A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Happy Halloween from BEYOND THE KALE......

 

[heirloomgal]

When I planted my first 'real garden' back in 2008, it just seemed a natural choice to go organic. I knew the general trivia that most people know about pesticides, herbicides & over the counter fertility and that seemed sufficient enough to know which way to go. Afterall, I was just a backyard gardener not facing any real problems, aside from my own lack of propensity to weed as much as I should. I don't generally have any seriously pernicious weeds or pests to deal with, though I do remember the year caterpillars infested the tree DH and I planted to commemorate our son being born. It was clear the first day the tree would die if we didn't do anything, and for the first time I felt tempted to use things I wouldn't normally want to use. But we couldn't bring ourselves to do it, and the tree died.

It never occurred to me until recently how superficially I had looked at the real meaning of non-organic vs organic, and some of the information I've been reading has just blown my mind. It's been awhile since I read something that shocked me so much, though in hindsight I guess it really isn't so shocking. One things for sure, I have never felt so elated that I chose to use organic methods in the garden! I had no idea back in 2008 just how important that choice really was. I'm actually a little behind the curve, because I've been poking around and can see that many people are talking about this new info, even Rogan has covered it. This may even be old news to some.

I'll try to condense a lil bit, and I'll post a link at the end of this but a weird triangle of connections here - organic growing, the gypsy moth, and the iron lung. I haven't completed reading all the material but the first bits are just wow level so I thought I'd post this for any organic growers that follow this thread and be interested. I've never read anything more affirming than this as an organic gardener!

Couple facts that don't seem connected, but are.

95% of polio cases are asymptomatic. Few know they have it, it would be like a common cold or flu.
Less than 1% of people who get polio develop paralysis. Wow, not the info I grew up hearing.

Polio initially was called poliomyelitis, and was considered a symptom, not a disease in itself. The term was an umbrella for any paralysis in the lower limbs. There were no poliomyelitis epidemic until the1890's - nothing ever before in the history of mankind. As this lower paralysis affliction began to rise through the 1890's, children were most affected. But animals were affected too, including horses, chickens, dogs and pigs. Odd, because 'poliovirus' as it's termed today is not virally communicable to any other species outside of Old World monkeys. That's a subject on its own.

This rising wave in both humans and animals coincided nearly to the exact year (1892 in Massachusetts) that lead arsenate began to be used extensively to combat the spread of a foreign invader destroying both flora and fauna- the gypsy moth. Lead arsenate was considered a superior pesticide being sticky, and not washed off easily whereas Paris green (another pesticide at the time) did. Animals injected with arsenic at the time, in experiments attempting to unravel this paralysis phenomenon, developed lower limb paralysis and low and behold lesions on the spine, the same as those observed in people. At the time, arsenic was a popular addition to several medicines as was mercury, particularly teething remedies.

The plot thickens from there and I'll just thank my lucky stars for 'organic'! and leave a link to an informative book for anyone who wants to look a bit further.

The Moth In The Iron Lung: A Biography Of Polio Book By Forrest Maready, ('tp') | Indigo

Buy the book The Moth in the Iron Lung: A Biography of Polio by forrest maready at Indigo

www.indigo.ca

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

My sister had polio in 1950’s. We were all given the vaccine .Thankfully I did not get polio . My sister was quarantined. It was a horrible disease. Once the vaccines were established polio has been eradicated in the US. There have been a few cases in the US. These case of paralytic polio was detected in the United States, highlighting the importance of routine polio vaccination.

Mr Google info - in the US the polio pandemic occurred between 1948 and 1955, and the disease was a major cause of disability in children. The World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000. As of October 2022, naturally acquired polio is only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

[digitS']

I have a friend whose family was slammed by polio. Four children, the 3 youngest had no symptoms. The oldest went through life with hunched shoulders after recovery. The mother couldn't walk for some time but I only knew her when she was in her 50's and had worn braces on both legs for decades. She spent her final couple of years in a nursing home and died at age 60. I attended her funeral.

The father died. My friend was only 2 years old at the time. Mother and kids were moved back to Idaho from southern Oregon to be near family and I met him in college during the 70's; we have known each other for 50+ years and stay in touch.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

A while back I bought a 500g sack of alfalfa seeds from OSC with the intention of growing my own mulch, but I haven't tried it yet. This conversation is inspiring me to get those seeds in the soil come spring.
...

it takes two to three years to get a decent stand of alfalfa growing. it is not recommended to grow garlic among it in clay and is also not easy to keep free of weeds. after several years of growing it and chopping it back to improve some soil where i wanted to eventually turn it into a strawberry patch it was taken over by grasses and i had to go back to mowing it instead of weeding it. i'd love to have the whole area returned to garden space but that's a huge task - the problem though is that the whole area is one edge of a garden and the grasses always want to take over that area again too. it's a goal of mine to eventually keep moving the garden over and reclaiming the space but at the pace i'm going it may be 20yrs before i get there...

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@flowerbug why not start out with small sections to start a planting area.Then adding built up beds using weed-free mushroom compost. If you have access to a tractor till the soil several times before adding weed free prepared top soil heated to high temps kills most any seeds or roots if you consider producing your own top soil. Let it sit and cool , cover to maintain quality control until time to plant.
That technique is sustainable and nurtured my 2 acres of various trees,plants shrubs , perennials, and a veggie garden.

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug why not start out with small sections to start a planting area.Then adding built up beds using weed-free mushroom compost. If you have access to a tractor till the soil several times before adding weed free prepared top soil heated to high temps kills most any seeds or roots if you consider producing your own top soil. Let it sit and cool , cover to maintain quality control until time to plant.
That technique is sustainable and nurtured my 2 acres of various trees,plants shrubs , perennials, and a veggie garden.

getting permission from the owner isn't too likely for me to smother it with what materials i can get right now. there's no access for tractor or hauling stuff in so any mulches have to be brought in a wheelbarrow at a time. i've already tried to get permission for taking it all out again but Mom doesn't want to do that. next spring when mowing season starts up again i'm going to mow the area right next to the existing garden right back to the ground and maybe then i can keep it clear by scraping. we'll see. that's a long time from now and things can change...

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@flowerbug thank you for filling in the details .

 

[heirloomgal]

My sister had polio in 1950’s. We were all given the vaccine .Thankfully I did not get polio . My sister was quarantined. It was a horrible disease. Once the vaccines were established polio has been eradicated in the US. There have been a few cases in the US. These case of paralytic polio was detected in the United States, highlighting the importance of routine polio vaccination.

Mr Google info - in the US the polio pandemic occurred between 1948 and 1955, and the disease was a major cause of disability in children. The World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000. As of October 2022, naturally acquired polio is only found in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The post was really more about the history of chemicals used in horticultural practice and it's relationship to human health through the last century, not so much vaccines. I had always assumed polio resolved due to hygiene and nutritional improvements, so I was surprised that those were not really root issues. I try to stick to the garden stuff in my thread as much as I can, though I'm glad you posted what you did since I've wondered if people who got the polio 'vaccine' still got polio, much like we've seen in the last couple years with another vaccine. I guess so, I bet not many people know that. Seems to further confirm Forrest Mareading's findings.

The book I linked to was about how the story we've been given about all these things is not accurate, and the epidemic did not result from the officially stated causes. Neither DH, myself, our children, or even our pets past and present, are vaccinated for anything at all. My children will never vaccinate their kids either, huge numbers of people are opting out of that system. My generation and the one after me is much less inclined to trust corporate media sources about these kinds of things, generally. There is now mountains of evidence available demonstrating that none of the health issues suffered by humanity in the last century were solved by big pharma. But to each is own, we all see things in our own way.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, the rice (well most of it) has been hulled to get rid of broken kernels, and, hopefully, my fingers will heal in a week or so (pulling the hulls off of rice does about as much damage to the skin as pulling corn kernels off of ears, with the added complication that you can't use gloves because then you don't have the tactile dexterity to grasp something that small.

The one additional thing I have now learned is that I don't have two kinds of African rice, I have at least FOUR (quite possibly more). Besides the long grain one I separated out before (which has not been hulled, as I probably won't try to grow that until a later year), and the majority short grained medium brown rice, there are also a few kernels of a VERY short grain (almost round) white grained rice, and a few of a very slender grained dark brown rice (as well as one or two white that are longer than the rest, and one or two dark that are fatter). I have separated those out, and they will get their own pots.