Switch ON magazine 1

MAGAZINE
ISSUE 4, JANUARY 2013.
STARTING
DREAM of
a
FARM
PLAN THE
PERFECT
HOMESTEAD
WHERE TO START?
FINDING YOUR PLACE
HOME BUILDING AND BEYOND
RENEWABLE ENERGY
10 EASY GARDEN CROPS
TIME TO WAKE UP.
WATER
Homestead Water Sources and Options
Types of Wells
Sanitizing and Maintaining a Clean Well
Get Clean Drinking Water
SOIL
Soil Tests
Plant Nutrients
Natural Fertilizers
Grass Clippings

Organic News / Switch ON
Publisher: AgroMunch s.r.o.
Editing:
Krešimir Hranjec kresimir@organicnews.eu
Marketing:
marketing@organicnews.eu
Info:
info@organicnews.eu
Issue: 4 / January 2013
Address:
Agromunch s.r.o.
Bancíkovej 1/a, SK-821 03, Bratislava, Slovakia
i: info@agromunch.eu
web: http:www.agromunch.eu
CONTENT
24
DREAM of
STARTING
a
FARM
34
Homestead Water Sources and Options
43
Plant Nutrients
35
Types of Wells
46
Natural Fertilizers
39
Get Clean Drinking Water
47
Soil Tests
36
Sanitizing and Maintaining a Clean Well
58
Grass Clippings

Switch ON Magazine
Dear reader,
Here we are with the new issue of Organic News e-magazine.
As you can see, we changed the whole concept around Organic News.
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Finally, we find the right name for our monthly magazine - Switch ON.
In magazine you can find bonus content, more topics than on our website, wider
themes, we will present different companies, associations and projects from
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every month - that is one of reasons to become our member. We invite young
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promote you to worldwide audience - your ideas, opinions and thoughts.
In this issue of Switch ON magazine we bring you interesting topic about
starting a farm. If you ever dreamed about having your own farm, you will find
this texts very interesting. If you never though about having a farm, maybe you
change your mind after reading this new issue.
Once again, we are inviting you to join our Facebook and other social
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ISSUE 4 5

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SUPPORTED BY ORGANIC NEWS
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PLAN THE PERFECT HOMESTEAD
Millions of people throughout whole world still dream of going “back
to the land” to learn to grow their own food, build their own homes,
generate electricity from renewable sources and live a self-reliant lifestyle.
Often, people ask “What should I do first? How can I learn what
I need to know?”
To answer these questions, we’ve gathered advice from people with
decades of experience with different kinds of homestead living.
Where to Start?
Although many people dream of buying
several acres in the country, you can
start homesteading wherever you are. We asked
Mary Hunt, our colleague who frequently talks
to readers who are considering buying land in the
country. Hunt homesteaded on a farm in southwestern
New England, where she built a cabin,
gardened and spent many hours chopping wood.
She says she always recommends learning as many
homesteading skills as possible before moving.
“Planting, harvesting and preserving food are skills
that can be practiced almost anywhere,” Hunt says.
In fact, many aspects of homesteading work
as well in the city or suburbs as in the
country. Solar panels, straw bale building, wood
heat and collecting rainwater are all possible in the
city or suburbs, and even raising chickens is allowed
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in many cities. Just be careful to check all relevant
zoning and local ordinances before you get started.
Whatever your homesteading plans,
Hunt says it’s important to focus
on your priorities. Decide which parts of
the dream are most important to you. “Then,
do your research,” she says. “Learn the skills
and find out what’s involved. Each new homesteading
activity requires new tools and skills, as
well as a certain amount of money and energy.”
Some of these activities require more
money and time than others — another
reason why it’s a good idea to start with smaller
projects, such as learning to garden before buying
farmland, or doing some basic home repairs
before deciding to build your own home. If you
pursue larger projects, there are many ways to learn
more about your interests. For potential farmers,
apprenticeships and volunteer opportunities on organic
farms can be invaluable. Renewable energy
workshops around the country help people learn
about small-scale solar or wind power. To learn
about building, options range from volunteering
with Habitat for Humanity to attending straw bale
building parties and natural building workshops.
ISSUE 4 9

Making Ends Meet
For many people, the homesteading dream
is to buy a few acres and earn a living
from their land. There are hundreds of ways to
generate income: conventional or organic farming,
market gardening, raising seed crops, operating a
bed and breakfast, and selling homemade products
ranging from goat cheese to hand-crafted furniture.
The challenge is to create a stable market for your
products or services. Earning a living can be a challenge,
no matter how much you economize. Many
farm families make it work by having at least one
partner hold a traditional job with benefits.
Ed Smith lives in Marshfield, Vt., where
he has worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker,
taught college
and written a book, The
Vegetable Gardener’s Bible.
“We grow a lot of
our food, cut our own
firewood, built all of our
buildings ourselves and
maintain most of our
machines,” he says. “And
there is no way we could
have done this without
some semi-steady outside
income.”
Computers and
the Internet
are making it much
easier to work at a traditional
job from home, or
to market the products your homestead produces
online. “In my experience, you need to serve more
than the local market if you want to thrive in the
country,” says Steve Maxwell, who lives in a stone
house he and his wife built by hand on Manitoulin
Island in Ontario, Canada.
Maxwell says most rural markets already
are saturated with all the goods and
services they need, but you can reach larger markets
with a Web site, e-mail, phone and fax machine.
“Identify some highly valued commodity — either
physical or intellectual — that can be easily
exported to places where the money exists, then go
to it,” Maxwell says. He earns much of his income
by writing for woodworking magazines, but he says
the possibilities are endless.
Another good example of this homesteading
strategy is the business run by David
Schafer and Alice Dobbs, who sell grass-fed meat
from their farm in northern Missouri. “We had an
Internet presence with our meats from the start,
and about 25 percent of our business was mailorder,”
Schafer says.
Roberta Bailey of Vassalboro, Maine, says
another good farming strategy is to sell
a variety of products. She earns a large part of her
income by working for Fedco Seeds, but she has a
variety of profitable homestead enterprises including
selling organic fruit and juice from her farm’s
orchard; raising seed crops; and selling meat, yarn,
felt and high-quality fleece from her flock of sheep.
“If one market or crop fails, it is balanced out by
another’s success,” Bailey says. “Plus it keeps life interesting.”
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Finding Your Place
When purchasing a house and land,
ask all the usual questions you would
when buying any house. But homesteading may introduce
other considerations, such as:
• How rich is the soil, and how long is the
growing season?
• Does the property provide adequate
pasture and water for livestock? Will you
need to build a barn?
• Will you be able to harvest firewood from
your land?
• Is there a nearby farmer’s market? Do the
roads near the house get enough traffic to
sell products from home?
Defining your priorities before buying
land is crucial to homesteading success.
And even if you have a clear idea of what you want
and where you plan to settle, take your time before
committing to a specific piece of land.
may live in a community three or
“Yfour years before you know enough
about the town, the land and your own habits to
be sure which location is best,” says Bryan Welch.
Welch lives on a 50-acre farm outside of Lawrence,
Kan., with his wife, Carolyn. When looking for
land, they knew they needed a large pasture because
they were interested in grass-fed livestock, but everyone’s
needs are different.
e’ve lived in nine states, so we’ve
“Wlooked at this puzzle from a number
of different angles,” Welch says. “I’ve witnessed
the disillusionment that occurs when a family that
planned to raise vegetables as a cash crop discovers
they’ve chosen a mountain town with an 80-day
growing season.
bviously, homesteaders should pick a
“Oplace they like. But they also need to
make sure that their planned crops and animals will
be compatible with the local environment.”
ISSUE 4 11

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When deciding how much land you
need, keep an open mind, says George
DeVault, a farmer in Emmaus, Pa. “Forget about
absolutely having to have a certain number of
acres,” DeVault says. “There was once a book called
Ten Acres Enough by Edmund Morris. A few years
later, R.B. Roosevelt wrote a book called Five Acres
Too Much.”
With today’s intensive cultivation methods
such as raised beds and greenhouses,
many homesteaders are able to grow most
of their own food on less than an acre. That can
work in an urban area, and even better, in a small
town where property values are lower. Find an inexpensive
house on a double lot, and you may be
in business. Another strategy is to purchase land,
but avoid a big mortgage by building and living in
a simple cabin until you’re ready to build a house.
“I bought my first piece of land — 28 acres for
$350 an acre — about an hour into the countryside
from Portland, Maine, where I lived,” says Scott
Vlaun, a writer and photographer, who still lives
on the property with his wife, Zizi. “I built a small
cabin there from fir poles, green hemlock and recycled
windows for $500.” Steve Maxwell followed a
similar strategy in Ontario, where he and his wife,
Mary, built and lived in a small cabin while building
their house.
If you do want several acres in the country
and cannot afford to buy land outright,
consider renting. Many farmers rent at least part of
the land they farm, and if you are fortunate enough
to find an older farm that someone wants to see
revived, you may be able to negotiate a longer lease
at a lower rate.
ISSUE 4 13

Home Building and Beyond
One of the biggest decisions for homesteaders
is selecting the home itself.
For those interested in green building, this can be
a difficult decision: Is it better to build a new, energy-efficient
home or to renovate an older house?
Both choices have their advantages, but as
far as David Schafer is concerned, building
a new, greener home was the only option. “If resources
allow it, I would strongly recommend starting
from scratch and avoiding the temptation of leaving
bad designs in place,” he says. Schafer and Dobbs
moved out of a drafty, century-old farmhouse and
built a new house using the latest green-building
techniques. “We built our own home based on what
the farmhouse was not,” David says. “Our new home
is tightly insulated and almost maintenance-free.
It does not require lots of energy to heat and cool.”
The couple’s new house uses a combination
of straw bales and exterior
stone to create a well-insulated home. It
also has many passive-solar design features,
plus solar-electric panels, a rainwater harvesting
system to collect cistern water and a bicyclepowered
pump to pressurize water in the house.
Harvey Ussery in Hume, Va., made
the opposite decision, falling in love
with a 200-year-old farmhouse. Although most
older homes are not as tightly built or well insulated
as newer ones, Ussery says, the house
is better than you might expect. “Our 10 inches
of solid wood and chinking is actually pretty
green — that’s a lot of insulating power,” he says.
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For Ussery, part of the farmhouse’s appeal
is the sense of history it gives him. “I came
to love this house in March ’93,” he says. “A raging
winter storm blew in. The electric power went down
immediately.” As he sat next to the woodstove, Ussery
says he felt a strong connection to all those who
had braved winter storms in the house before him.
You can’t turn an older farmhouse into
the home of your dreams without a
sizeable investment of time, money and energy.
Ussery says he and his wife have redone every single
room over the past two decades and completed
a major addition on the second level. He says he’s
not a skilled handyman, but he’s been able to do
quite a bit of the work himself. “In many cases I’ve
hired out the more skilled work, and finished up
with things like sanding and painting,” Ussery says.
Whether you choose to renovate an
older home or start from scratch,
Ussery says you’ll be happier if you stay involved in
the process. “It is crucial that you be in charge of
the planning and design, and that you oversee every
step in the execution,” Ussery says. “No outsider will
know your habits and living patterns like you do.”
He also advises against building cheap;
if you take on a project, be ready to
spend what you must for good-quality materials and
workmanship. “When we did the addition, we took
the opportunity to re-side the entire house,” Ussery
says. “It was a huge additional expense, but when
the wind blows, I know it was money well spent.”
ISSUE 4 15

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ISSUE 4

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Renewable Energy
For many people, the ideal self-sufficient life includes
generating all their electricity from renewable resources.
“We wanted to sever our fossil-fuel dependency and adopt
renewable energy to meet 100 percent of the homestead’s energy
needs,” says John Ivanko of Browntown, Wis. Ivanko and
his wife, Lisa Kivirist, live in a century-old farmhouse. They
use an EPA-certified woodstove as their primary heat source
and get their electricity from a home-scale wind turbine.
Ivanko explains that their first step was to reduce
their energy use, so that a smaller, less expensive
wind energy system would meet their electricity needs.
To do that, they replaced all the light bulbs in their house
with compact fluorescent bulbs and switched to EnergyStar-rated
appliances, which use significantly less energy.
In 2003, they installed a 10 kW Bergey wind turbine.
Home-scale wind power can easily provide
enough power for users to be completely independent
of fossil fuel-produced electricity, but it requires
a large upfront investment. Such systems can take
as long as 15 to 20 years to pay off the initial costs, but
it can take much less time depending on the energy incentives
that are available in each state. A complete list of
state incentives is at www.dsireusa.org. For those seeking
a quicker return on their investment, Ivanko and Kivirist
recommend solar water-heating systems. Such systems can
provide all the hot water a household needs, and in states
such as Wisconsin, which offer renewable energy incentives,
they can pay for themselves in as little as three years.
Ed Smith, who lives in northern Vermont, says he
considered wind for electricity, but ultimately decided
on solar energy (more than 25 years ago). He installed
20 35-watt panels to power his house and has been happy
with his choice. “The panels still put out their rated amps. The
only expense has been batteries every five or so years,” Smith says.
Keeping the system working hasn’t been difficult,
Smith says; he learned most of what he needed
to know from catalogs and the rest from books. Although
his solar panels produce enough electricity to supply power
to his home, he does use an old gas generator to provide
supplemental electricity for the tools in his woodworking
shop, and he has a backup propane generator for the
house. He also heats with wood in a masonry furnace.
ISSUE 4 19

Many homesteaders heat with wood, a
renewable resource that is readily available
in most parts of the United States and Canada.
Wood-burning stoves have become cleaner and
more efficient in the past few years, so if you are
purchasing a new woodstove, be sure to look for
a recent, EPA-certified model. Any woodstove can
heat a home, provided the stove is an appropriate
size for the building and the house has an open design
and good insulation.
t can be zero outside, yet we heat our
“Ientire house with just the woodstove in
our living room,” says DeVault. His stove is a large
Consolidated Dutchwest airtight with a catalytic
converter. “One of my greatest joys after working
outside for a few hours in winter is to stretch out
on the floor in front of the blazing stove and take a
nice, long nap,” he says.
Making Connections
No matter how extensive the plans for
your homestead, the most important
thing to remember is that it doesn’t need to happen
all at once. Start with a small garden, a few chickens
or a small home-repair or building project, and
let your plans evolve based on those experiences.
And don’t neglect one of the most important
aspects of your homestead —
building community. Experienced homesteaders
always come back to the importance of being
part of a community of like-minded people they
can turn to for advice and support. The homesteading
life is simply much richer and more rewarding
with a strong community of friends and
neighbours. Among those who share a passion
for gardening, renewable energy, green building
and the like, those connections are easily forged.
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10 Easy Garden Crops
If you’re planting your first garden, consider
these 10 crops. All are easy to grow, and this
combination offers lots of possibilities for cooking.
Some of these plants can be started from seeds, but most
are easier to grow if you start by purchasing seedlings.
Radishes. Radishes do well even in not-so-great garden
soil and are ready to harvest in only a few weeks.
Plant the seeds in spring and fall.
Salad greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula or corn
salad). Pick your favourite, or try a mix — many
seed companies sell mixed packets for summer and
winter gardening. Plant the seeds in spring and fall,
and you can pick salads almost year-round.
Green beans. Easy to grow and prolific. If you get a
big crop, they freeze well, and they’re also delicious
when pickled as “dilly beans.” Start with seeds after
danger of frost has passed.
Onions. Start with small plants, and if they do
well, you can harvest bulb onions. If not, you can
always eat the greens.
Strawberries. Perfectly ripe strawberries are unbelievably
sweet, and the plants are surprisingly
hardy. Just be sure to put this perennial in a sunny
spot and keep it well weeded.
Peppers. Both hot peppers and bell peppers are easy
to grow. Start with plants and let peppers from the
same plant ripen for different lengths of time to get
a range of colours and flavours.
Bush zucchini. This squash won’t take up as much
room in your garden as many other types, and it’s
very prolific. It’s easiest to start from plants, and you
won’t need more than a few.
Tomatoes. There’s just no substitute for a perfectly
ripe tomato, and it’s hard to go wrong
when you start from plants. If you get a big crop,
consider canning or freezing.
Basil. Many herbs are easy to grow, but basil is a
good choice because it’s a nice complement to tomatoes.
Basil is easy to grow from seeds or from transplants.
Potatoes. An easy-to-grow staple that stores well
when kept cool. A simple and low-maintenance approach
is to plant potatoes in straw rather than soil.
ISSUE 4 21

GUIDE TO WHAT QUESTIONS TO ASK AND WHERE TO FIND RELIABLE ANSWERS
Dream Of Starting A Farm
For those of us who were born to farm but, alas, not born on a farm,
the ache to have your own land can be so intense you feel it in your belly.
Almost anyone can find and buy farmland by doing four things:
1. Be clear and realistic about the budget you’ll need to support yourself
and your farm, and about how you’ll get the income you need.
2. Do your homework on the neighbourhood and the land you’re looking at
to make sure it suits you and the type of farming you want to do.
3. Think outside the box: Be open to different options and timetables for buying
land.
4. If you apply for a loan, find out what mortgage lenders require from borrowers
and get those requirements in order
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Where to Start Looking for Land
The United States Department of Agriculture’s
Economic Research Service reports
that, by far, the majority of new farmers rely on offfarm
income to support themselves. If your plan includes
off-farm income that requires commuting to
a job, finding the job first and looking for the land
second may be the best plan.
Next, if you plan to sell some of what you
raise, you’ll need to figure out where there
are enough potential customers (usually in a city)
and how you might sell to them — farmers markets,
community supported agriculture programs, etc.
You’ll need to narrow your search area by
considering which counties have off-farm
employment options, markets for your farm products
and necessary farm support services. It’s helpful
to get an old-fashioned paper road map and draw
two circles: one with the off-farm job in the centre
and a radius as long as the distance you are willing
to commute, the other with your customer base in
the middle and a radius as long as the distance you’re
willing to travel to market. Where the circles overlap
is where you should look for land (see an illustration).
ISSUE 4 25

Creating a Farm Marketing Plan
A
good marketing plan is a cornerstone
of any successful farm enterprise. Two
solid resources on this topic are Growing for Market,
a trade publication for local food producers
available both in print and online, and the book
Market Farming Success by Lynn Byczynski. The
amazing National Sustainable Agriculture Information
Service (NSAIS) offers a wealth of information
to help you decide what to raise and how to
sell it. Look through the Master Publication List
of more than 300 titles for those that are relevant
to the type of farm enterprise you’re thinking of,
as well as the more general titles such as Direct
Marketing and Planning for Profit in Sustainable
Farming. (Also be sure to click on Other Resources,
which will guide you to a plethora of related websites.)
These publications will give you a handle on
marketing options, farm business planning, and
what different farm products need in terms of acreage,
soil quality, labour and farm support services.
You’ll need to seek other sources to find
out whether necessary support services,
such as veterinarians or organic feed suppliers, are
available in your search area. Find these by talking
with other farmers — start with the vendors at the
local farmers market — and by picking up a copy
of the local Yellow Pages at the phone company
(or accessing the Yellow Pages online).
Evaluating Farmland
Now that you know where you’re looking,
it’s time to start checking out
property listings (see “Rural Property Listings,”
at the end of this article). Not every property is
online — even in this electronic age, plenty of
rural land changes hands without being advertised.
Contact a local realtor and do some asking around
at local cafes or farm-oriented businesses to find
out who might be thinking of selling.
When you start walking properties, be
sure to ask these questions — and
don’t rely solely on answers from realtors or the
sellers:
• Is the water clean and sufficient for the needs
of both the family and the farm?
• Is the soil farmable?
• Are the buildings, fences and utilities in
working condition? If not, how much time
and money will infrastructure improvements
require?
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Water
To learn about water quality as well as
standards for the correct construction
and siting of water delivery systems (whether a
well, spring, pond or cistern), visit the state’s Department
of Health or Department of Natural Resources
website (whichever handles private drinking
water matters). Excellent information is also
available at the Environmental Protection Agency’s
drinking water website, at the American Groundwater
Trust website and further in this article.
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www.organicnews.eu
ISSUE 4 29

The state website will also guide you to
water-testing labs, which will tell you
how to take a water sample, what you should get
it tested for, and where to send it for testing. If the
water source is a well, then also get the well driller’s
report from the county clerk, which will tell you
the type, depth and age of the well, and how many
gallons per minute it delivered when first put in.
If you have any doubts about the quality,
quantity or reliability of the water supply,
consult with a well driller or other professional. If
you don’t have enough clean water, you can’t farm.
Lastly, if you’re in a state where water
and mineral rights are separate from
property ownership — generally west of the Mississippi
River — you need to get local, qualified
legal advice to ensure that you’ll be able to purchase
enough water rights with the property.
Water is an essential production factor
in agriculture, both for crops
and for livestock. Climate change will have a
significant impact on agriculture in terms of
water quantity and quality. This will be exacerbated
by the increasing demand for food worldwide
as population and real incomes increase.
European agriculture is already dealing
with the consequences of extreme events
such as floods, storms and drought, which might
imply excess water or scarce water availability, that
are likely to become more frequent as a result of climate
change. European farmers, who manage more
than 50% of land in the EU 27, are essential players
in ensuring that water resources are sustainably
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managed. They have and will continue to adapt
their practices to manage water more efficiently.
For centuries, farmers have controlled
the water cycle locally, either through
irrigation or drainage. As an integral part of the
climate system, the hydrological cycle can be
positively influenced by using adapted agricultural
practices. Solutions allowing greater production
using less water are a critical future priority.
If European agriculture is to continue to
deliver social, environmental and economic benefits,
access to adequate water supplies is essential.
Water is an essential production factor
in agriculture. The production of
biomass is inextricably linked to the need for fresh
water, and livestock depends on water to drink.
Plants capture water in their biomass and put it
back to the atmosphere by means of transpiration
- a process which positively influences micro-climatic
conditions. Plants are able to convert “blue”
water into “green” water captured in the biomass.
Soils covered with plants have higher infiltration
and soil moisture rates, and thus reduced runoff.
On abandoned land, especially if desertification
occurs, the capacity to retain water is much
lower and completely lost once the soil is sealed.
Agriculture depends on the climate and
on natural conditions. Changing climatic
conditions lead to imbalances between rainfall
and crop needs during vegetation and have a
strong impact on yields and the quality of agricultural
products. The increased frequency and
severity of extreme weather conditions will increase
the vulnerability of the European farming
sector. Irrigation is a vital means by which production
can be sustained in various areas. Without
irrigation we risk land abandonment and
severe economic hardship, not to mention the
potential relocation of agricultural production.
ISSUE 4 31

Improved irrigation technologies and water
saving practices will become essential
to safeguard agricultural production in certain
regions. 9.8% of European agricultural land is irrigated,
and agriculture under irrigation is very
productive. The majority of irrigated land is concentrated
in the Mediterranean region. France,
Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain account for 9.15
million ha, corresponding to 84% of the total area
equipped for irrigation in the EU 27 (see figure
3). In those countries, a large share of the water
abstracted is used for agricultural purposes. In
Spain, for example, the 14% of agricultural land
under irrigation yields more than 60% of the total
value of agricultural products. In Italy, 50%
of agricultural production and 60% of the total
value of agricultural products come from the
21% of agricultural land that is under irrigation.
These regions provide healthy, nutritious
and readily-available fruit and
vegetables. In the northern EU Member States,
irrigation is used to complement natural precipitation.
For example, in 2007 in the Netherlands,
19% of the total number of agricultural holdings
used irrigation on their crops at least once a year.
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Just 3% of the earth’s water resources is
fresh water and only 1 % of this is available
for human activity, including agriculture.
The amount of water necessary for crop production
varies depending on soil conditions, crop variety
and temperature. Imbalances between water
availability and demand will most likely be exacerbated
by climate change, and, like access to energy,
water management is becoming one of the
main geostrategic challenges of the 21st century.
Agriculture accounts for 24 % of water
abstraction in Europe but peak abstraction
typically occurs in the summer when water is
least available. Hotter, drier summers will therefore
enhance pressure on resources. Increased frequency
and severity of extreme weather conditions will increase
the vulnerability of the European farming
sector. Water stress situations or drought as a result
of hotter, drier summers will have a serious impact
on European soils, and the impact on both crop
quality and variability will lead to a higher need for
water in European agriculture. Equally, waterlogged
soils on which excess water needs to be frequently
drained may not only lead to crop losses, but can
impact severely upon crop quality and variability
ISSUE 4 33

Homestead Water Sources and Options
There are several homestead water sources you
can consider, including digging a well, accessing
groundwater supplies and collecting rainwater.
Water is an essential commodity no matter
where you live, and for those who
live in the country, developing a homestead water
source and keeping it flowing is usually a personal
responsibility. While the process may seem daunting
at first, the details behind success are simple.
Before you call a piece of land your own,
you need to ask the right people the right
questions. Less-than-honest folks can hide issues
such as insufficient, bad-tasting or contaminated
water until your name is on the deed. Asking questions
beyond the real estate agent or the seller may
be the most important water-related skill you exercise.
How deep do wells have to go to find abundant
water in the area? Will sulphur water, natural
gas or other facets of the local geology cause problems
with water quality? If you’re looking at a property
with an existing well, what kind of well is it
and how deep is it? How far from the surface is the
water, and how much reserve water does the well
actually hold? In addition to asking neighbours and
your local health department and extension office
agents, you can go to the Water Systems Council
website to find your state’s well-construction codes.
Water in the country can be found
in three main locations, and wells
are only one of them. Surface sources (springs,
lakes, rivers, etc.) are often options, as is rainwater
collection (learn more in A Better Rainwater
Harvesting System). Of all these possibilities,
wells are by far the most important. According
to the National Groundwater Association, more
than 13 million year-round households in the
United States rely on groundwater exclusively,
with 500,000 new residential water wells created
annually using one of four main techniques.
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HOMESTEAD WATER SOURCES
Types of Wells
Wells can be deep or shallow, drilled, dug,
bored or driven. Drilled wells are typically
at least 8 meters deep, small in diameter (10 - 20
cm), and the only option for getting water from bedrock.
Drilled wells include a metal tube (called a “casing”)
pushed partway down into the hole and extending several
feet above the surface to keep out surface water and dirt.
Traditionally, dug wells were made by hand
and lined with stones, but today the work of
digging a well is usually done by a backhoe or excavator.
Dug wells can only be created in soil — they’re typically
60 to 90 centimetres in diameter and usually less than
10 meters deep. Tubular concrete well tiles keep soil and
surface water out of the hole.
Bored wells are similar to dug wells, except
they’re created by specialized equipment that
augers a round hole into the soil. This lets bored wells
extend from 10 all the way to 30 meters deep, and the
boring operation is less disruptive to the surrounding
landscape. Bored wells also use concrete well tiles to keep
surface water, dirt and critters out of the hole.
Driven wells are made by fitting a sharp, rigid,
screened attachment (called a “sand point”)
onto the end of rigid steel pipe. The sand point allows
a pipe to be pounded into the ground for extracting
groundwater from abundant, shallow sources in coarse
and sandy soils. Sand points are usually the simplest and
cheapest option for creating a well, but they work only
if hydro geological conditions are ideal, in which case a
driven well can extend to depths of 10 (hand-driven) or
even 20 meters or more (driven by weighted hammers).
ISSUE 4 35

Get Clean Drinking Water
As the manager of your own private
water system, you’re responsible for
safety testing to ensure you have clean drinking
water. Experts recommend lab analysis of water
samples twice a year — in spring and fall — with
additional tests whenever you notice changes in
appearance or smell. Regardless of the tests available
where you live, collecting water samples
properly is key. Start with an approved bottle
containing a stabilizing agent in pellet or powder
form. Remove any screen, hose or filter from the
collection tap, and then let the water run for two
minutes before filling the bottle. Don’t let anything
touch the inside of the bottle cap by holding
the cap facedown while the bottle is filling. Refrigerate
your sample right away, and have it analysed
within two days.
You must also ensure your well doesn’t
introduce contamination into underground
aquifers. In its natural state, groundwater
is usually pure. The continued purity of groundwater
depends on the time surface water spends
percolating down through the earth. That’s why
any situation that lets surface water drain immediately
into the aquifer, either around or through
existing wells, leads to trouble. This danger is the
reason responsible governments police allowable
methods of well construction. Created properly,
wells are the only source of nonmunicipal water
with the potential to be safe without the need for
ongoing sterilization via chlorination or UV treatment.
As good as wells are, they’re not always
the best option. Wells can be expensive
to create, and sometimes, in penetrating down to
usable amounts of water, wells encounter naturally
occurring minerals that cause unpleasant water
taste, odour or appearance. Those are a few of the
reasons why some people choose to develop surface
water sources such as lakes, rivers and springs.
Surface water sources are often abundant,
but they’re also vulnerable to contamination,
which is why water authorities everywhere
consider it essential to treat water from surface
sources even if it tests safe. You’ll also typically
have to invest in filters to remove coarse sediments
that aren’t present in well water. In cold climates,
tapping into surface water sources year-round
can also pose a challenge when it comes to keeping
water intake lines from freezing. Even if your
property includes a productive well, developing
any surface water resources you have for less exacting
uses — such as irrigation, livestock or washing
vehicles — makes sense.
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Making Homestead Water
Sources Flow
Submersible water pumps, jet pumps
and piston pumps are the three most
common options for making water flow, and
each has unique strengths and weaknesses. To understand
these, you first need to understand two
crucial facts about the physics of water. The first
is that the maximum practical depth for drawing
water up by suction ranges from about 5 to 7
meters, depending on your elevation. The second
is that water pumps can’t move air, which is why
some pumps require a process called “priming.”
Priming involves filling intake pipes
and pump casings with water before
operation, and it can be one of the most
challenging parts of getting a water system to
work. As you’ll see later, the need for priming
can also influence the pump you choose.
The depth of water below the surface is
crucial, because it determines the kind
of pump you can use to bring running water to your
home and the way that pump is configured. The
farther the level of water is below the surface of the
ground, the more suction is required inside the pipe
to pull that water upward against gravity. When a
water-draw situation requires an overall vertical lift
of about 7 meters or more, the vacuum inside the
pipe becomes so great that the water will boil. You
won’t notice this boiling, but it’s happening within
the intake pipe just the same. All you’ll see is that your
pump isn’t able to pull water up from these depths,
because pumps can’t move the vaporized water.
Piston pumps make a pleasant “thumpa
thumpa” sound as they operate, and
most include a couple of visible rubber drive
belts connected to an electric motor by exposed
pulleys. Shallow-well piston pumps are great
ISSUE 4 37

if you have situations in which you are raising
the water no more than about 20 vertical feet,
with no more than 300 feet of horizontal draw.
Jet pumps are a popular choice because
they’re inexpensive and can work in both
shallow and deep wells. A jet pump makes a kind
of whooshing, turbine type of sound — most models
are rather loud. Jet pumps need to be primed
before they’ll work, and even a small amount
of air in the lines will stop them from working.
Submersible water pumps aren’t cheap, but
they are my favourite. They move more
water than other pumps of a given horsepower, and
they never need priming because the pump itself
sits below water level. With a submersible water
pump, there’s no pump to be seen anywhere — water
simply flows from an incoming pipe, noiselessly.
Hand pumps are an option for any
homestead, although most families
need more water than hand pumps can practically
supply. Shallow-water models are inexpensive,
widely available and easy to install. Deep-water
hand pumps are more complicated because they
have a pumping cylinder that sits below the water
surface in the well. To protect deep-well hand
pumps from freezing, drill a quarter-inch-diameter
hole in the intake pipe 4 or 5 feet below ground
level before installing the system. This will allow
water to drain back below the frost level after
a pumping session. Traditional water-pumping
windmills transmit the rotation of spinning blades
to rods and shafts that operate the same kind of
pumping mechanism used in hand pumps — it’s
just that the wind does the work and not your arm.
Developing the understanding and
skills to install and maintain your
own homestead water sources offers more than
the usual benefits. That’s because when it comes
to water, self-reliance skills can often get your
water flowing long before a professional would
ever arrive — plus you’ll save a lot of money.
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Sanitizing and Maintaining a Clean Well
Safe well management includes sanitization by adding household chlorine bleach directly to the
well as a short-term disinfectant. Although harmful microorganisms can’t live for long in underground
aquifers, they can enter a well from outside sources. That’s why disinfection should occur immediately
after a new well is drilled, and after every time your pump or intake piping is disturbed. The
amount of bleach you need to safely sanitize your well is based on your well’s diameter and the depth of
water inside the well. Read How to Disinfect a Private Water Well to access a handy chart to help you
figure out how much bleach your well needs. Pour the bleach down the well at night, let it work until
morning, and then run a small amount of chlorinated water through all indoor fixtures. Turn on an
outdoor hose until the bleach smell in the water disappears before you use any water, anywhere.
ISSUE 4 39

Imagine
giving THIS
to your
baby?
4 500
KIDS WILL
DIE TODAY
FROM WATER
RELATED
DISEASES
HELP.
www.organicnews.eu
WWW.ORGANICNEWS.EU

ISSUE 4

oil
Soil
Whether land can be farmed is determined
primarily by soil type, as described
in the USDA and Natural Resources Conservation
Service’s (NRCS) National Cooperative Soil
Survey. You can download a map of the soil types
on any property using this website, or, if you’re lowtech
like I am, you can get a map and soil-type descriptions
from the county extension agent’s office.
Read the descriptions of the soil types, because
these will tell you the depth of topsoil
and subsoil, drainage, degree of slope, and which
crops and farming activities that soil is suitable for.
If everything looks good so far, do an online
search to find a soil-testing lab in the
area (or ask an extension agent), follow the lab’s instructions
for taking a soil sample, and have it tested
for the basic nutrients. If the test reveals some
major deficiencies, talk with a soil fertility specialist
— such as an extension soil expert — about
what bringing the soil to its full potential may cost.
There is three basic soil types -- clay, sand
and silt. All three are made up of rock particles.
Clay consists of fine particles that turn brick
hard when dry and that cling to a shovel when wet.
Sand is coarse, gritty, and porous, whether dry or
wet. Silt lies halfway between clay and sand. When
wet, it sticks together but doesn’t stick to a shovel.
Loam contains a mixture of clay, sand,
silt, and humus. Since clay, sand, and
silt are made up of rock minerals, they comprise
the inorganic component of loam. Humus, by
contrast, is decomposed plant matter and is therefore
the organic component. Good garden loam
contains at least 5% humus, and humus improves
sandy soil by increasing its ability to absorb and
retain moisture. It also improves clay soil by
loosening it, making the soil easier to work,
and preventing surface crusting so that sprouting
plants don’t have to struggle so hard to pop
through. This is just what my clay soil needed.
An obvious source of humus is used
barn bedding, worked directly into the
soil. But it was spring and I was ready to plant. I
didn’t have time to wait for “hot” manure to decompose.
Fall is the time to work manure-soaked
bedding into the soil, in anticipation of spring
planting. Another obvious source of humus is
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compost, but I had just moved and didn’t yet have a
compost pile. I remedied that right away by nailing
some planks into a series of four-foot-square corrals
and tossing in all the kitchen scraps, grass clippings,
and other organic matter. Kept slightly moist
and aerated by occasional turning, the “pile” would
one day provide all the compost garden needed.
Like any other source of humus, compost
improves soil texture and makes the soil
easier to work. Compost also adds nutrients and encourages
the growth of beneficial soil-borne microorganisms
that dissolve those nutrients, so they can
be readily absorbed by plant roots. But my compost
pile was growing slowly and decomposing even
more slowly. I needed lots of humus in a hurry. So I
called a local saw mill and had them deliver several
truckloads of well rotted sawdust to till into my garden.
Voilà! I had loam. But it wasn’t yet fertile loam.
Plant Nutrients
Clay, sand, silt, and humus all contribute
certain nutrients that plants
need in order to grow and thrive. Just what kind
of nutrients loam contains, and how much of
each, depends on three things: the sources of the
mineral and organic matter making up the soil,
the degree to which the soil has been weathered
and eroded, and the amount of nutrients
used up by plants previously grown in the soil.
The major plant nutrients nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P), and potassium or “potash”
(K)-are the most likely nutrients to be deficient
in garden soil. Bagged fertilizers have three
numbers on the label (5-10-5, for example), representing
the percentage of each nutrient that the
fertilizer contains. Chemical fertilizers contain only
those elements. Fertilizers derived from natural
sources contain, in addition, a variety of micro nutrients,
or trace elements, that plants use in lesser
ISSUE 4
43

amounts. While chemical fertilizers can be manufactured
to precise specifications, natural fertilizers
vary somewhat in NPK values, depending on the
source. Any good garden book lists various sources
and their average NPK values. If you buy a bagged
natural fertilizer, such as bone meal or blood meal,
the label will tell you the NPK value for that particular
lot. Compared to natural fertilizers, chemical
fertilizers appear to be less expensive. They
also dissolve more readily in water, giving plants a
quicker boost. But because they dissolve so readily,
chemical fertilizers also quickly leach out of the
soil. Natural fertilizers, on the other hand, release
nutrients over a longer period of time. In the long
run, therefore, natural fertilizers are a better buy.
Natural fertilizers are a good deal for other
reasons as well. Compared to chemical
fertilizers, they don’t burn the delicate roots of
seedlings, they don’t destroy beneficial microorganisms
in the soil, and they increase a plant’s resistance
to disease. Chemical fertilizers do just the
opposite, which works out nicely for the manufacturers
of chemical products, since they sell more insecticides,
fungicides, and other chemical poisons.
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ISSUE 4 45

Natural Fertilizers
When you add lots of compost to keep
up the humus level of your garden,
you don’t have to worry much about NPK. Good
compost provides most of the nutrients plants
need. But if you’re in the process of building up
soil fertility, like I am, your garden plants need an
occasional NPK boost.
Furthermore, applying
a little fertilizer at
strategic times helps
any plant reach its fullest
potential. Strategic
times to fertilize are:
when a plant develops
true leaves, when
it begins to bloom,
and again when it
starts setting fruit.
If you have access
to manure,
you can provide
a quick nitrogen pickme-up
for any plant
that’s about to bloom
by giving it a shot of
manure tea. Cover
manure in water and
let it steep for about a
month, strain out the
solids (toss them into
your compost heap),
and dilute the liquid to
the colour of weak tea.
Another good source of nitrogen is
dried blood meal, a slaughter-house
by product. A good source of phosphorus is bone
meal, a slaughter-house product made of steamed,
ground-up bones. Heating it with wood gives
you a ready source of potassium in the ashes from
your stove-about 50 pounds of ashes for every
cord you burn. In addition to supplying potassium,
wood ashes also sweeten acidic soil. Soil
acidity (pH) is measured on a scale of 0 to 14; 7
is neutral. Soil that’s be low 7 is acidic; soil that’s
above 7 is alkaline. Extremes in pH tie up nutrients,
and most vegetables do best in neutral soil.
The ashes of dense hardwoods like oak
and hickory are best for sweetening soil.
Apply no more than 20 pounds per 1,000 square
feet per year. If your soil is on the alkaline side,
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you can lower the pH by working in sawdust, leaf
mold, or peat moss. Because I used lots of sawdust
to improve my soil’s humus level, I also added ashes
to balance its pH. Now that I’ve got plenty of
compost, my soil’s acidity takes care of itself, since
compost tends to neutralize pH. Despite all the
sawdust, ashes, and compost I’ve added, my garden’s
soil still isn’t perfect-but it is well on its way.
Soil Tests
To find out what’s in the soil in your garden,
fill a quart jar one-third full with
soil and two-thirds full with water. Shake the jar
and set it aside until the soil settles into layers:
The bottom layer will be sand; above the sand will
be a layer of silt; then comes a layer of day; and
on top of the water will float undecomposed organic
matter. A good mix contains about 20 percent
clay, 40 percent silt, and 20 percent sand
plus organic matter. Another way to find out what
kind of soil you have is to squeeze a moist sample
in your hand. If the soil forms a tight, sticky
ball, it contains too much clay. If it feels grainy
and crumbles no matter how hard you squeeze,
it has too much sand. If it forms a loose mound
when you squeeze gently, but crumbles when you
squeeze harder, you’ve got good garden loam.
JAR TESTING FOR SOIL TYPE
SAND LOAM CLAY
0 - 10% CLAY
0 - 10% SILT
80 - 100% SAND
10 - 30% CLAY
30 - 50% SILT
25 - 50% SAND
50 - 100% CLAY
0 - 45% SILT
0 - 45% SAND
ISSUE 4 47

Acid Test
Old-time gardeners used to taste their
soil to find out whether it was acidic
or alkaline. If the soil tasted sour, it was acidic; if
bitter, it was alkaline. If it tasted sweet, it was just
right. You don’t have to eat dirt to test your soil’s
pH. You can buy a pH test kit, or you can shake
a tablespoon of dry soil and a tablespoon of white
vinegar together in a jar small. Put the jar to your
ear. If it fizzes, your soil is alkaline. If the fizzing
is weak, or you hear nothing at all, clean the jar
and put in another tablespoon of soil. Add a few
drops of ammonia and fill the jar two-thirds full
with distilled water (you can use rain water if you’re
sure it isn’t acid rain). Set the jar aside for a couple
of hours. If the water turns dark, your soil is acidic.

Build Better Soil With Free Organic Fertilizer
You can build better garden soil by applying the
right types and amounts of organic fertilizers.
As more and more people recognize
the many benefits of organic gardening
methods, a fresh crop of organic fertilizers are
sprouting on store shelves. Many are overpriced,
and some are stunning rip-offs that reputable stores
and catalogues should be ashamed to sell. The really
amazing thing is that two of the best organic fertilizers
are easily available to most of us absolutely free!
(See below) It’s definitely a buyer-beware world out
there. If you’re not careful, you could pay five, 10 or
4,000 times more than necessary to get the nitrogen
and other nutrients you need. Here’s what we found
when we evaluated the pricing for 21 fertilizers:
When to Add Extra
survey of soil testing labs across the
A United States revealed that garden soils
have too much fertilizer more often than too little.
Adding too much can be just as bad for your crops
as not applying enough. (A soil test every few years
is a good idea.) If you apply grass clippings and/
or compost according to the guidelines above, you
will only need to use more concentrated — and
costly — organic fertilizers in a few special circumstances.
When you start with a balanced soil (a soil
test will tell you this) and apply grass clippings, compost
and mulches regularly, necessary nutrients usually
will be replenished in the correct proportions.
If fertilizers sold in bags or bottles are easier
for you to use than grass clippings or
compost, nitrogen is the nutrient to use to guide
your application rate, because it is the nutrient
most likely to be depleted as you harvest your
crops each season. Plants need the right amount
of nitrogen to grow new stems, leaves and other
parts. If they don’t get enough, they stay small and
spindly, and never come close to their productive
potential. If they get too much, they grow into
huge plants that produce way behind schedule.
To complicate matters, if your soil
doesn’t get regular additions of compost
or organic mulches, it will have trouble
holding on to the nitrogen you add. Nitrogen is
a slippery nutrient, prone to volatilizing into thin
air or washing away (that’s one of the reasons
organic matter that holds nitrogen is so helpful).
For most crops, you should replenish nitrogen
to the tune of about one-third pound per
100 square feet of growing space each season.
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There are also some situations when
even gardeners with high levels
of soil organic matter may want to apply
supplemental fertilizers. Usually the reasons
have to do with time and temperature.
In spring and fall, when soil temperatures
are low, the biological processes that release
nutrients from organic matter slow to a
crawl. A fertilizer that quickly releases nitrogen
(such as fish emulsion or blood meal) helps support
strong, early growth of hungry cool-weather
crops. Before planting big brassicas such as broccoli,
cabbage and kale, and to help spring peas
get off to a strong start, mix a half ration of one
of these products into the soil before planting.
Tomatoes, peppers and other crops that
stay in the ground all summer sometimes
exhaust the soil’s supply of available nutrients by
midsummer, just when they need it most. When the
plants load up with fruit, you can prevent temporary
shortfalls by mixing a light application of fertilizer
into the top inch of soil over the plants’ root zones,
topped off by a fresh helping of grass clippings for
mulch. This “side dressing” of fertilizer and mulch
work together to keep the plants productive longer.
Seedlings started indoors often benefit
from light feeding starting two to three
weeks after the seeds sprout. By then, they have
used up food reserves provided by the seed, yet
they are not free to forage for nutrients beyond
the confines of their containers. A half ration of
fish-based fertilizer, mixed into room temperature
water, helps satisfy their nutrient needs until they
are ready to be transplanted outdoors. You can
also use a drenching of fish fertilizer to help wake
up overwintered spinach, which usually is ready
to produce a fine flush of leaves before the soil is
warm enough to release its precious nutrients.
Sweet corn is famous for its need for nitrogen,
and one crop can take a big bite
from your soil’s nitrogen supply. To be sure your
plants don’t run short of nitrogen, you have three
options: 1) You could mix in a concentrated organic
fertilizer before you plant, and then side dress
with more as the plants grow. 2) You could precede
the corn with a winter cover crop of hairy vetch,
alfalfa or another nitrogen-fixing legume. When
the plants are chopped down in late spring, just
as they begin to bloom, the roots left behind in
the soil will release enough nitrogen to get sweet
corn off to a good start. More will become available
as the surface mulch decomposes into organic
matter. 3) Your best bet, if you can manage it, is
to apply compost annually. In a three year study
done at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment
Station, a 1-inch layer of leaf compost applied
to soil only once a year made it possible to
reduce the fertilizer sweet corn needed by half.
ISSUE 4 51

How to Compare Fertilizer Prices
Nitrogen is a major nutrient that is likely to become deficient in garden soils,
so we used it to compare prices. The prices for blended organic fertilizers
sold in garden stores and home improvement centres tend to cost more
than a bag of soy or alfalfa meal at a farm supply store. Also, dry fertilizers are
almost always a much better buy per pound of nitrogen than liquid products.
FREE Fertilizers
Grass clippings, 2 to 5% nitrogen
Yard waste compost, 1 to 4% nitrogen
Meal-based Fertilizers, price per pound of nitrogen
Cottonseed meal (6-1-1) $7.25
Pro-Gro (5-3-4) $11.10
Alfalfa meal (3-1-2) $6.60
Soybean meal (7-2-1) $4.00
Espoma Garden-Tone (4-6-6) $32.40
Peace of Mind All Purpose (5-5-5) $39.75
Manure-based Fertilizers, price per pound of nitrogen
Fertrell Lawn & Garden (3-2-3) $12.15
Black Hen (2-3-2) $16.00
Miracle Gro (3-2-3) $24.15
Bat Guano (10-3-1) $30.00
Bradfield Tomato & Vegetable (3-3-3) $33.25
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Liquid Organic Fertilizers, price per pound of nitrogen
Age Old Organics Grow (12-6-6) $46.50
Maxicrop (5-1-1) $63.60
Ferti-lome Fish (5-1-1) $63.60
FoxFarm Grow Big (6-4-4) $79.70
Earth Juice (2-1-1) $239.00
TerraCycle Plant Food (.03-.002-.02) $16,987.00
Non-organic Liquid Fertilizer
Pennington’s Plant Food (.02-.02-.02) $4,067.00
You can put various products to the test using this simple equation:
1. Multiply the retail price, let’s say $8.95, by 100, which gives you 895.
2. Multiply the weight of the package, say 10 pounds, by the percentage of nitrogen
(often about 5 percent), which gives you 50. The percentage of nitrogen is
the first number in the product’s “guaranteed analysis.” For example, the “5” in
“5-3-2.”
3. Divide the first number (price X 100 = 895) by the second one (weight X nitrogen
content = 50). This is the cost per pound — $17.90 — of the nitrogen in the
fertilizer.
ISSUE 4 53

THE FUTURE WAS UNCERTAIN UNTIL WE DECIDED TO UNITE.
UNITE FOR BETTER, HEALTHIER AND MORE NATURAL
FUTURE FOR US AND OUR CHILDREN.
FINALLY, OUR FUTURE LOOKS GREEN.
BE ORGANIC
B E N A T U R A L
UNITE FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE
www.organicnews.eu
8

Certified grower of fresh, seasonal, organic
vegetables and fruits established in 2004. We
run a farm that have a low impact on natural
resources and is in strict accordance with
EC regulations on organic farming (EC Reg.
No.834/2007 and No.889/2008). This means
that all our produces bear the “Bio” seal. Our
produces are available at well-known markets
throughout Bulgaria, sold wholesale to restaurant
chains nationwide and also exported to organic
produce distributors throughout Europe.
EuroOrganics OOD
Breshlan-Silistra Road 33rd km.
Ruse Bulgaria
Telephone:+35986352255
E-mail: info@euroorganics.com
www.euroorganics.com

The Best Free Fertilizers
All products labelled as “fertilizer” must be labelled with their content
of the three major plant nutrients — nitrogen, phosphorous and
potassium (N-P-K). Most organic fertilizers are bulkier than synthetic
chemical products, so their N-P-K percentages are typically lower
than synthetic products, and their application rates are higher.
Also, because organic products are biologically
active, their N-P-K numbers may
change somewhat from batch to batch and over
time. Because of this, it can be hard for producers
to comply with the labelling laws. As a result,
some excellent organic fertilizer options, such as
compost, often are not even labelled as a “fertilizer.”
One of the best free fertilizers, grass clippings, break
down so quickly that they can’t be bagged and sold.
But make no mistake, compost and grass
clippings do what fertilizers are supposed
to do: They enrich the soil with nutrients
that plants and microscopic soil life-forms are
eager to use. In most areas, you can easily collect
grass clippings from your neighbourhood, bagged
and set out ready to bring home. And many communities
make yard waste compost (made mainly
from grass clippings and leaves) available for free.
So, if you can get free clippings or compost,
how much should you use? Here
are guidelines prepared with help from soil scientists
at Woods End Laboratory in Maine.
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ISSUE 4 57

Grass Clippings: Just Half an Inch Will Do!
Grass clippings are one of the best organic
fertilizers. Not only because it’s easy to
find free local sources, but also because the clippings
do double duty preventing weeds and conserving soil
moisture when used as mulch — two things other
fertilizers cannot do. Nitrogen content of clippings
will vary, with fresh grass collected in spring from
fertilized lawns topping 5 percent nitrogen, while
clippings from later in the year or from unfertilized
lawns will likely contain around 2 percent nitrogen.
(Be sure to avoid clippings from those “perfect”
lawns that have been treated with herbicides.)
In most regions just a half-inch of fresh
clippings each spring — that’s about six
5-gallon buckets per 100 square feet — mixed
into the soil, or a 1- to 2-inch layer used as a
surface mulch, will provide all the nutrients
most crops need for a full season of growth.
Get Compost: The More, The Better
You can make compost from your yard,
garden and kitchen wastes, but if you
have a large garden, you’ll probably want more
compost than you can make from your own yard.
Many communities offer free yard waste compost,
or you can look for compost made by local farmers
at Local Harvest.
Compost is a bulky fertilizer that typically
contains about 1 percent nitrogen
(composted manure is closer to 3 percent nitrogen),
but one of its advantages is that it releases nutrients
very slowly, over a period of years rather than weeks
or months. All the while, many strains of fungi and
bacteria introduced to the soil from the compost
form partnerships with plant roots, helping them
to absorb or actually manufacture more nitrogen,
phosphorous and other nutrients. Compost also
helps soil hold more moisture.
Each time a crop is finished, spread a
half-inch layer of compost over the soil.
Twice that much is better, but even a scant quarterinch
blanket of compost will help maintain your
soil’s fertility.
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ISSUE 4
SUPPORTED BY ORGANIC NEWS

Use Mulches and Plant Cover Crops
The soil’s ability to hold onto nutrients
increases as your soil’s organic matter
content increases. Organic matter also plays a role
in suppressing soilborne diseases while helping to
retain soil moisture. Using mulches of shredded
leaves, old hay and grass clippings will help boost
your soil’s organic matter content as the mulches
slowly decompose into compost. Cover crops
planted during periods when you are not growing
food crops also help increase the soil’s fertility.
After three years of regularly adding
compost and mulches, the soil’s organic
matter content will increase by several percent.
Just 3 percent organic matter translates to a
nitrogen-holding capacity of more than 3 pounds
of nitrogen per 100 square feet. About 15 percent
of that nitrogen (about 0.4 pounds) is available
to plants in any given year, because it is released
slowly, as the organic matter decomposes.
Use nitrogen-rich grass clippings as mulch, and
you’ll have plenty of available nitrogen and other
nutrients to meet the needs of most garden crops!
62
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Weigh Your Options
If you decide to buy an organic fertilizer,
use the chart on below to estimate how
much nitrogen you are getting for your money,
keeping in mind that the best deals come in big
packages.
Manure-based products are usually
composted or processed to reduce
odours, and you often can find high-quality
manure-based fertilizers produced in your area
that don’t carry environmental baggage from longdistance
shipping.
You can fertilize your garden with alfalfa,
soy, cottonseed or another plant meal
by itself, or use a blended meal-based product.
Meal-based fertilizers often include 12 or more
ingredients to balance fast-release nitrogen sources
such as meat, fish, alfalfa or cottonseed meal with
other minerals and micro nutrients. These fertilizers
often are less bulky compared to manurebased
products, and most provide a broad array of
nutrients.
Finally, we must mention products that
have been dressed up with microbes,
enzymes, humic acids and other substances. These
extras might be helpful if you are trying to bring
dead soil to life, but in a garden that is well-nourished
with compost and organic mulches, they are
a waste of time and money. Microbes come along
for free in compost, and earthworms never charge
a cent for producing enzymes and humic acids.
The diverse soil life beneath your feet produces
everything your crops need; all you need to do is
feed it what it wants — a steady diet of organic
matter.
ISSUE 4

Neighbourhood
Before making an offer on a
property, check out the neighbourhood.
Vacation there for a week if
it’s not local to you, subscribe to the local
papers, talk to people, drive around, and
certainly boot up Google Earth and do a
virtual flyover of the area. This free download,
featuring regularly updated satellite
photos of the entire world, is an excellent
tool for spotting bad things about a
neighbourhood that may be hidden, such
as large mining operations, active landfills,
or residential development that’s eating
up farmland. Be sure to ask potential
neighbours of any recent or pending land
use changes.
Second, visit the county offices or
website for information on land
use ordinances (including zoning) and
current land uses. Land use ordinances at
both the township and county levels may
either limit or protect the types of farming
and marketing you can do, and they
will certainly impact the types and pace
of future development. Landowner maps
(sometimes called “plat maps”) — also
available at the county offices — show
the property lines and identify the owner
of every parcel of land in the county (except
for small residential lots). They are
well worth the purchase price if you’re
serious about buying land in that county.
64
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ISSUE 4

YOUR
IGNOR ANCE
IS
TH EIR
POWER .
WAKE UP.

A company with tradition and future
As the BAGeno Raiffeisen eG company we offer you
Raiffeisen market - In our six BAGeno Raiffeisen markets you can get everything for
hobby, home and garden and advice from real experts
Agriculture - In agricultural products, farmers can rely on us!
Technology - we sale machines for professional use!
Building materials - selling professional building materials, disposal and recycling
and our rental fleet
Petroleum refuelling - Mineral oil (refuel), heating oil and diesel
R+V Insurance Agency - our insurance experts offers from health and life insurance
to industrial and commercial insurance.
Energy - Heating with wood pellets - heat from the natural.
Organic products are gaining in popularity. BAGeno is strong supporter of organic farming.
Our marketer bears fruit and grain from organic cultivation or Demeter, the organic seal of approval
and is supervised by the BCS Ökogarantie GmbH.
Organic farming and BAGeno
fit together easily!
www.bageno.de

Bio and Business is a trading company, based in Poland. Its mission is to bring quality grains from Poland markets
to EU and abroad. The company is dealing with agricultural commodities such as oil seeds, milling and feed
wheat, malting and feed barley, corn, wheat bran, feeds, etc. All of these grains are selected and inspected by our
trained staff, which guarantees satisfaction of all our costumer’s needs. We are constantly developing in-depth
tools to help better understand our customers’ environment and issues.
ABOUT US
Registered in 2011
Trading with goods from Poland
Specialized for bulk transport in Poland
Offering bulk services and logistics
WHY US
We care for your quality
Our grains are selected and inspected by ourselves
Satisfaction guaranteed
RENTING
TRANSPORT
We are interested in hiring your
trucks or repurchase your leasing
contracts. You provide us with
the price estimate for hiring your
truck and we take care of the rest.
STORAGE
We are looking for storage services
for grains also suitable for storage
or organic products.
PRODUCERS
We buy your products at
competitive prices, collect
the goods at your premises,
and offer timely payment.
We are looking for transport companies
with walking floor and kipper
trailers. We offer attractive rate
per km (full/empty), short payment
periods and constant loads.
http://www.biobusiness.com.pl/

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WHAT IS ORGANIC NEWS?
Organic News is website that gathers professional food buyers, wholesale producers,
distributors, industry suppliers and farmers. It is a revolutionary way to
connect with and get useful information about the organic business community in
whole world.
On Organic News website we publish interesting articles, important news, studies,
interviews and exhaustive listings of all the companies in Europe, who work in the
field of the organic industry; from the smallest farmers in Romania to well-known
producers in Italy.
WHY JOIN ORGANIC NEWS?
• Because you want to spend 5 minutes, and not 10 hours finding the perfect
shipment of grains
• Because when your next potential customer searches for a product, you want
your name and goods to stand out
• Because there has never been more interest in buying and selling organic
food.
WHAT IS SWITCH ON MAGAZINE?
In Switch ON magazine you can find bonus content, more topics than on our website,
wider themes, we will present different companies, associations and projects
from organic world. We will also present some of our members in Switch ON magazine
every month - that is one of reasons to become our member.
HOW IS E-MAGAZINE FINANCED?
E-magazine uses donation and sponsorship based financing.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP?
Your company will be a part of large online community, which in turn will help you
get noticed. All along rural towns of Romania to coastal vistas of France.
WHO CAN JOIN?
Organic News gathers professional food buyers, wholesale producers, distributors,
industry suppliers and farmers. We also invite journalists, bloggers and activists
to join us so we can publish their texts - to spread knowledge and conscience
about topics we are writing on.
ON WHICH DEVICES CAN I READ THE E-NEWSPAPER?
You can read the e-newspaper on computers and almost all mobile devices.
The Organic News team is committed to making this site useful
and relevant to you. For additional assistance please email
info@organicnews.eu or call +421-911-013-775 for assistance:
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