Gardening Has Gone Hypochondriac

I’m Learning to Do It Better: and “Old School”

I watched about 50 gardening videos and came to the astonishing conclusion that they've done the same thing to growing our own food that they've done to health.

(If you post about a health issue, virtually every comment will be something telling you "what to take" for that.

Few want to tend to the biome of the body, with an alkalizing, oxygenating, high-fiber diet. Eliminating the poisons and difficult-to-digest foods that stop healthy processes in the body, so it can be in a natural “flow state.” Like processed foods–and animal carcasses and secretions and ovulatory products, which are getting more expensive and scarce anyway, so I hope you’ll consider eating more plants, especially the ones you can grow.)

Instead, modern adults default to “magical thinking” no different than the witches' brew, casting out evil spirits, and leaches of 200 years ago.

But they think it's better, because–"Science." The witch doctors selling us Rockefeller petroleum-derived synthetic products are magical, because they wear a white coat. Personally, I find their “health advice” appalling, and you can look at the folks in white coats and see that on average, they’re doing even worse than the average American.

You will not believe what most of the gardening videos I reviewed recommend.

Many tell you to not to use dirt! Several gardeners instruct you to boil water, and pour it into any dirt you might be forced to use if you’re so old-school you think dirt is good. Boiling water to “kill microbes!”

Dirt has organic matter and a biome that people planted in for years. I always used it in very successful Utah gardens, and composted my own food, and often got manure (from any grass-fed animal being raised nearby), to add to it every year.

But perish the thought that we do anything but the most modern, synthetic thing possible. Some of these videos also suggested you use only “potting soil.” But–what is “potting soil?” I started researching.

"Potting soil" is everything BUT dirt! There's volcanic glass, and peat moss, ground-up bark, and all kinds of things in it you might not even know. And they "steam treat" it to kill anything living.

Oblivious that many of the living things are necessary, and people co-existed with living things in the soil, since the dawn of time. Our bodies are full of microbes that do countless positive things, and the soil is no different.

Seems like gardening has become as hypochondriac and oblivious to how "full of germs" everything is, and with good reasons. Germs, or microbes, perform hundreds of useful functions, in your body, and in the soil.

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“Germ theory” vs “terrain theory” has been a hot debate, but “germ theory” has been winning for hundreds of years, made far worse the last three years, if you haven’t noticed. My “Why Do I Get Sick (for Dummies): Germ Theory vs Terrain Theory” post is here, for the Cliff’s Notes of several books I’ve read on this topic, over 25 years.

I have now watched more than one gardener spray their soil with aspirin dissolved in water. And use chemical, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

Keep in mind that potash and nitrogen are what now sustain most of the farming in the world, with massive worldwide shortages are well underway, in a world at war and breaking down.

A more sustainable way of gardening isn’t hard, especially in a backyard or tower-garden way. You just have to free your mind from the ways we’ve been taught, for a few decades now, that are increasingly synthetic and germ-phobic.

I’ll be doing more content on this, stay tuned.

We just did a fantastic class in our Mastermind. Join, and you get a free month right now, plus you can listen to our 90-min Wednesday Night Lives we’ve been doing for almost two years now, on topics related to:

• alternative investing, thinking “past the dollar” and

• preparedness

• gardening in any space is a new focus

• how blockchain is changing the world, and it can either enslave you (CBDC) or free you (truly decentralized innovation)

• many other subjects you need to know, as the world changes

My coaches and I consider our job to research and teach on the “bleeding edge” of how the world is changing, so that you can educate, prepare, and protect yourself, before it’s too late.

Of course the vegetables we buy in the store have been raised the same way, and worse: GMO seeds, and toxic, carcinogenic glyphosate.

I found ONE and only ONE local nursery that had tomatoes and bell peppers grown with non-GMO / organic seeds. And by the time we got there the day their supply came in, their seedlings were sold out.

(Are organic, non-GMO plants becoming worth their weight in gold, as people have predicted for decades now?)

We’ll be at that nursery at 9 am next Weds, so we don’t miss out again.

I should have been growing seedlings starting in January! Live and learn. I will not make this mistake next year! I’m upping my gardening game this year, learning from my first two growing seasons in Florida. 

You’d think that growing would be easier, in the “sunshine state, but I don’t have a single neighbor growing anything–so, zero mentors.

What the people at nurseries tell me, just sells their synthetic bags of nitrogen and other additives, and makes me realize that I’ve got to take matters into my own hands!

And the advice of the horticulturists at the nurseries, is more of what you just read, above. No thanks, to medicating my produce with aspirin!

So, we have to return to the sustainable ways of nature. The class in our Mastermind was absolutely mind-expanding and inspiring! Also watch Back to Eden, on YouTube.

It’s easy enough to look at the two acres next to my property and see a thriving ecosystem of trees and bushes and grasses, and decomposing leaves and branches, growing with nobody tending to it in any way.

After watching Back to Eden–three days later, I had a tree trimmer company thrilled to dump a truckload of bark chips in my backyard. It had been sitting there in his truck for a year. He called it “rotten”--I call it bonus, half-decomposed!

It was a blessing for him to finally dump it without paying to do so. And it’s going to be ongoing fertilizer and mulch, in my garden. Keeping the moisture in the dirt; keeping pests and weeds down; and decaying to become nutrient-rich soil. Very much like the two untended acres next to me are doing, thanks to nature.

My attempts at gardening in FL have been middling at best, as I adjust to a radically different climate.

Carrots, cabbage, and chard do great but I can't grow a beet to save my life, and my tomatoes and peppers have sucked, too. Now I’ve learned that my soil is too alkaline for those failed crops, and I’ve got new tricks up my sleeve, to make some of my soil naturally more acidic.

I’m now working on potatoes, sweet potatoes, and ginger, growing in buckets with holes drilled in the bottom, sitting on a pallet for drainage. I’m determined to get it right.

I'm watching all these videos to up my game. I don’t likely have more time than you do–I’m running two businesses to keep 15 people employed, and every day, my to-do list is longer than I could ever finish.

I watch content at 1.5x speed while I’m eating, working out, and even in the shower!

But it's really sad to see the most popular YouTube gardening channels just as hijacked by "a better life through chemicals" (1950's billboard Dow slogan) like everything related to human health has been.

I keep making mistakes with my gardening. But I have to sift through a lot of baloney, due to the obsession with "good gardening" being with sterilized fake soil, human medication applied to soils and plants, and dependence on synthetic fertilizer where global supply chains breaking down of those synthetics currently threatens developing nations with widespread famine.

Smart farmers are returning to more regenerative ways of growing food. They are universally small farmers, so your getting to know one is a good thing.

Our nut group buy has just been extended, and these are small ranchers I’ve known for 15 years, who grow their nuts and hold some out for us, without chemically fumigating, spraying with glyphosate, or pasteurizing with heat that the government makes them do, before selling them to retailers.

Get some almonds, pecans and walnuts here, if you haven’t done so. They keep, for many years, for me, in quart canning jars. (I don’t want to give up my freezer space for them!)

Maybe I'm naive, but with wars and global trade breaking down, seems like farmers could be considering scaling up composting, rather than depending on the nitrogen fertilizer?

I have a 55-gal barrel in my backyard that we throw all scraps, peels, and organic matter in, we have unlimited quantities of leaves and grass. We mash it down, and add water. That “compost tea” that has been sitting in there for a year–will be our fertilizer all year.

I'm going to ignore all the tips about additives and sterilizing soil. I’m finding the YouTube channels who do things more naturally. And I guess we'll pull weeds, rather than nuking the soil to have fewer of them.

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If 10% of us were more self-sufficient and grew food, we wouldn't be digital slaves, dependent on what the grocery stores provide. 10% of us growing in the backyard could provide enough food for everyone. Not the food they're used to, but food that would make them healthier.

In my gardening research, I saw so many spectacular photos of people growing JUST from a vertical indoor tower garden. One was giving some of her produce to the homeless, because her family can't eat it all! 

If she were drinking a quart of green smoothie daily, she’d be eating all that produce she grew. Drinking a quart of green smoothie also fills you up, making you less likely to reach for the junk food.

In the Mastermind, I’ll be working with a tower-garden pro, soon, to talk about everything from what grows best in those indoor or patio vertical gardens, to how to get started, and how to avoid the common mistakes beginner gardeners fall prey to.

I've struggled a bit because the move from Zone 4A to 9A means a 10-month subtropical growing season, compared to the Utah 4-month growing season. Good problem to have, but it takes a few seasons to figure out what works, and what doesn't.

Reading this post, you have 10 great ideas I didn’t have, moving here, including getting a tree-trimming company to dump some bark chips on your yard! Put a garden hose in the middle of the pile, and run water into it, to start the rapid decomposition.

You really need to start gardening NOW, because it's a skillset, and your first garden might not be too great. Part of my problem is I neglect the garden because I work so much, and I'm not too great at "details."

Even though two-thirds of my crops were a fail, my first couple seasons, and I’m repenting by doing more research and paying attention to detail–

–the upside is, I've identified tons of edible unsprayed weeds in my yard, and I throw them in my blender.

Did you know there are 30,000 edible plants, but our agriculture industry grows only about 200 of them? When I look up a weed, 90% of the time, it’s edible!

I don’t just feel amazing after I drink my “food as medicine” of a quart of green smoothie daily--I’m also preventing disease, so I can keep doing my best work, serving my children, you, my staff, and you.

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And if you missed the nut group buy, hurry, we extended it, and you can get almonds, walnuts, and pecans here, before it closes. You cannot buy unpasteurized, unfumigated, unsprayed nuts in the store. Only in our group buy, or if you drive down a long dusty road in California to find an amazing rancher like ours, to sell to you direct. And, please assume that some of the links I may share, compensate my small business.