This is John Kohler with GrowingYourGreens.com!
I have another exciting episode for you today.
We’re here in my front yard garden.
I have a very special guest with me today.
My friend here is Don Weaver, and he’s the guy that got me introduced into growing with
rock dust, one of the things that’s helped me immensely in my garden to grow the most
nutritious and highest quality food ever!
But aside from just the rock dust guy, he knows a lot about gardening.
How long have you been gardening, Don?
About 35 years.
He’s been growing food for 35 years!
But the way he’s been growing for 35 years, he’s been growing Sam’s Animal Products.
Is that correct, Don?
Yes, that’s correct John.
So Sam’s Animal Products, that’s basically if you had to put a term on it, it’s called
veganic gardening.
And because I knew that Don was coming over today, well actually because I had it around,
I was using this stuff right here.
It’s actually the General Organics BioThrive, and its labled on here, and there’s not
many foods like this or supplements for your garden.
It says vegan plant food.
For some people that are vegan and don’t want to harm other creatures on earth, you
know, they don’t want to use animal byproducts, whatever they may be, whether they’re bone
meal, blood meal, manures, poops, chicken feathers, duck feathers, all different kinds
of things that come from animals.
Some people just don’t want to include that in their garden.
And I completely respect that.
And Don’s been doing this successfully for a long time, so this episode is to basically
introduce you to the concepts of veganic gardening.
You know, he’s going to show you some of his ways that you can make it be successful.
So Don, what would you say is a number one tip if someone wants to grow veganically without
the use of animal products?
I think the number one tip would be, make sure there’s all the minerals in the soil,
because the minerals are the key to the microbes in the soil, being able to thrive and reproduce
and have microorganism population explosions, which actually produce the fertility in the
soil.
And combine with the organic matter that we add to the soil, the microbes synthesize the
different elements of the rock powders and the organic compounds in the compost.
And mulches we add to the soil, and they then produce the fertility of the soil, which is
basically living protoplasm of microorganisms, so that’s the key to add all the minerals,
complete spectrum of the biologically essential minerals found in rock dust and to some extent,
seaweeds and sea water products that are available on the market.
Dehydrated sea water and sea salts, and those together produce fertile soil in normal conditions.
Wow, so what about, like, composting to get some biologics in your soil?
Would you say that’s necessary, not necessary if you’re starting with a good compost?
Well, compost I would say, the second key to healthy fertile soil and gardening success,
whether you choose to do it veganically or use some degree of animal manures and animal
byproducts.
As we said, that I try to avoid, because its directly supporting the slaughterhouse industries
and the animal exploitation and killing industries.
And I prefer to live a vegetarian and veganic lifestyle myself.
So you have the option of going veganic if you prefer to do that and at least equally
good results.
And I find it superior to what I see in almost everyone’s garden and in my garden.
I think so the key is to try to save all your compostable materials from your kitchen and
your garden.
Every leaf, and every weed, and every kitchen scrap.
I usually fill up five gallon buckets of my kitchen scraps which are abundant on my raw
food vegan diet.
So I’m filling up five gallon buckets all the time.
Once I get 10 to 20 of those, then I’ll make a new compost heap.
I’ll use all the available weeds, leaves, and other organic matter.
Mix it together, make layers of soil, rock dust, compost.
I mean, some old compost to add your new compost piles to seed it with all those billions of
microbes of many thousands of species.
So you make this, like, layer kick of composts, maybe of four by four pile, or whatever makes
sense in your particular garden environment, and then finish it off and then you leave
it for two to three months and then you have this really rich composts.
Usually gets invaded by earthworms, where you can add them if necessary and then they’ll
be a permanent part of your composting area in your garden or in your yard, wherever you
do your composting.
So rock dust would be a number one key in compost.
The two together are sort of the secret of soil fertility, because again, you produce,
you provide the microbes with all the food they need, all their complete natural diets
are produced fertility, and that’s what produces healthy plants and plants that taste
superior and provide all the nutrients we need, up to you know, there’s 92 elements
in the earth’s crust.
We want to make those all available to the soil life, the earth worms, and the microbes.
And then the plants take those up and then they can provide like 60 to 90 elements, or
92 elements have been found in the plant life itself under analysis, whereas back in the
late 1800s when they were analyzing plants, they found mostly nitrogen, phosphorus, and
potassium, which became the basis of chemical fertilizer, so called, which over 100 years
have proven to be defertilizers because they’re actually helping mine the soil without putting
back the whole 92 elements that we need.
So there we go, number one, number two, make as much compost as you can, or obtain it from
some other source.
Hopefully something that’s not contaminated with chemicals or drugs that you can find
in animal feed based compost and chemical fertilizers and antibiotics and all these
things.
So rock dust the compost and you can have a really pure compost and total fertilizer
to add to your soil, and if you’re trying to grow the healthiest and purest quality
foods to boost your own health, mental clarity, longevity, then I think that’s a great way
to go.
Wow, Don, so you’ve mentioned about compost and I know you think that people should make
their own compost.
Like I would agree because if you buy compost, it’s never going to be as good as if you
make it yourself, just like any food that you row yourself is going to be better than
food you buy in the store because it goes through an industrial process.
And a lot of compost I’ve seen is just not the high quality compost that I would like
to use in my garden.
I try to do the best I can and luckily I live in an area where they have actually farily
good compost, but a lot of people don’t live in this area, so what’s an esay way
someone can start making their own rich compost today?
Well, its just like I aid.
Build a pile if they have any yard space to do it in, or use one of the bins on the market.
There’s all kinds of bins.
Or you could get a good composting book in the library, or go online and look at the
different types of bins made of metal or wood or concrete blocks.
You can just stack up concrete blocks on three sides and then maybe have a plywood board
in the front that you can move out of the way or make a gate or something, however you
like to do it.
But I’ve just done three sided block composts and you throw it all in there, build it up,
and you can pretty much leave it like that.
Seal it off maybe with soil on the top, and the rock dust and the soil and the compost
will discourage flies and rodents or whatever to be attracted to it, so it won’t be smelly
and accessible, so you seal it off with a good amount of organic matter or soil on the
top.
And then you have a real simple way to do it.
If you don’t have even yards to do it in, some people do it indoors with worm composting
bins that are available on the market.
So Don, I’ve got a real quick question.
So worm castings right?
Worm castings, are they veganic or not?
Because they’re coming from an animal, then you’re using an animal or an insect, like
you know, defecation, on your garden!
So would you use worm castings or not?
I would, because the worms are part of the soil microflora, microfauna.
They’re there, they build the soil from scratch.
So I don’t consider their manure equivalent to manure brought in from a factory feed operation
where they’re force feeding a thousand cattle to produce beef and the manure is a byproduct
that’ll be toxic if they don’t do something with it, so they compost it in some fashion,
but it still has a lot of potentially toxic nitrates and other pollutants that get into
the water and the soil.
You know, potentially it could be made safe if the cattle were fed pure diets, they weren’t
given all the drugs and growth stimulants, and you know, bovine growth hormone, things
like that.
The soil life is including microbes and bacteria.
Different kidns, fungi, and earthworms, they’re like the main animal in the soil, I guess
you consider them an animal rather than an insect.
So technically, you could say that manure from the earthworm is an animal byproduct,
but I consider the fact that the earth basically created the soil from scratch starting many
millions of years ago that technically that’s part of the natural process.
I’m not saying Don’t use manure from insects or earth worms or birds when the manure falls
out of the sky on your garden.
But humans?
It could be composted safely if the human’s on a healthy diet.
Just like animals, you want to be wondering, asking what the animals been eating before
you put the manure on the soil.
If youre concerned with the purity of the soil and the quality of the food.
I would say, you know, feel free to use earth worm manure, and as we were saying, some people
can’t compost outdoors, and if they’re in an apartment, they can still use a worm
bin and produce the worms on their kitchen scraps and available organic matter an dhave
them turn it into compost via their eating and pooping process.
Right.
Its fine.
When I do veganic, when I recommend veganic as an option, I’m thinking of trying to
prevent the animals in slaughterhouses and factory farms and big feed lot operations
form being exploited and tortured and being confined with super small spaces and everything
that goes on if you research the topic.
It tends to turn the stomach of any sensitive human once you know what really goes on behind
the scenes.
So that’s my response to that.
I see.
So like the cow manure for a dollar at Home Depot and the big box stores, right, those
are directly from probably feed lots, because they got to get rid of that shit somewhere
and your buying it for a dollar to put it on your garden, right?!
Right.
Well they don’t want to get fined for polluting the waterways.
So you get to pollute your soil and your house.
Potentially.
I mean, I don’t know what’s exactly in these things, where they come from, but likely
that’s where most of it comes from, from these big operations.
They have to compost it by law probably to help dispose of it and they help distribute
it.
Like the city of Milwaukee has been selling this treated sewage sludge from Milwaukee
for a decade.
What do they call it?
Yeah, you’re right.
Something like that.
So as you were saying, if a human is on a pure diet, potentially we could compost that,
and some people are doing that, and they’re composting toilets.
More popular in Europe than this country so far.
But I think we should look into returning safely all the organic matter that the earth
produces back to the soil, whether it’s for edible plants or just for ornamentals
if there’s any question for its safety and its purity.
We need to grow billions of trees more on the earth to take in the co2 and rebalance
the climate, so obviously we should grow, return all the organic matter to the soil
and grow something with it.
Right.
So Don, I would say what if somebody kept their own chickens, ducks, or rabbits right?
And then used their poop from their own hand raised animals on their garden, would you
say that’s all right or not?
Well, again, if the animals are eating a pure diet, then the manure should be pure and easily
biodegradable and should enrich soil fertility.
Again, if the feed is of a balanced nature, then the manure should be good for the soil.
So if you’re going to have animals on your property, it makes more sense to return the
manure than to ship it somewhere else.
But again, depending what your choice is as far as relationships with animals and whether
you want to eat them or not or keep them or not.
Right.
So whatever makes sense for the individual’s logic and choices, they can try to do what’s
best.
So that’s a good point Don, I want to cover right now.
So like from veganic gardening, you could take the extreme, extreme, and not use worm
castings and not use a lot of things, or you can have the other extreme and use the cow
manures from slaughterhouses from Home Depot for a dollar, or you can be somewhere in the
middle.
And I think all my viewers there might want to be somewhere in the middle.
I don’t know if I’d do either end.
I’m kind of finding myself more in the middle, more towards the veganic, but you know, I
do use some hopefully organic raised animal manure in limited quantities as needed.
That’s not my first preference that I’d prefer to use, I’d prefer to use some kind
of veganic things.
I’d have to draw the line.
I will use manures, but I draw the line, I will not use blood meal or bone meal.
I don’t like those two items.
I don’t want that kind of energy in my garden.
And I found that there are many other things you can use to enrich your soil.
Yeah, and of course you’re building up the soil.
You’re with the rock dust and the other organic matter and you’re getting more and
more of a jungle environment so you have a lot more stuff to compost and you’re going
to be producing more and more compost and that can be sufficient for the soils organic
matter needs, and then combined with the rock dust you probably get results similar to what
I get with excellent produce, high quality, and a large quantity, and an abundance generally.
So I think you start building the soil year to year and you have more to compost, so you’re
producing a lot more of your own fertilizer.
You’re taking more carbon dioxide out of the air and putting it into the soil as carbon
compounds and nitrogen compounds; you know the air is 78 percent nitrogen.
If we can harness more of that and bring it into our gardens, we don’t have to be searching
far and wide for nitrogen in somebody’s animal manure somewhere, bringing it to our
place.
We can draw it from the atmospheric pool.
So what are some good ways to draw the nitrogen in our soil and enrich our soils instead of
bringing in supplemental nitrogen in the form of manures, Don?
Well feeding the soil life, because they’re going to producing amino acid nitrogen, the
microbes and the earthworms, they build nitrogen, they take nitrogen right out of the air and
bring it into the soil.
There’s a number of free living nitrogen absorbing microorganisms and there’s some
plants of course that also help take nitrogen.
The legume family, the peas and the beans, and things like Fava beans you plant over
the winter, and they take more nitrogen out of the air and add it to the soil through
their root nodules.
So you think covered cropping is very important, especially if you want to grow the veganic
way?
I think it’s helpful for sure, but you’re cropping year round and your producing organic
matter year round in northern California climate, so you’re able to grow plenty of organic
matter and return it to the soil.
So as I say, first year if you’re here, you may need to bring in some organic matter
to sort of jump start the soil.
But if you keep adding the rock powders and the organic matter, the compost and mulches,
you can just mulch a lot of organic matter and the earthworms in your soil will take
it in and bring it down into the soil.
So you can build from what you have and what’s in the atmosphere pool above you, and the
rock powder, again, people can learn about that at remineralize.org or other websites.
They can go to Vegetarian Voice Magazine website and get access to my new article on regenerative
veganic gardening that talks more about all these topics.
And you know, just keep learning and experimenting and building up the soil in your own garden,
and you’ll get great results eventually.
Sooner or later.
Wow.
I would definitely agree with Don.
You want to experiment, so if you haven’t yet tried rock dust and hopefully if you guys
are one of my viewers, you want to try it and try it.
If you don’t believe in it, try a plot with it and without it, and you’ll see the difference.
If you’re interested in doing veganic gardening, hey, do a part of your yard or raised bed
without any manure products and see how that works and do one with.
And just compare and see what works, and then you’re going to find the best way for you.
I’m not going to say one way’s better than the other.
They all can work but you just gotta dial it in and just learn how to do it.
And the only way you’re going to learn is by growing some food today, is one of my main
messages.
So Don I want to thank you for the time shared with my viewers.
Do you have any last comments, and maybe the one step or one action they can take to have
a healthier garden today?
Usually I recommend people to just educate themselves generally.
Read the books, go to the websites, read about remineralizing soil, and read about organic
gardening.
And just take action today.
You’re going to have some organic waste to compost, so instead of throwing it in the
trash, think about where u want to start composting if you haven’t already started.
So start composting.
Start researching where u can find some local rock dust preferably, so you don’t have
to ship it so far.
And again the remineralized.org website will help you learn about rock dust and where to
obtain it.
And then the organic gardening books and websites, John’s others videos will all be helpful
to you.
So education and action, they just keep building on each other, and you just keep going, and
have fun!
Wow.
Awesome Don.
Well, the last thing I want to maybe comment on is mindful of you, and my philosophy on
gardening.
Like my philosophy on gardening and life in general is to quote unquote model nature.
I want to model nature.
And in nature, yes, there’s animals, they’re pooping, and poop is natural.
But there’s not piles of animal poop in one isolated area that’s all composted down.
You know, there’s a lot of plants with leaves and things falling and degrading, so in nature,
you’re going to have a lot of vegetative matter composting, and yeah, the occasional
animal pooping or peeing on the stuff.
So you’re not really going to have that much.
And in addition, in nature, you would have a lot of minerals in the soil, if things weren’t
demineralized like they are with all the top soil erosion these days.
So once again, my whole message is to model nature the best you can, to have the most
productive garden as you can.
So hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode, learning more about some of the veganic gardening
principals.
Once again, ill sum it up.
Number one, rock dust.
Number two, compost.
I’d actually say number one compost, number two rock dust, but they’re both equally
important!
However you want to say it, you gotta start using them both—they go together and synergize
right?
So once again this is John Kohler and Don Weaver with GrowingYourGreens.com.
We’ll see you next time, and keep on growing!
He’s been eatin’ cow manure!
Haha!