Posts Tagged ‘Soil’

  1. From Oil to Soil

    Posted on October 16th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Connie Mildner is used to challenges. The Canadian was one of the first women living in Europe to work in the oil business. Running a consultancy in Nigeria, she was bet that she couldn’t take on 50 consultants within a year. She won a gold Rolex watch.

    Home for Connie and husband Bren was a beautiful sea-view Cap Falc property: “My parents lived on Mallorca on and off and I spent boarding school holidays here in my teens. It’s always been a sort of home,” she says.

    If Connie’s career was influenced by her father (also in oil), her lifestyle owes much to her mother, a vegetarian and organic food fan. In 1996, with a small son, Connie and Bren unsuccessfully sought just a plot of land to grow organic food. The abandoned Finca Son Barrina in Llub that they purchased also had a house, requiring a lot of work and expenditure. They sold their coastal home . . . and Connie quit her career. It was not a difficult decision: she had experienced Nigeria at its worst.

    Like many, she’d had her car stopped by a corrupt uniformed official, demanding “What have you got for me, madam?” Connie wasn’t intimidated: “I’m a stubborn soul I’d answer happiness’!” Wrongly accused of having false papers, she was arrested and held for three weeks, then under “house arrest” for three months in a hotel in Abuja. She proved her innocence, but the experience was a catalyst. “It was a very stressful job, and I asked my husband whether he’d mind if we were poor. He said giving it up would be good, so we just went for it.”

    Having no farming experience, they initially joined a co-operative-style organisation, bringing them into contact with other Mallorcan farmers. “We made good friends, got lots of help and learnt so much about how things work here.”

    Before long they were growing more than they needed and, having paid “arm and a leg” prices for eco products, decided to open a farm shop offering affordable organic food. “Children should have the opportunity to grow up organically,” Connie says, proud of the good health sons Peter and Dani enjoy.

    Invited as a translator by the Conselleria, she attended Bio Fach eco fair in Germany, where she researched prices and spoke with distributors supplying manufacturers. As a marmalade producer, Connie qualified to buy produce in bulk. Son Barrina invested 5,000 euros in shelf-mounted dispenser units, enabling customers to self-serve desired quantities of advantageously priced dry goods, such as rice, cereals, and pulses.

    After three separate extensions, the original small shop has grown into an organic supermarket, stocked with a broad product range including fresh, frozen and packaged foods; drinks; household, personal, baby and pet sundries.

    Dennree, Demeter, Ecover, Simple Green and Dr Hauschka are popular brands. As a member of the Slow Food movement, Connie’s passionate about localness, promoting Mallorca’s ecological products. And who are her customers?

    “Lots of Germans they’re more used to organic,” she says, “but a high number of Spanish too, because they still cook the most.”

    Around four years’ ago, they introduced biodynamic farming. The farm had been working well, but was plagued by cricket moles: “They’re very common, look like aliens and live underground.” Nearby farmer Maria Luisa gave them weekly lessons in biodynamic farming, which works in harmony with the universe, in return for grazing for her calves.

    “It’s not about dealing with the bugs, but making the soil healthier which makes the plagues disappear,” Connie says. “The aim in biodynamic farming is to leave the soil healthier than you found it, for the next generation.” She researched the subject fully: “I’m a great fan of the Internet!”

    Son Barrina’s had a successful Saturday kids’ gardening club for several years: children and their parents cultivate their own crops on a dedicated area of land. “Children enjoy food more when they know where it’s come from.”

    They’ve also hosted some children’s craft workshops and Connie wants to offer more: “We’re open to all things creative. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’d like to run a kids’ workshop anything that takes life back to its real values.” She dreams of more workshop space, a spinning wheel for their sheep’s wool, and creating a “family forest”.

    Connie has recently partnered with Maggie Sharpe Bermudez of Glayz Dayz, to offer Son Barrina visitors the fun of ceramic painting. Maggie shows me some recently-fired mugs, decorated with small hand prints; soon, thrilled grandparents will be drinking from these unique gifts. “It takes the commercialism out of present-giving, and people put something of themselves into it,” Connie says. It’s not just for children and I look forward to releasing my inner Picasso soon, having spotted suitable ceramic gift items for Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Easter.

    Maggie describes Connie as “a power house”, but the Canadian has a disease that can leave sufferers bedridden. Three years’ ago, she was feeling unusually tired and unwell. She’d previously had a bad reaction to a tick bite. Eventually, Connie was diagnosed with Lyme Disease carried by some ticks. The treatment is gruelling and, for Connie, comprises alternative medicine, special diet, and her Rife machine, which generates frequencies to kill the blood bacteria. But she looks and is, otherwise, healthy no doubt due to the family’s ecological diet and lifestyle. “It’s a very interesting topic,” says Connie, taking a detached view. “If I cure myself, I’ll probably publish details on the Web.”

    Connie has no regrets: “The closest was hearing recently that our old home had just been sold for three million euros when we’d been trying to scrape together cash to replace our broken water pump! Sometimes it’s a struggle, but things happen for a reason and I’m a positive person.”

    Being positive helps Connie tackle life’s challenges. Her Rolex-wearing days are over, but this warm, dynamic woman has clearly found something worth far more to her than gold.

    Dr. Helen Cummins is the Editor of abcMallorca Magazine a high quality guide to mallorca printed in three languages including informative Articles about Mallorca, up to date Events Guide and a Business Directory.

    You can visit the abcMallorca website to read the original article about From oil to soil or related articles about living in Mallorca.

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  2. Biodynamic Farming: Tips for Cultivating Soil-Friendly Earthworms Indoor

    Posted on October 12th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Are you considering adapting biodynamic farming? It is about time you do so. Nowadays, costs of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are higher. There are also health and environmental issues that you have to look at. By using natural techniques to farming, you could effectively become more productive. The soil could be made richer by keeping it safe and healthy. Natural organisms that thrive in it should not be put off, specifically and especially earthworms. Did you know that many farmers these days are aiming to multiply the number of earthworms in their land? There are techniques to do so.

    Vermiculture is an artificial way of cultivating and breeding earthworms. As such, the technology is appropriate and effective to be facilitated and implemented indoors. While usual composting can be done outdoors, vermicomposting is perfect indoors. Vermicomposting is composting biodegradable substances and objects using earthworms. The idea is that earthworms would feed on decaying kitchen leftovers and animal manure. In the process, worms feed, digest and metabolize leaving excretions that are made up of organic nutrients that make the soil richer.

    Vermicomposting can also be done outdoors, but indoors is how it can be perfectly conducted. Worm bins are commercially available for the purpose. Worm bins are special containers that are designed and manufactured especially and specifically to facilitate earthworm growth and reproduction for composting. The earthworms to be raised and reproduced are also available commercially. There are various businesses in operations today that supply such worms. There are two options for buying the worms. One, you can buy the worms by the bulk for direct transfer to the plots or soil containing crops. Second, you can buy vermiculture worms for the purpose of raising them further so you can reproduce and culture your own earthworms artificially.

    Red worms are most ideal and recommended for vermicomposting. Such manure worms or red wigglers thrive mostly in decaying organic matter like compost heaps, manure piles and leaf piles. These worms are basically smaller in comparison to night crawlers. They are reddish brown in color and are natively found in Europe. The presence of red worms is indicative of soil fertility because they herald high organic matter content as toxic substances are eliminated as well in the soil.

    Aside from that, red worms are best for indoor composting. That is because the creatures are efficient organic waste processors. They take in food and excrete their own weight all the time. A small worm bin can yield significant pounds of nutritive and ideal compost, called popularly as worm castings. In two to three months, indoor compost can be harvested and used as organic and alternative fertilizer.

    If you are really serious in adapting biodynamic farming, you should start raising and cultivating soil-friendly earthworms. If the soil in your garden does not contain more than enough of those soil, it is about time you adapt vermiculture technology to do so. It would truly be a lot of help in your endeavor. For sure, production of your land would rise.

    Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com

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  3. Growing Fresh Herbs

    Posted on March 9th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Visit SiteWelcome to Growing Fresh Herbs! Would you like to have an herb garden at home but have no idea where to start? Are you unsure about which soil is best for your herb plants? What about watering and sunlight? Are you undecided about even about which herbs to grow?

    Are you interested in learning the best, fastest and easiest way to care for your herb garden so it consistently produces an abundant stock of herbs?
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  4. How to Grow Tomatoes – Growing Tomatoes in Pots

    Posted on March 6th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Visit SiteIts the spring of 1989. Weve just bought our first home and I have room to plant a garden!! Ive got my hands in the soil, happily planting my first tomato plants ever. The smell of fresh-cut grass fills the air. The sun warms my face.

    This is a perfect day. And I have no doubt on this beautiful Saturday that in just a few weeks I will be able to walk to my garden and pick a yummy tomato whenever I want to.
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  5. Roses to Plant, Growing Roses, Pruning Roses, Buying Roses

    Posted on February 25th, 2011 by admin

     
     

    Visit SiteIt’s true. Some people think that Rose Gardening must be reserved for only a certain time of year — NOT TRUE! You can grow gorgeous roses no matter what season IF you know one simple secret.

    Your job as a rose grower is not just to "plant, water, and forget." Like children, roses need discipline to grow up right, and if you don’t know how to properly prune your roses, your garden will soon be in shambles.
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