Dorothy
I hope cardboard still is like that but most cardboard I see over here is glued with synthetic glue. I'm sure the small beings of our world can handle a lot of bad things but cl is toxic in just about every molecular structure you can restructure it in. So I'm still sceptical on that one. Fungi might have a shot at that.
I can tell your in love with real soil like I am. A living soil is amazing it looks alive constantly being shifted by bacterial and fungal activity as well as loads of worm tiling the soil for you.
are you familiar with bionomic gardening? I got an ebook about that if your interested
Not much time for posting here. Watt little time I have I spent in my garden trying to make my ambitious schedule. This is my first year of real gardening. Before I just had a balcony. since last fall I got my first garden. I worked the ground in fall and let the beds rest/build over the winter. My ground us already surprisingly alive for a first year. I'm planting and sowing lots of stuff right now. This year I'm aiming to keep building my soil
I've gardened a great deal but this is my first year that I've decided that I'm buying planting growing only food plants. It's a big change for me. I've only had one vegetable garden one summer decades ago on someone else's land. I have had nice flower gardens otherwise though - so a lot of what I know now is being put to more "practical" use.
It's amazing what you can produce on a balcony - but a whole new animal moving out onto solid earth.
The funny thing is that it's here on the worst soil for growing that I've ever lived upon and the harshest conditions that I've decided to start producing my own food! I can't do anything without growing some soil. Our first big project has been in the shop rather than the gardening building raised beds. No sense in even trying to improve what is here - much better to go upward. But it's actually quite nice and we've built some beautiful things.
I wasn't the forum for so long because I was trying to get ahead of the curve with the growing season - but just couldn't make it. I've got some things growing but it's already too late to start most of what I had planned. The summer isn't part of the growing season here for most things and even the things that will grow have to be in the ground long enough to survive the heat. So now I'm back to soil building and have some time that it is too hot to be inside chatting with you.
This is a real important conversation for me HIT because I'm right now building a massive bed based primarily on putting down cardboard and paper and letting the worms make good soil for me out of it. If I'm starting out by putting down toxic things that would be a massive mistake. The smaller bins are planted but have only a first layer of soil in them that will be built and added to. The massive garden is just getting started and all I've done is throw some boxes in it. I will need to find out of boxes no longer are made naturally.
I tend to get behind the curve with these things as I first started worms so long ago that the world has changed. It's hard to keep up with how many things have become toxic.
One of my plans was definitely to inoculate the soil with mushrooms. The garden is in way too much sun, but the shrooms would thrive under plants and could even in one season clean up the soil.... but still ... what you said about chlorine is really scary. I didn't know that! I'll have to research it more - any leads as to first places to read?
I'd LOVE to learn about bionomic gardening! I'm not familiar with it but looked it up quickly. Yes - please do send me any info you can on it. Thank you!
