Rocket Growing Wild
Recently, I purchased a book which I’ve only had a chance to glance at but have learned so much from it already. This book, The One Straw Revolution, written by Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008), is readily available for purchase on the Internet. I urge farmers and anyone who is interested in growing vegetables, herbs and fruit trees to purchase it as it contains a wealth of information including the Four Principals of Natural Farming – No Cultivation, No Chemical Fertilizers or Prepared Compost, No Weeding by Tillage or Herbicides, and No Dependence on Chemicals. He also writes about the usefulness of weeds.
After quickly reading through the Four Principals I wandered around our property and took particular notice of what was growing. In the vegetable garden rocket had self-sown and the plants are just so healthy. They are growing without the soil being dug, weeds removed and fertilizer added. In the past I’ve noticed just how healthy vegetables and herbs are when they grow without any assistance such as the Tom Thumb tomatoes that come up on their own. Just like the rocket they grow prolifically, without disease and yield a great harvest and all of this on a larger scale than those that have been planted in to cultivated, weeded, and fertilized soil with compost added. The reasons for this are explained in the book but from what I have read so far it’s so important to leave the soil be and allow the normal bacteria and microbes to do their work. Also, the old plants rot down and feed the soil as does the straw that has been placed around the plants – the only mulch that is used in this farming system.
I’m so interested in this way of growing food plants and herbs that I have broadcast cabbage seeds just as if they were blown in the wind and scattered other seeds over the rotting straw in the no-dig garden. I’ll let you know how they go…
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