Reuse, reuse, reuse your media
growing
must be added to the garden
season.
to replace that which is
Meals,
removed with harvests but
mathere is little reason to
nures,
have to start from scratch
worm
each season.
castings, kelp
and granite dust are commonly added to
replace lost nutrients. Peat moss,
coir and garden soil are sometimes also added to
improve structure.
While we are considering reuse of resources, recirculating
systems waste less fertilizer than drain-to-waste systems. If a
drain-to-waste system is implemented, it should drain not
to waste, but to an additional vegetable or flower garden
plot. This would both maximize the use of purchased nutrients and minimize nutrient pollution leaving the garden.
Nutrients and additives
78
Maximum Yield USA | September 2012
Gardens cannot be closed systems. Harvested
material is removed from the garden, however, that
does not mean the amount of additional resources
required to enter the garden and the amount of
non-harvest resources leaving the garden cannot be
minimized to reduce both gardening expenses and
carbon impact. In natural systems, both macronutrients and micronutrients grow plants, which then
fall and decompose to become available for new
plants to grow. Natural growth does not replace
its growing media each year; it reconditions and
improves the existing media over a period of years.
Gardeners often think of gardens as an event, with
a beginning in the spring, a summer in the middle
and ends in the fall; but in natural settings, gardens
are a self-sustaining cycle. Proper additive application should seek to improve the media over
time, not damage it. Nutrients and additives must
be added to the garden to replace that which is
removed with harvests, but there is little reason to
have to start from scratch each season. MY