What is the true measure of efficiency when it comes to growing food organically? Given that nature is the achiever of all yields and we rely entirely on natural processes in organic farming, we can gain deeper insights into efficient production from observing ecosystems that operate without any human intervention.
Many organic farming enthusiasts spend a lot of time and resources attempting to control unwanted plant growth through continued mowing, slashing or weeding. A more efficient and enjoyable strategy would be to see yourself as a manager of vegetation communities and to provide nature with increasing opportunities to excel in the production of useful crops.
As we watch nature throughout the changing seasons, we can clearly notice variations in health, growth rates and indeed the overall productivity of plants within the same general vicinity. These underlying variables can be termed ‘The conditions that nature requires to thrive’ and can be stated as follows.
1) Water availability throughout the year, particularly during summer and drought periods.
2) Soil that is rich in available nutrients and biological activity.
3) Adequate sun exposure (warmth and light), especially during winter months.
4) Diversity of complementary species in order to create an ecological symbiosis of beneficial relationships and resilience.
5) Freedom from unnatural processes that disrupt the ecological balance such as monocultural crop situations, use of synthetic chemicals or obsessive mowing and slashing that removes valuable flowers and seed heads that can in turn make rich habitat for many beneficial organisms.
The ultimate state of organic production can be defined as the most efficient provision and layout of all these essential conditions.
We live in a time of maximum distribution of food producing plants from around the planet, and here in the subtropics we are blessed with the best climatic range to utilize a majority of these.
When it comes to planting out the farm and garden, a foundation of perennial plant species both emulates the stability and resilience of natural ecological systems and provides low effort yields for a vast range of fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, herbs and spices. Many of these only need to be planted once into optimal conditions and then enjoyed with increasing harvests over the coming years.
Annual crops can be strategically incorporated along the sunny edges of permanent vegetation, used to cover any bare soil and also planted into cleared pockets of ground that have windbreaks and are orientated to capture plenty of direct sun.
The best annual seeds to use are heirloom and organically grown regional varieties as these are well adapted to thrive under organic conditions and have natural genetic diversity that allow them to adapt to changing environmental/climatic conditions.
Maintaining fertility is vital for sustained productivity and is founded on the essential conditions for nature to thrive and an ongoing balance between returning nutrients back to the soil to offset those that are being extracted through harvesting. The most efficient way to maintain natural fertility is via animal rotation systems set up in specific seasonal garden areas where their manure is incorporated directly. Other more labour intensive methods are making and applying liquid fertilizer and compost, both consisting of the widest range of essential nutritional ingredients such as seaweed, animal manures, dynamic accumulator weeds, wood ash, rock minerals, fish and most organic wastes.
Our role as ecological designers, harvesters and stewards of our own life-sustaining habitat is very much founded upon the continual observation of the interactions in our garden and farm ecology. From these ongoing insights, appropriate responses and actions can be identified and applied to working strategically with the prevailing weather conditions and to further promote nature’s momentum throughout the seasons. How well the essential conditions are provided, and how in-tune we are to further guide nature’s momentum, directly represents the difference between random results and reliable year-round abundant harvests that come with natural ease.
Chickens in their Autumn forage zone
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