Build Your Own Compost Tea Brewer

Low Cost Compost Tea Brewer

Brewing your own compost tea is one of the best ways to keep your garden environment healthy and thriving.  It speeds up the revitalization of neglected areas, minimizes transplant shock, deters negative infestations of all kinds and if you DIY, it's low cost!

(Finished Brewer)

(Above pic) This is the finished brewer at Art City currently brewing 40 gallons per cycle, at least once a week.  That meets the needs of our garden at this time.  The backpack sprayer is extra, and though you might be able to find one used, I bought this one new.  It came with a Round-up sticker, which I promptly replaced with a Compost Tea Sticker.  

(old air pump for a blow up mattress, 4ft of clear hose, duct tape, and timer)

Thrift stores are great places for finding old air pumps for mattresses.  I was so stoked when I realized this.  Fish pond aeraters are too small at the pet stores (though I haved used them) and commmercial pumps are too big and expensive.  I think this is a great reuse of planned obselence.  The strainer is a paint strainer around the top of a 5-gallon bucket (this didn't work, and I've resorted to just hanging the strainer off the side of the wire mesh frame.  It's a temporary fix.

(paint strainer that didn't work)

The hardwire frame is tied together with rebar wire and stapled to an old piece of plywood with a hole cut out big enough to hold your bag of compost and sit on top of the reclaimed 55 gallon container.  You can find these containers from restaurant suppliers of oil and other bulk items.  I was give two of them.  Thanks Ron!

Things to pay attention to:

• Make sure the pedestal the container sits on is level.  Check both ways x,y, and diagonal and make sure they are all the same.
• Cinder blocks or large dimension wood blocks are good pedestal makers because as the ground settles...you can easily re-level the brewer between brew cycles.
• For the spout at the bottom of the brewer, I bought PVC fittings that allow for a clean flat mount to the container and some nipples and a valve.  In combination with a metal washer, and a rubber washer (I had to cut my own from ones that were large enough to accomodate the pipe size).  I made the seal with ease.  Water tight with hand turns.
• I set the timer for 15 min on every hour for 12 hours and let it rest overnight.  I go with smell for estimating the life of the tea.  If it smells like earthy sweet river water, the kind that ran in the rivers of NH, I know its good.  
• I usually start a brew in the morning and use it the next day.
• You can make a power reducer curcuit to lower the RPM's and therefor the "whine noise" the pump makes.  It's loud and kinda a drag.

In the end, the cost was very low.  With parts gifted, reclaimed, or used from what I already had lying around, I made this brewer for $35.  Right!  

There are lots of other brewer out there, some super cool ones actually, so keep looking and make one that's best for you!  And share it!

Of course if you want us to brew it for you and deliver, we'll be happy to accomodate.  Give us a call.

Planting Stone with Art City

Ramon checking out the rocks

Stone is often an overlooked resource in Permaculture.  It's hard to compete with butterfly sanctuaries,  or bio-dynamic wine, but, if you slow down for a moment, you'll see the subtle beauty and value of rock.  Stone adds strength and longevity to a rich and powerful garden aesthetic.  We had the opportunity to put this resource in the limelight in our latest project.  We called on the help and experience of Art City's master stone-workers to create a drought tolerant landscape that put stones front and center.

We started with laying out a sand-set flagstone pathway.  The permeable surface adds a clean earthy look and is functional for foot traffic, golf carts, and wheel barrows.  Along the edges of the pathway we build passive irrigation, directing any rainwater run-off to planting areas.

Kevin installs the smooth stones

Ramon and Kevin are both rock monsters.  They've carved jellyfish out of translucent Calcite, and dragon guitars out of Onyx.  Working together they created a pattern in the flagstone pathway that is stunning.  With the help of Jason making the cuts and Weston leveling and setting stone, the pathway became a focal point of the area.

Paul and Laurie unload the peak stones

Paul, founder and operator of Art City, chose three feature stones for the main planting area in the front entrance.  They became the canvas for a stone garden that featured local boulder stones placed in contours tan Decomposed Granite and California Gold crushed rock.  Sparse natives, succulents and grasses framed the garden that reflected the mountains on the horizon.

It's like 8 tons of Tetris

We strive to compliment nature

We also created a dry river using small and medium sized river rock. and a zen garden around a small water feature.

Getting ready to plant around the water feature

Not only is stone a striking and lasting way to add beauty to a landscape.  It is also a life giver and protector.  Stones wick water from the air and direct it to the earth around and underneath where they rest.  Take the time to notice how life revolves around stone, and you'll be amazed at how simple and obvious it is.

Jason makes it all happen

Thanks to the folks at Art City for collaborating with us.  From Art City's own garden at their headquarters on Dubbers Street, to the backyards and landscapes of California, They're helping make stone the rockstar of permaculture design.

We're ready for the next one!

Vermiculture In The Workplace

Before the term vermiculture was coined, before we had written language, and before we started drinking coffee, worms were hard at work breaking down organic materials and returning nutrients to the soil. We love building soil, and we love good coffee.  So when we met Chris Shepherd of Cafe Altura at a worm composting workshop, we were happy to continue the connection by bringing a worm bin to his workplace.  Chris and his team are enthusiastic about keeping a worm farm going on-site, and we are stoked to help them out. 

Ventura Cooperative's soil restoration efforts rely on vermiculture to build soil diversity and nutrient rich materials to feed plants in the gardens we take care of. Sometimes it can be frustrating to keep a worm colony alive and well, so we provide consultation visits with each worm farm we deliver, to make sure everyone benefits in the transition, including the worms.   

Setting up a worm bin is easy, it's the maintenance that takes a bit more finesse.  What you need is a box, moist newspaper strips, some compost and worms to start.  We provide all these items and a worm colony already established in the farm.  We knew Chris would have ample coffee grinds, which is a great addition to the scraps and other items worms like.  We set up the worm farm right next to the Cafe Altura staff kitchen area, to make it easy and accessible for everyone to use.

After about a month, we came back to Cafe Altura to check on the farm and answer any questions. We took the farm outside and harvested the castings together.  It was in perfect condition.

By having a hands on visit, we were able to share valuable information with Chris' team.  We considered what worms need to live. Moisture, air, food, darkness, and warm (but not hot) temperatures. Bedding, made of newspaper strips or leaves, will hold moisture and contain air spaces essential to a thriving worm habitat.  Everyone was able to see this knowledge at work in the vermiculture environment which helped a lot.  And they were able to take super rich castings back home to their gardens.

We're excited!  Chris and his team at Cafe Altura are located by the Surf Brewery and a few other businesses that are interested in starting their own vermiculture habitats.  They are early adopters and eager to create a more sustainable culture in this area.  Let's help them out! We traded some of our service costs for their organic coffee.  Come on over and have a cup, it's really good!

Special thanks to Madison Choate and the Resource Conservation Partners for connecting us all!

Relevant Links:
Cafe Altura
Resource Conservation Partners

Helping Hands Permaculture Field Trip

On July 12th Ventura Cooperative hosted a permaculture workshop at Art City Gardens for eighty children attending Camp Helping Hands.  The event started a week-long gardening program for these young people to experience hands on learning and development around the principles of earth care, people care, and fair share.  We were delighted to begin the journey with them and honored to be asked to facilitate the visit.

We called on a few of the best permaculture specialists in Ventura to create learning zones in this dynamic space.  Lynne Okun creates heartspace gardens that provide an environment for healing and regenerating human connection.  She led the groups in collaborative juggling, a game where everyone participates and reliess on each other to pay attention.  Eric Werbalowski, founder of Ventura Organic Landscapes, shared his deep knowledge of ecology by hulling, sprouting and planting heirloom lima beans that each participant took home with them.  Rob Barnett, board member of VCCOOL, connected the garden to the community.  Imagine a walkable, bike friendly, with edible gardens downtown.  A place where tree swings and cooperatives thrive.  Kyra Rude and Ron Whitehurst of Rincon Vitova, better known locally as "The Bug Farm" showed the captive audience how insects create balance in the garden.  They used a bug vaccuum and went on safari looking under rocks for signs of life.

We've all been working to build and maintain the Art City Gardens so that the space could provide a canvas for knowledge and skill-sharing in the community.  Having Camp Helping Hands join us for an afternoon here was a high point for us.  It makes what we do worth it on so many levels.  Not only are we opening up space for sustainable ecology, we are passing the knowledge on to the next generation.  Thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially Audra and Amanda for all the behind the scenes organizing. Keep growing!

Solstice Garden Slumber Party

Chowchilla No-Till Vegetable Garden February 2016

Chowchilla Backyard Garden Project

Feb 2016 

In the heart of the Central Valley, with the Sierra Nevada's off in the distance and Fresno just to the south, the town of Chowchilla rests quietly in orchards and fields.  The discerning eye can find poetry in the long rows of almond trees, the dirt alleyways, the slough, and for the rent signs in the shop windows along the main street.  Like an old and dusty hardbound, there is a story here as rich as the soil.  You have to look...hiding in the fog are Giant Sloths and Saber Tooth Cats.  Cowboys and Indians.  Dustbowl migrations.  Schoolchildren held for ransom and high speed rail systems. They all have chapters here in a land that once supported large ecosystems of native species.  Now its' mostly destroyed and caged by human design.  It smells like cow.

Why Chowchilla?  Because we have family here.  Sisters, Grandmas, cousins, nieces, nephews in a tree that is too broad to mention.  And yet another soul has joined us.  A baby boy, a new brother and son, was born this week.  A new chapter begins.

While here I took time to turn prepare a plot in the backyard for the family garden. Measured 23 feet by 11 feet, the space was overgrown with grasses, mallow and other greens that flourished with the recent rains. After knocking "the weeds" down I seeded the area with Rincon Vitova Habitat Seed Mix.  Then I carted sand up from the slough bed for a snake-like pathway that winds it's way through the garden plot.  To do that I used an old trash bin that some hooligans has pushed into the riverbed. 

After the pathway was installed, I had a six-pack of purple kale left over from last winters gardening, and planted those along the walk.  The nights leave light frost on the lawn in the morning, but I think the kale will fair well in the cold.  I put cut grass around them as insulation.

This is the first effort in what I hope will be a yielding veggie garden for the family table.  I will not be here day to day to work it, so the challenge will be to make it grow.  Using permaculture principles will help.  Ventura Coop is gardening in Chowchilla now.  We'll keep you posted.

  

  

Porter Ranch Gas Leak Fact Counter

Could this happen in Ventura?  

"California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Wednesday for a methane leak that has emerged from a mountain for months, making nearby residents sick.

The natural gas leak started with an eruption at a storage well underneath a mountain in Southern California's Aliso Canyon on Oct. 23, 2015, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. Since then, about 80,000 metric tons of methane have leaked into the air, which, in addition to polluting the air with a greenhouse gas, has caused health problems for people in Porter Ranch.

"Methane – the main component of natural gas – is a powerful short-term climate forcer, with over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released," said the EDF. "Methane is estimated to be leaking out of the Aliso Canyon site at a rate of about 62 million standard cubic feet, per day. The daily leakage has the same 20-year climate impact as driving 7 million cars a day."

The counter no longer is available.  To find out more go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliso_Canyon_gas_leak

Weather Stormwatch Ventura 2016

Here in Ventura we're getting ready for the first El Nino storm this season! Hope you are too. The forecast is calling for heavy rains and wind, high surf on the beach, and snow in the mountains.  If you need any help preparing, or with sandbags, flooding, fallen tree limbs, etc. let us know. Call Ventura Cooperative at 805-765-1892.  

For day by day details on the expected weather local to Ventura follow this link:
http://www.weather.com/weather/5day/l/USCA1193:1:US

Ventura Cooperative Delivers Mulch and Soil

There is no reason not to do it if you care for your soil, your plants, your environment and the earth.  We'll make it even easier by doing it for you.  Get a truckload of public mulch delivered and spread out in your yard.  You watch.  We work.  Let's make Ventura a beautiful and soil rich community one landscape at a time.

When we're finished your garden looks great because it's healthy and protected, and ready for the El Nino rains everyone is waiting for.  Protecting the soil is the most overlooked way of restoring balance to the ecosystem.  Learn more here: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/04/world-soil-day-champions-untapped-resource-solve-climate-crisis

Mulch, mulch, and more mulch!  Everything in the food soil web benefits.  From humans to micro-arthropods!  Here at Ventura Cooperative, we made a lot of rich soil in 2015, and we want to continue making more in 2016.  

Get your mulch delivery today! Call 805-765-1892 or e-mail venturacoop@gmail.com

Food Security and Water Wise Gardening

The healthiest most sustainable way to gain food security is to augment your food supply with a garden in your yard.  Not only do you and your family gain access to fresh veggies, which are at their best in flavor and nutrition picked immediately before eating, but home gardens help ease our impact on the environment.  Healthy soil retains more water, home grown veggies require less water to process, and a yard garden lowers your carbon footprint.

In our garden we have a steady supply of lima beans, kale, carrots, onions, beets, chard, salad greens and herbs.  There is always some seasonal harvest to add depending on the time of the year. Nothing leaves our yard.  We have three living compost piles, and two worm bins crawling with red wrigglers.  We brew compost tea to sell and use in our gardens.    

We also mulch like crazy and we munch like crazy.  We walk barefoot on the spongy soil and graze like rabbits.  And what we don't eat right away we can or share with our friends and neighbors. 

Mason jars are reusable and fermented veggies are really good for you. "Fermented foods that have been through a process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics."  -Wellness Mama

Become food secure.  It is a shift in consciousness that empowers you and your family with experience and knowledge.  Being able to feed yourself with food you grew yourself is liberating!

Roughly 49 million people live in food insecure situations in the United States.  Roughly 40% of the food produced and brought to market is wasted. A typical meal of industrial produced food requires 200-700 gallons of water to produce.  By turning that wasteful chemically fed lawn into a organic food forest you help yourself, your neighborhood and the environment all at the same time.

A great book to read regarding  food security and growing your own is Food Not Lawns.  Another go to book is A Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture.  Start there and at the same time visit your local farmer's market, volunteer for Food Forward Gleaning projects, and connect with local community garden projects.

People in my neighborhood are so disconnected from the fresh food supply that kids don't know an eggplant from a sweet potato. We have to show them how to get grounded in the truest sense of the word. -Ron Finley

I saw 'Food, Inc.' last night - it was like a horror movie. I'm definitely thinking about my food supply now and how I want to grow my own. -Lauren Ambrose

Mulch Party at Kellogg Park!

Last month in September on Saturday the 26th from 9AM to 11AM, over 30 residents of Ventura came together to spread mulch at the city's latest park at Kellogg Street and Ventura Avenue.

Mulch is especially important before the rainy season to keep rainfall from evaporating too fast. With thick enough mulch (at least 3 inches) water has time to percolate down through the soil into our water table. Mulch is also important because it protects the soil food web from sun exposure. Exposed soil becomes baked and compacted into lifeless DIRT that only the hardiest weeds can grow in.

15 tons of mulch!

Thanks to our friends at RESTORE VENTURA, local landscapers and AERA Energy have been depositing mulch on site during the weeks prior, and during the event knocked piles over with tractors. The kids were STOKED on those tractors!


Thanks to the Ventura Chapter Surfrider Foundation for providing volunteers, tools, waivers, and for being passionate about Ocean-Friendly Gardens :)

Thanks to the Trust for Public Land, City of Ventura staff and local volunteers who make this possible.

Resident volunteers (not all pictured here), County Supervisor Steve Bennett, Mayor Cheryl Heitman, and me on the right. Photo from the official Kellogg Park Facebook page.

DON'T MISS NEXT WEDNESDAY Oct 14 at Bell Arts Factory!

Come show your support Wednesday night by choosing the kids' play equipment, adult exercise equipment, and request an edible forest at Kellogg Park!

Connect here with Kellogg Park on Facebook. Stay tuned for the next mulching event at the end of November!

Cheers, your dancing gardener,
Robert

Cooperative Development: housing, property, farms, festivals!

Happy October! Here in Southern California the weather has finally gone cool. We've had some random heat waves every week or two that have split my nascent pumpkins and baked to death some of the bushes I planted for a client. We had highs in the low 100s a few times but usually in the 90s. We likely won't spend much time above 80 until next year. Now I can safely plant my winter greens!

Yesterday I went with a founder of the Ventura Food Cooperative to visit the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative. The tour was insightful with lots of great conversation on the walks between their 5 houses. Some buildings were multi-apartment style and others were large houses with private and shared rooms. All had shared common areas, like kitchens, gardens, and study halls for students to enjoy in community. The SBSHC has been around for decades and owns all their buildings. Members' rent and dues cover the costs of property taxes, repairs, two staff positions, and with the largest portion being the repayment of loans used to purchase properties.

Almost everyone I speak with is interested in cooperative housing and property ownership. Some folks dream of forming a rural intentional farming community, others a shared house for social activist-entrepreneurs, urban farmworker housing, and some an interfaith community like a kibbutz. Depending on the needs of the group, either a partnership of residents would own the property, a nonprofit (as in SBSHC) might own it, or the property is simply owned by locals.

My own dream is to found a farm and retreat center for service-members transitioning out of the military and chronically homeless veterans who want to learn to make and market value-added products and to be regenerative land stewards. I'm calling this project the Warrior Scholar Agroforestry Academy.

I've learned a lot in the last few months about community-financed bonds & investment, such as those by the Centre for Social Innovation, who arranged 100s of supporters to raise $1.4 million in 4 months to finance the purchase of a multi-use building in Toronto. That means locals own the building and reap the benefits of property ownership and giving a home to social-good organizations.

There's talk in our permaculture circles to similarly finance the development of agrihoods - sustainable human settlements. More on this as it becomes available!

Coming up: Lompoc Cooperative Development Project's Santa Barbara County Cooperative Development Festival (October 10th) and Ventura's Really Really Free Market (third annual! November 8th at Kellogg Park). Come celebrate the gift economy with us (we need more coordinators! that's you!)!

For more information on these topics, check out the following links, thanks to the staff at the SBSHC:

Lots of resources at the North American Students of Cooperation and registration for their Cooperative Education & Training Institute just opened. The event is from October 30th to November 1st in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

October is Co-op Month! Watch the video about what a Cooperative is at the Cooperative Network.

Thanks for reading and for growing with us!
Robert Barnett
Permaculture Designer at Ventura Coop since Dec 2014

Permaculture Design: Vision Plans for Sustainability

With the long hot summer in front of us, now is the time to assess your landscape and make new plans for fall planting.  Take the time that you have to observe and interact with what you have on site, and create a vision for the next big step in your garden and drought tolerant landscape.  At the same time watch how your environment interacts with the heat, look for plants that will establish through the fall and winter next year.  Look for ways to capture and retain water in the rainy season to come.

A permaculture vision plan done now will answer most of your questions and save time and money when it comes to implementation.  Don't wait.  Now it the time to slow down, stay in the shade and contemplate the future while enjoying the present!  Call us if you want a consultation.  We have the knowledge base and experience you need to bring your dreams into reality!

Tips:  If your wanting to plant something plant pumpkins for Halloween.  Top feed plants with compost and mulch those areas that are thin and need extra protection.  Then root soak with compost tea.

More tips:  Go for a hike in the local area and observe how native plants are dealing with the heat.  Nature is your best teacher!  Go for a swim in the ocean, and bring back a 5 gallon bucket of seaweed to add to your compost pile.  In Ventura, we live in a virtual paradise of natural resource.  Integrate your everyday actions with permaculture principles!

Our suggested drink for hydration:  Cool filtered water with fresh mint sprigs and a few leaves of lemon verbena.  Ahhhhh!

Relevant Links:

Seaweed Mulch
http://eartheasy.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-use-seaweed-to-mulch-your-garden/

Ventura March Against Monsanto

Monsanto has become synonymous with corporate corruption and ecological destruction as activists all across the globe point to the company's practices as the prime example of negligence and greed.  With their Seminis Seed headquarters located in Oxnard, Ventura is at ground zero for raising awareness of Monsanto's destructive behavior.  

Join us and the world Saturday May 23rd in front of Ventura City Hall for a march through the street and post rally workshops.  From 9am to 2pm you'll be a part of the solution, not the problem.  Seed swaps, Solar Ovens, Compost Tea, Live music and more all throughout the day.  Say "No More GMO's" and keep you, your family friends and the world healthy and chemical free.

Relevant Links:

Top 10 reasons why Monsanto is Corrupt to the Core:
http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/Monsanto-corruption-gmo.php

March Against Monsanto (MAM) Main Page:
http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/events/

Ventura MAM facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1542525792702623/1582302602058275/

Save Water! Grow Your Own Food!

Because of the drought conditions we are facing, we at Ventura Cooperative encourage everyone to:

• Grow edible and water-wise gardens in your yards and communities
• Mulch, Mulch, and Mulch those gardens!
• Deep watering grows stronger roots, so water well and less frequently
• Support your local community gardens and farmers markets
• Stop eating cheeseburgers.
• Get active and aware

Cheeseburgers: Did you know that a typical cheeseburger takes 660 gallons of water to get to your plate?  Yes, six hundred and sixty gallons!

Check out the water footprint of some of your favorite food items here.
http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/interactive-tools/product-gallery/

Get active and Aware:  California is using 80% of it's water supply to grow water intensive crops in near desert conditions.  Of that 80%, nearly 100 billion gallons of water is being used to grow alfalfa to feed cattle in asia.  Think about that when you get your water rate hikes this summer.  The same government that is demanding you to take shorter showers is subsidizing the export of water intensive crops to Asia.

Read the LA Times Article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/meat-makes-the-planet-thirsty.html?_r=0

A good friend of ours shared this quote recently:

"The sad reality is that we are in danger of perishing from our own stupidity and lack of personal responsibility to life. If we become extinct because of factors beyond our control, then we can at least die with pride in ourselves, but to create a mess in which we perish by our own inaction makes nonsense of our claims to consciousness and morality.."
− Bill Mollison

To this we add one of our favorite new quotes:

“It’s time to put away our fairy tales, all of them, and assume our responsibilities, the adult responsibilities that begin with adult knowledge. Our planet needs us. She needs us to think like healers and act like warriors. And if you think that’s a contradiction, then get out of the way.”
-Lierre Keith, Deep Green Resistance

It's not just a backyard garden anymore.  It's a beautiful and responsible way to be the change you wish to see in the world.  So mulch it, and mulch it good!

Bamboo Potato Towers

Potato Towers are an easy way to grow and harvest potatoes in your home garden.  Bamboo fencing is easy to acquire, and is a reusable and renewable resource.  We cut our rolls in half and made two towers for the VCoop backyard garden.  Here is a picture of the tower a week after firstt planting.  We had a bag of potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen.  We dropped 'em in and they took off.

As the plants grow, we kept adding straw and compost, burying the new growth up to the height of the newest leaves,  a month later the plants have already reached the top!

We'll keep adding pictures here as the tower goes through it's cycle.  Start yours now and grow with us!

Compost Tea Foliar Spray

Spraying with Compost Tea (A Brief History of Why)

When plants evolved from the water to live on land, they partnered with the microbial life in the soil and in the air.  Certain species of bacteria and fungi became the distributors of the plant’s food, and the doctors that helped them fight disease.  Plants need biologically pre-digested nutrients; it is easier for them to feed.  Like humans, they digest food that has been prepared.  Actively Aerated Compost Tea boosts the microbes and the nutrients needed to make this network thrive.

Healthy plants have a strong immune system that includes a ‘bio-film’ of microbial life from leaf to root.  Humans do too.  Head to toe.  To make use of these biological principles to feed and protect our plants, we can spray with compost tea.  I'd suggest a swim in the ocean for you humans instead.

When we spray plants with VCoop's compost tea, the droplets envelope the plant with living organisms.  The web of life of which the plant (and all life) is a part of is strengthened.  The results: Large, mineral rich vegetation with healthy leaves, decreased disease, and weakened insect attacks.  Happy plants and gardeners! Even better, apply when trees are preparing to bud, cuz compost tea feeds the delicate new growth directly and helps protect the baby leaves until they are more developed.

Note:  Plants that have been showered with compost tea have higher “Brix” levels – a measure of the carbohydrates and mineral density in the sap.  The healthy plants are better able to ward off attacks.

Actively Aerated Compost tea cannot be over-applied and does not burn leaves.  The microbe-rich droplets drip down to improve the soil below.  I usually root soak the plants too!  For growers who regularly use compost tea, there is nothing better.  The main drawback is making the brew.  Whew!  That's where Ventura Cooperative Compost Tea comes in.  We have a constant supply of tea made locally for local gardeners.  Bubblin' up right now.

Get some!  Now is the time to foliar spray with compost tea, when the buds are young and spring is on its way.  I'm spraying all our trees consistently over the next few weeks.  It give me the reason to keep an eye on their growth too.  Now is also a good time to graft new wood on fruit and citrus trees if you have them.  Remember we are all a part of the soil network.

I'm going surfing after, and bringing some kelp back to my compost piles.  Stacking functions, it's the permaculture way.

See you in the Garden!
Jason

Sheet Mulching Ventura

Sheet Mulching is the best way to restore vitality and to build health in the soil. While putting to sleep traditional lawn landscapes, this permaculture tactic provides a kickstart to the "Soil Food Web" in which annual and perennial plants can thrive.  The foodweb helps conserve water, saves money, saves time and reconnects us to the living earth.

Paul Herzog and Robert Barnett use the burrito method along the edges of Paul's backyard

To begin, layer soil amendments, compost, mulch, straw, yard clippings and cardboard (see diagram above) on top of the exisiting sod and existing soil and water with compost tea.  The life and the nutrients in these layers decompose into rich soil. The richness leeches down into the lower layers and soon the land is rejuvenated.  The grass and the weeds are smothered by the layers above and become food for microbes and arthropods. Think of sheet mulching as a large horizontal compost bin.  There are many methods of sheet mulching, but the aims are basically the same-soil restoration and water conservation.

One way to keep unwanted plants from growing out along the edges, iis to use the "burrito method" which creates a double layer of material to suppress the weeds.  Paul Herzog and Robert Barnett are sheet mulch superheros using the burrito method in Paul's backyard.  See picture above.

Any time of year is good to sheet mulch, but the best time is in during the rainy season.  The rain soaks through the layers and stays in the yard.  Sheet mulching acts like a sponge, keeping the hydration where it's needed.

Soil restoration is a radical action in our current system of consumer based chemically driven quick fix answers.  Let's get to a deeper solution.  The word radical is derived from the latin word "radicis" meaning root or going to the origin or essential.  We can help you get down to the roots.  The radical roots.  The essential basics of healthy living begin in the soil.

Relevant links:
Surfrider Ocean Friendly Gardens
Urban Soil Summit
Soil Food Web

The Many Benefits of Chayote

From root to fruit to shoot, Chayote is an edible that adds versatility to permaculture landscapes.  A native from mexico, and a member of the gourd family, Chayote is known by many names as it has migrated across the globe and into many diverse culinary dishes.  Some call it Cho-Cho, some Sayote, and some know it by the name Merleton just to name a few.  There are as many ways to cook it as there are names.

For a great selection of recipes, check out Chayote recipes at Pinterest.  Just recently we harvested some shoots from the Art City garden and used them freshly chopped in a green salad with purslane, mustard greens, arugula, and young endive leaves.  These greens were tossed in a yogurt garlic onion dressing with fresh cracked pepper and lemon juice.  Excellent and healthy!

Chayote is easy to grow in our local climate.  Perfect for trellising over border fences, the pear shaped fruit hangs from heart shaped leaves and curling shoots.  Grow Chayote!  It adds a tasty vertical element to your garden.

photo by: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên cc-by-sa

Be Prepared for El Nino and the California Drought

Weather forecasters, NASA scientists, and the old time farmer's almanac are all saying the same thing--California should get more than average rainfall this winter.  Are you prepared?

Now is the time to install rainwater barrels, mulch existing garden beds, build compost piles, and plant your winter veggies.  All of these action steps help conserve water.  Simple and effective ways to help yourself and the environment.

You're not alone--We can help!  Ventura Cooperative is offering an "El Nino Winter Garden Package" which includes FREE Rainbarrel Installations with the purchase of:

• 1 yard organic mulch
• 5 cu. ft. VCoop's living soil amendments
• 6 Six-packs seasonal veggie starts
• 3 gallons VCoop's Actively Aerated Compost Tea

This $299.00 service is a great way to prepare for winter rains, grow your own food, and transition to organic and sustainable yard maintenance.

Call us now to schedule your "El Nino Winter Garden Package" before the next rain!

(805) 765-1892
or e-mail us at venturacoop@gmail.com

Visit the Climate Prediction Center for more El Nino details.