New gardens and ferments.

So it seems that I have a friend who not only is a gardener for fun, but for life! His greens are so big and wonderful, strong and vibrant. All because he makes compost and ferments for his garden using EM, and anything else he thinks may help. Fermented milk, too.

Sooo i am going to share what it is that seems to be working in his garden very well, and what is working in mine too.

Prickly Pears!

With such the hard frost we had this winter there seems to be many prickly pear pads that have frozen, cracked, fallen, and lastly cut and drawn out to the curb for someone to come get. My friend was so amazed at how much was out in front of peoples yards that he just started to bring buckets to scavenge the neighborhood for their unwanted pricklys.

So, being that I have some that have done the same in my own yard, I of course used what we already had. Which was an overflowing wheel barrel full! With tongs, and a large kitchen knife I began to cross cut, then hack these pads into pieces over a 50 gallon drum. I think after all the cutting I may have had about 1/3 to almost half a barrel full of the cacti. I added about a cup of molasses, 1 1/2 cup whey (from raw milk), and full cup of EM. I had to put a brick on top of the cacti because it floats to help in the fermentation i set it in there.

This was done yesterday. It should be ready to use when the white film on top is present. =)

I am extremely excited because if one puts a gallon of this gooey ferment in a larger bucket (approx. 10 gallons) with water, and then fills 1 gallon jugs with three holes on the bottom and sets them in places for a new garden, the caliche is softened and allowed to fall downward..... supposedly. I'm not really sure of this particular idea but the acid in it would make this make sense.

But! The most exciting thing is that when you add it to the soil it allows for less watering in general to the whole garden!!! This is so very important in the desert. I try to use the rain water when I can this will save us a tremendous amount of water when it is all said and done.

I really should take pictures of what is going on in the yards here. Where's my camera?