Enriching your soil, part II: Weeds are not bad! They are your organic fertilizer!

Weeds as nutrient dynamic accumulators

Weeds are often considered a nuisance. However, from both the Permaculture and Biodynamic farming point of view, weeds are not a problem, they are nature way of correcting a problem with your soil.

For example, some plants are nitrogen accumulators, this is they can fix nitrogen in the soil, from the air. Curiously, these includes some of the most invasive weeds in the planet, plants like acacia (picture above), lupins (picture below), mustard and clovers. In Mediterranean countries, acacias often grow in disturbed soils after house or road construction, or forest fires. In Iceland, lupins are a widespread invasive plant because it can grow in the very poor sandy and cold soils that were deforested many centuries ago.

Therefore, look at these weeds, as nature way of correcting a nutrient problem. And also as a sign that your soil is not nutrient-rich as it should be, to grow your vegetables.

It is wise from the Permaculture perspective, to grow some of these plants, so that there can be a natural way of replenishment your soil with nutrients again, such as these nitrogen fixating species.

Another example, comes from the very poor acid soils of some pine forests, where almost only ferns seem to be able to grow. This indicates not only a very poor soil, but also ferns (brackens, Pteridium) have the unique ability to capture the missing potassium, phosphorus and other nutrients, from the deepest layers of the soil. So does nettles, and that's why you often can see it growing in the walls and rocks! Nettle roots penetrate very deeply and are able to capture the nutrients from the broken rocks. They also make a very rich compost or fertilizer, and they also make a very mineral-rich soup!

For this reason, today I was thinking about the sorrels / docks (Rumex) that I see growing close to our house. I read that they are dynamic accumulators of calcium, phosphorus and potassium, that seems to be missing in our garden (calcium lack can be signaled also by the growing dandelions in our garden!). So, I thought of collecting the sorrels and dandelions and making a compost tea out of them, to fertilize my tomatoes and broccoli, that are hungry for potassium, phosphorus and calcium. By the same token, I thought about using the lupins for a special nitrogen compost tea, for the more leafy vegetables.

To give you more technical (and useful) information, dandelions are accumulators of silica, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, coper and iron. Comfrey accumulates silica, nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, iron and potassium. Chickweed (a sign of fertile soils) accumulates potassium, phosphorus and manganese. Clovers accumulate nitrogen and phosphorus. Buckwheat accumulates phosphorus, chicory accumulates calcium and potassium, borage (picture above) accumulates silica and potassium, burdock accumulates iron, and chives accumulates sodium and calcium. Carrot leaves accumulate potassium and magnesium.

Enriching your soil, part I: Organic fertilizers for your vegetables and flowers! (Compost tea, egg shells, banana skins, nettles, seaweed, urine)

How to make simple homemade organic fertilizers!

This article is the first of a series that will teach us how to enrich our soil, from a Permaculture /Biodynamic perpspective.

To start with, below are some simple steps we should follow when growing vegetables and flowers:

• First, when you plant, remember to incorporate compost and sand into the soil, to provide nutrients. Cover also with mulching, and add egg shells and coffee grounds around plants (you can also dilute the coffee ground in water and apply to acid-loving plants like tomatoes, azaleas, roses and blueberries)

• Fertilize heavy feeders (tomatoes, zucchini) with a seaweed fertilizer (add seaweed to water, let sit for 2 weeks, and dilute before use). Fertilize occasionally green leaf vegetables with diluted urine (1:20, and use immediately). If you eat fish or meat, you can also prepare a fertilizer made from bones and from fish leftovers, because it is very rich for your plants.

• Fertilize adding regular doses of compost tea (add compost to water, and let sit for 2 weeks, dilute before use). Spray on plants for a foliar feed and to eliminate pests. Fertilize occasionally with a tea made from composted nettles (do as the compost tea). Comfrey is also very good. You can also add banana and potato skins as these are full of nutrients, especially potassium. The best is to mix everything together: compost, nettles, comfrey, banana and potato skins, and other herbs that accumulate specific nutrients like docks or ferns. Remember that this will smell bad, so let it sit for the 2 weeks in some hidden place. And dilute this black compost tea before use.

• Fertilize with a spray or tea made from herbs used in Biodynamic farming: dandelion, yarrow, nettle, horsetail, chamomile, valerian and oak bark. Some of these plants also accumulate nutrients, and according to Rudolf Steiner, they release "energies" into the soil which are very beneficial to your vegetables. Remember to use those weeds!