{"id":24921,"date":"2014-02-22T08:28:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T14:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=24921"},"modified":"2016-05-07T16:06:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T22:06:52","slug":"a-letter-to-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=24921","title":{"rendered":"A Letter To Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Valentine Moon<\/p>\n

Brother Mark, within a hundred miles of the Rub al Kahli, the empty quarter, asked me about the winter and the garden. \u00a0Here’s my reply:<\/p>\n

It has been our most severe winter since 1978-79, which was only 8 years after I moved up here. \u00a0We just got 10 inches of snow and the temperatures are headed back down. \u00a0It’s 2 right now and we have -15 for a low forecast this Thursday. \u00a0Snow in our front yard is as high as my hip. \u00a0The raised beds in the vegetable garden have disappeared.<\/p>\n

All the dogs are good right now. \u00a0Gertie gets around much better since she had the surgical crimp removed from her left rear knee.<\/p>\n

Kate’s away at quilting retreat with her sister Anne. \u00a0Just me, the dogs and lots of snow.<\/p>\n

Last year I began using products from International Ag Labs and they increased our production even though I used them for only part of the season. \u00a0The broadcast fertilizer went down fall and this spring I add nitrogen. \u00a0There’s also a transplant formula to use when planting. \u00a0These products improved the microbial life in the soil and add minerals found missing through soil tests. \u00a0I tested the vegetable garden and the orchard last fall.<\/p>\n

International Ag labs moves gardens and farms toward sustainable agriculture by creating healthy soil. \u00a0This has always made sense to me and I’m pleased to have found them. \u00a0Bill Schmidt found them.<\/p>\n

Over this weekend I plan to place my seed and plant orders. \u00a0Once I’ve done that I can \"10002010<\/a>order nitrogen in forms specific for specific plants. \u00a0This means I will no longer have to rotate my crops because I’m building soils designed optimally for each plant type.<\/p>\n

Tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, melons, bush beans, sugar snap peas, leeks, greens, herbs and peppers. \u00a0The garlic’s already in the ground. \u00a0This fall I’ll plant scallions at the same time I plant garlic.<\/p>\n

The orchard is part of the program this year. \u00a0That means I’ll be spraying the trees as well as the vegetables. \u00a0These are foliar feedings, not insecticides. \u00a0That’s a weekly, sometimes twice-weekly job. There, are, too soil drenches every other week.<\/p>\n

Aren’t you glad you asked?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imbolc \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Valentine Moon Brother Mark, within a hundred miles of the Rub al Kahli, the empty quarter, asked me about the winter and the … Continue reading A Letter To Saudi Arabia<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,87,9,127,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-garden","category-great-work","category-health","category-our-land"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38626,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24921\/revisions\/38626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}