The 2 Golden Rules of Gardening - this will change how you garden forever (update)

more fruit sweeter fruit and most importantly healthier fruit and food this works for your vegetables this works for your root crops this is why a big reason why the nutrient quality of our food in the last 100 years has fallen off of a cliff hello and welcome back to the Food Forest at the beginning of the season I mentioned that I might want to return to some Concepts that I touched on when I first started this gardening Channel and I want to return to them for a few reasons the first thing is that I've learned quite a bit as I've done this over the past 5 years or so the second thing is that over the last 5 years I've got a lot of new viewers who might not dig through the old stuff and there's a lot of really good information in those older videos when I first touched some of these Core Concepts one of my most popular videos and what I feel is one of the most important videos that I've ever made is one called my golden rules of gardening number one maximize photosynthesis number two never any bare soil that one's got a little asteris on it which I'll get to in the rest of the video there's an important reason why you might want to have a little bit of bare soil I didn't know this when I first started we'll touch on it a little bit later first off let's talk about why maximizing photosynthesis matters and what that will do for the design of your space it'll have a space looking more like this and less like this the main reason why we want to maximize photosynthesis is because that's why life exists on the earth essentially life can't exist without energy every single thing that happens inside of our bodies that allows us to live respiration digestion any kind of Metabolic Effect it all requires energy our bodies take the food that we consume convert that into things like ATP and use that for energy to actually run our bodies there wouldn't be life without energy life will arrange itself over a gradient of energy what that means is if you have more energy coming into a system you'll have more life in the system if there's an excess of energy some life form is going to fill that niche in order to consume that energy to take advantage of it to out compete other things plants trees bushes leaves Vines herbaceous Lair whatever ever kind of plant it is in the chloroplast of the cell of the leaves it's performing photosynthesis and it's harnessing the power of the sun the sun is the only reason why we have any life on Earth without the energy input that the sun is giving us there's nothing so in a given system if we know that we get a increase in life if we maximize the energy and that plants are the main way that we harness the energy coming into our little black box of an earth from outside it's all the sun if we want to have robust fertile soils forests food then we need to maximize the amount of this energy that we're capturing we do that by maximizing the amount of plants that we have in an area so you might ask why do commercial Orchards then look very different from a food forest or just a forest in nature the main reason is that it makes it easier to harvest things and it makes it easier to deal with pest issues monocrop cash crop farming things like soy and corn um these are even more egregious examples of pushing away from what nature does best in these systems we actually genetically modify the corn and soy so that they can survive a terrible um herbicide then we spray that herbicide through the entire field through hundreds and thousands of Acres so that only the food crop that we want to survives this is a great way to grow a lot of one crop it comes with its other problems first off we create disease resistant weeds we destroy insect species that would otherwise be eating the things on the land and supported by the land we claim the land for humans and we destroy and kill everything else this is the mentality that is so OD obviously crazy that even a Kindergarten kid could tell you that this is not how we should treat our planet we're living with the consequences of some of these decisions now with the collapse of ecosystems specifically the collapse of insects pollinators being one of them this is something that could actually wipe Humanity off the Earth if we lose the ability to grow food now the reason why we do those things is because the monocrop farm systems actually allow very few humans to run large Machinery in order to ease Harvest it's actually not the most efficient way to grow food though so understand that we've gone to these ways of growing our food out of necessity out of design for human specialization so that humans can be philosophers and scientists and doctors and engineers and lawyers but it's not the most efficient way to grow food the most efficient way to grow food is to mimic what nature does because nature is actually the most regenerative system on the planet to the point that if humans disappeared everything that we did would get reclaimed with nature and the vibrancy of the Earth would absolutely increase especially for any nonhuman animals out there the more plants and you know weeds that would grow insects would be supported eating those this is why it's really important to me when I'm growing my food that things actually eat my food and the things actually eat my trees and my leaves I know this is a really weird concept for some people because so much in the gardening world is about how do I kill this pest that's eating the tiniest little um part of my apple tree leaf you know you see a little bit of a curled Leaf it's what's in there what insect is that and how can I kill it we need to get away from this way of thinking that humans should put all of nature under its boot and crush it and destroy it a 2 acre property designed in a food Forest system where we're maximizing photosynthesis can support thousands of people when I'm designing my food Forest I'm putting all the seven layers of the Food Forest in this is kind of permaculture Basics 101 and it's rooted in maximizing photosynthesis that means that I have thought of overstory trees under story trees bushes herbaceous slay plants ground cover root crops and Vines growing all of it in this way I'm actually maximizing the amount of solar energy that my plants are capturing so what does the photosynthesis equation do in terms of turning that energy into useful stuff when most people think about photosynthesis they think about turning CO2 into oxygen but there's more to the photosynthesis equation in that there's obviously water and the often overlooked thing besides you know the solar energy but the often overlooked thing is actually the sugars so the photosynthesis equation is CO2 sunlight and water gets converted into oxygen and sugars now the sugars are the interesting thing here what the plants do with the sugars that it creates is that yes they do use some of them a lot of them for their own health they use it to run the metabolic processes that a plant needs but an important thing that the plants do with the sugars is that they send out these little um gummy gooey liquid sugars out of their Roots these are called soil root exudates because they exude this little cakey goo out of their Roots this cakey goo then attracts various microbiology in the soil and supports the soil ecosystem in a similar way that phytol Plankton and um small plants support the entire Web of Life you know in the ocean very small creatures will eat the phytol Plankton larger creatures will eat those larger creatures will eat the fish they eat those you know whales will eat the fish and then whales will poop out and kind of return that nutrient back that the F that the phyl Plankton actually consume and the whole cycle builds and the more energy that's there the more phal Plankton at the base level of that pyramid the larger the health of the oceans on land the more photosynthesis that's available going into the ground via sugars that more energy is happening that's supporting more microbiological life more bacteria more fungi more protozoa these are eaten by nematodes you know mice and small moles voles snakes frogs will all eat the insects and on and on until you have wolves eating rabbits and so for the top apex predators are supported by the base of that pyramid and the base of that pyramid is the photosynthesis that happens that swells the soil life that then feeds and supports everything else now more importantly for food say for my Plum Tree here the more energy that is in the soil the more a frog just jumped I'm right next to the wedland filter so I actually had a a frog literally jump on my sandal and then jump into the pond it's one of the nice treats about building in an ecosystem is that you get all Life coming in and then you get little you know special moments like that but back to what I was saying for the plum tree the more photosynthesis energy and the sugars that are going down into the soil the more bacteria uh protozoa fungi are in the soil these things actually break up the soil um building blocks the the the mineral building blocks the sand salt and clay in order to access the nutrients that are inside all the all the minerals that are trapped inside those stones sand Sal and Clay are just fancy word for varying sizes of stone of of rock I go into the the pure science of this stuff in my soil microbiology guide which you might want to check out if you're interested in a deeper dive into this but just know that the more bacteria and fungi that you have and the more protozoa that you have you'll actually get access the the plant will get access to more nutrients that will become bioavailable they'll keate those which means they attach them to fulvic acids and amino acids and in this way the the mineral say the calcium that that the plant needs in order to produce fruit it's available in a way that the tree can actually access and when the tree can access it then it can store it and push it into fruit that means that the tree can actually produce more fruit sweeter fruit and most importantly healthier fruit and food this works for your vegetables this works for your root crops this is why a big reason why the nutrient quality of our food in the last 100 years has fallen off of a cliff because when we grow food and we do it in ways that don't maximize photosynthesis and ways that deplete the soil of both life organic energy or organic matter um and also nutrients then we actually then the plants don't have that to push into the fruit and the food and then we're eating kind of hollow food anyone will know when you buy store-bought you know tomatoes lettuce they feel water they taste watery they feel different um your energy level after eating them is very different if you've grown a homegrown garden and you've done it especially in a way like I teach with the golden rules maximizing photosynthesis you do it in a healthy ecosystem a vibrant and healthy soil the taste of your food is dramatically different let lifechanging difference I've had a chef that's come on one of my previous tours and he tasted my tomatoes and he told me I will buy every single tomato that you ever buy because they were so good a home Garden will take from monoculture food production take it up to that next level what I'm talking about in this video is taking it from that level to an even higher level by maximizing the amount of nutrients that are in your soil we do that by maximizing the soil life and we do that by maximizing the photosynthesis and we do that by designing and building and planting lots of support plants around trees and and you'll see all the different angles that I've used you know pointing the camera my plum tree is actually just right over here I just spun the camera show you the other side of my property so that the picture in the background changes as I talk so that it doesn't get too boring but you can see I've got vibrancy everywhere planting like this in this way has caused my land to just explode with life and again when you're boosting the lower tiers of that food pyramid you start seeing the higher tiers improve as well we've had owls and foxes and even wolves show up on our property um and it's because they have the food that they need which is supported at the base of that pyramid essentially ground one by plants so here's just an example of a service tree and uh you can see my video on guilds to learn more about you know different plants that I select in here but instead of just planting a service berry tree for berries um you know for the birds that we share this is a seab Buckthorn that's another crop that we'll Harvest as well but instead of just planting a tree we plant an under story and we fill in all the spaces with tons of plant this is Golden Rod and oregano and Elderberry and currants and dayes and um Queen 's lace and Creeping Time and so many different plants that are in this little Guild what that does is it attracts lots of insects that will eat those things and I actually want these insects eating my plants as weird as that is things like this make me very happy something has been feeding on this plant I've got Little Critters in there enjoying and eating all of this you see that little guy what is this and when you do this you get a very very vibrant um ecosystem of life I don't know if anyone knows what you're looking at here I just kind of took a peek at it and what this actually is is a parasitic wasp that will lay its egg inside of caterpillar so this caterpillar is supported by eating the leaves of my tree the caterpillar itself then supports parasitic wasps that will actually lay their eggs and they'll actually hatch out of the back oh I don't think that is so we will get insects that eat this like say caterpillars might eat some leaves but the trees can handle it this is how nature works the trees handle it and then the caterpillars feed the birds and the birds feed um you know they spread the seeds around and they feed other animals as well and more than just birds eat the caterpillars and this is kind of how you support this Ram rampant vibrancy of life through this super dense planting lastly the second part of the photosynthesis equation is actually water and I didn't really talk about it too much yet but having little standing bodies of water is really important for um this is a this is like a pond that I've uh a little handd dug Pond that I've put in there and um that supports tons of dragon flies and frogs obviously we've got the larger Pond as well but the water that I'm actually talking about is more the water that's in the soil we want to prevent any kind of rainfall from leaving we actually want to store and hold that in the soil a big way to hold it is to increase the soil sponge moisture uh retention capability we do that with organic matter we do that by uh having lots of plants and allowing leaves to fall chopping and dropping various plants as well but we also do that by preventing evaporation so we've got has caps here uh we've got some currents falling into the has caps we got a little current right next to it we've got has caps right here we've got comrey and you can see that I can't see the soil level if I can't see the soil level winds can't get in there and Wick away and pull the moisture away and because of that we've got we've got a ton of soil retention capability inside of our soils because we're stopping the Sun from evaporating the water that's in the soil and we're stopping the winds and then we're also soaking it up into organic matter because all of these plants are dropping leaves you know this is some comre here that's finishing its little um temporary cycle as we go through a bit of a heat wave now and they'll dry up and they'll drop their leaves down and they'll go down and then they'll basically just turn into more soil and organic matter so you can see this is the other side of the path here we've got elderberries and and currents and stuff as well we've got some stagghorn sumac acting is an overstory and we've also got this giant pair so a lot of places will say you know you're not going to get great growth if you put Plants around your trees everything's got to be clear around it and it's just absolutely not true it's 100% not true and the main reason is that if you put Plants around trees you get more photosynthesis you get more moisture retention in the soil and you're capturing and holding more energy and when you're capturing holding more energy you can support more life it's as simple as that and the little check for that is that if humans disappeared life would rearrange itself in the way that maximizes energy and maximizes regrowth and regeneration and what would happen to a space it would turn into something like this it would not turn into a commercial Orchard with soil in between only trees and nothing else planted and I can tell you I pull more peaches or sorry more pears off of this tree it is super super happy it's accepted graphs because it's got so much vibrancy um in the soil and in the root systems and this thing is loaded up and it is every year just with tons and tons of fruit now the last thing um that you might wonder is when I plant all these plants how do I deal with pests because we'll get a bunch of different insects that will come supported you know eating some of the leaves that's totally good I want to see this this is nice um but because we plant in a way that maximizes life yes we do get pests that eat those plants those pests support other insects and they support the predators of those pests when we get the predators of those pests coming in to eat the problem pests they'll actually naturalize and lay eggs in our soil and we'll naturalize those predators and that means next year when we have a pest laying its eggs underneath a tree hatching and coming out we've already got the Predators on our property that will eat those pests and intercept and interrupt that life cycle and that's so super important that you naturalize Predators on your property this is the reason why we plant so many um flowers intermix in between our food because we want to attract those um pollinators we want to attract the Predators to the pests so that when we do get pest issues they're small minor and the trees can handle it we don't get wiped out like a mon ulture field of cornwood because there's no support for diversity in that and here we have a ton of support for diversity so we've got natural dampening issues or not natural dampening mechanisms that keep the pest at Bay and keep everything vibrant and healthy so I hope this video helped expand on my golden rules that I had in the um you know first couple years of this channel this is how I would you know manage a fruit tree now an apple tree the slight downside of this is that it does make it more difficult to harvest you're always being careful am I stepping on any plants that sort of thing it does make it a little more difficult to harvest but the reward is healthier fruit more fruit and the fact that you're growing food in a way that actually supports and benefits the natural ecosystems on the planet that we so utterly uh depend on for our continued existence and survival and to me humans are so much more than just another animal on this planet we have the ability to be the greatest animal on this planet and the greatest Steward and caretaker of this planet we can learn science we can create systems of design and we can use our collective intelligence in order to create an a society that lives in harmony with the planet and that the the world is better for us being here currently humans are kind of in virus mode and as much as we've improved some aspects of human life we've absolutely devastated the natural world and the health of essentially every other animal organism except maybe corn that's doing pretty good so hopefully you enjoyed this video quickly I didn't talk about why to have a little bit of bar soil so I'll put that little nugget in here there are some native pollinators not just bees but other native pollinators they will actually nest and they will only nest in bare soil they'll only nest in Disturbed habitat um or depleted lands so for that reason you want to have little areas somewhere that support your food forest ecosystem that is just nothing it's just dirt on the ground um so in my lower area where um you know I I like to see all the plants so I want to put something like that somewhere further away cuz I don't find it as aesthetically appealing um and I can put it kind of at the entry to my property so I can attract those kind of insects to my property dogs are going crazy oh my God so I do have it in my lower area I think they're probably chasing a bunny actually let me just show you here they are definitely hunting something must be a rabbit that they found in here so having dogs is also another great way to keep smaller you know pests at Bay um but but I do have some bare soil to support things like ground nesting bees that are important pollinators uh Native local pollinators so I want to support that as much as possible um so have a little bit of bare soil around but the two main golden rules are to maximize photos synthesis that allows you to maximize the energy input into your system and that life will rearrange on that gradient and you'll get more abundance and the second thing is to never have any bur soil with an asteris and that is to maximize the water in the soil that allows you to maximize photosynthesis so I hope you enjoyed this video I know it's a little bit of a longer video but I hope it's a nice addendum onto that golden rules of gardening and again if you want to see more in-depth detail of the science check out the soil microbiology guide or check out that old video golden rules of gardening this will change how you Garden forever thanks for watching see you on the next one [Music] [Music]

Channel: Canadian Permaculture Legacy

Views: 18,640

Keywords: permaculture, cold hardy permaculture, canadian permaculture, food forest, cold hardy food forest, canadian food forest, self resiliency, garden, gardening, cold hardy garden, back to eden, woodchips, deep mulch, sustainability, self sufficiency, homestead, homesteading, climate change, solving climate change, fixing climate change, Carbon Sequestration, Pond, ecosystem pond, aquascape, aquascape ecosystem pond, no till, no till gardening, charles dowding no till, fruit trees, trees

Id: xJldPFQc6Fg

Length: 25min 27sec (1527 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024