in it, so the beds have been needing watering - even with thick layers of straw mulch as I've always done - every other day if not every day. A total disaster...not to mention my rain tanks used for irrigation of these beds? Empty as of this week. Pissed is an understatement, y'all. And it's not like I can just yank everything up. My potato crop is pissy - nothing ever ended up blooming . My tomato bushes are skeletal rather than overwhelmingly bushy and not covered with a zillion blooms as they should. There are already some with ripened fruits at the same time, so the plants are confused to put it mildly. My chili peppers look shit, my bell peppers are small and weak, and most of my greens have come and gone as they can't seem to hang onto any of the moisture coming in. The collards have much longer roots, I discovered, and reached down to almost the base of the tanks to catch it, but they are now bolting as I contemplate fall plantings...
And so with that, after pricing out the more expensive version and feeling a bit nauseous from that? We decided to try the DIY route, making our own from a combination of locally made compost, coconut coir, organic rice hulls, and a bit of vegan fertilizer. As a quick note, while we have a huge composter set up in our backyard garden, it's definitely not enough for all of our raised beds, and the locally produced (I mean literally LOCAL, as it's made from all of the curbside compost customers in the region!) stuff is only $5/bag.
As for the recipe, we found various ratios, starting with 1:1:1 on the first three ingredients, which seemed kind of odd to me considering that'd be a MEGA amount of hulls to mix in with compost, so for the first endeavor I'm riffing off this one I found online and marked up as follows:
It still seems like a lot of rice hulls, but we shall see. Perlite is mined and therefore NOT sustainable, so this - like the coir - being a byproduct of the food industry, is a way smarter, greener purchase. I'm using the recommended ratio for one bed, as I just harvested our garlic a couple weeks ago and my 'test subject' is going to be in the form of overwintering cauliflower that I've sowed in this newly refreshed raised bed. Knock on wood!
But either way? It's SO cool to not only save tons of money, reduce packaging significantly (coir? the brick that expands to 6X its size comes in a cardboard box, unwrapped. organic rice hulls? 6 c.f. in one bag, which'll go a long, long way. compost? the only smaller-bagged item, but the mileage to get here definitely makes a huge difference sustainability-wise.), AND garden even more sustainably while kind of digging the whole science of it all.
Next up? Once the collards are finished bolting and seeds saved, I've got some Kyoto Carrots to sow for the autumn/winter - and another batch of soil to create...
"I'm a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don't trust diamonds and gold." ~ Eartha Kitt
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