NO DIG GARDEN BED - Feeding the Microorganisms in the Soil

G'day and welcome back to the Weedy Garden. When we talk about soil we're talking about the living skin of our planet. Soil is the basis of life for everything. It's made of life, by life, for life. So what is soil? It's that story of composition and decomposition. The microscopic organisms that I'm feeding they'll decompose all of this organic matter so that the plant can reuse these elements it needs to recompose to grow. The health of my garden depends on the health of this ecosystem and because I eat what comes from the garden it's becoming clearer for me to understand that the level of my well-being is equal to the well-being of the soil. In an earlier episode I made a garden bed out of an old water tank. I filled it up with wood chips and dirt and compost and all sorts of goodies for the soil. Well after two great seasons it's time to feed this garden bed again. It's not the plants that I'm feeding it's the ecosystem of microorganisms underneath them that I'm feeding. I'm going to put in some manure and some eggshells some ash and mosquito some worms and some worm castings some compost or compashi as I call it and some mulch. I'm going to mix all that up together so it's going to be like a supermarket full of all the ingredients that the plants need. It just so happens that there's a couple who live down the road from me who have an alpaca farm. Yeah they breed alpacas. They feed them and look after them on their grassy property. Then they shear them and mill the fleece and spin it and weave it into beautiful garments which they sell online. The fleece is thin and soft and it's hollow like the hair of a polar bear so it's very warm. Thousands of years ago they called it the fiber of the gods. Welcome to generic alpaca farm. Well as all animals do alpacas also poo and also just so happens that alpaca manure is really good for the garden. So I'm going to swap some pumpkins and honey for some alpaca manure. Now alpaca compost is high in nutrients it's high in nitrogen phosphorus and potassium. Alpaca manure is one of the best organic fertilizers for vegetables. It has a higher nutritional content than any other livestock manure including cow and horse manures and will not burn the plants or seeds. And it doesn't matter if you get some on your hands because it really just smells like a farm. And I'll chop up a bunch of comfrey. Comfrey is really high in trace minerals and nitrogen. Great worm food. I've got it growing everywhere in my garden. Vegetables also need calcium. It makes their cells stronger but it takes years for the bacteria to eat them if you just put them in the compost or in the soil which is fine because they break down slowly and release calcium over a long time. But if you burn them you release the calcium carbonate that the plants can absorb. Also the ash potash potassium which will also help your plants produce good food. The charcoal is a home for the trillions of microorganisms that are down there. This will give them a place to live and hide when it rains so they don't end up in the creek. Well I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you learned something. Beautiful healthy happy plants. Have a nice day and I'll catch you later.