“Gardening from the Ground Up,” a recent three-part Master Gardener Workshop series, focused on gardening practices that use natural methods and systems to create healthy soils and beautiful plants grown in an environment without using chemical pesticides.  Presented by Master Gardener Cheryl Cozad, the workshops explored three basic principles of Regenerative Agriculture: 1) Minimize Disruption; 2) No Bare Soil; and 3) Diversity. (This series of workshops, along with others offered this Fall are available for viewing on the Master Gardener YouTube channel which is also linked on our webpage).

“Regenerative” and “sustainable” are current buzzwords for practices in farming and home gardening that are integrated with nature's cycles and utilize natural systems instead of chemicals and petroleum byproducts to produce nutritious food and a healthy environment. Before a review and summary of the ideas explored in Cozad's workshops, let's take a brief tour through the history of modern human food production.

Ten to twelve thousand years ago, the Agricultural Revolution was the new kid on the block. For eons prior to that, humans had lived primarily as nomadic hunters and gatherers, nourishing our bodies with seasonally available plants and animals. The sudden (in evolutionary terms) shift to staying put geographically and cultivating and storing food fundamentally changed the way many humans perceived, treated, and interacted with the ecosystems that sustained them. Living in one place throughout the year enabled an “ownership” mentality (both of land and dwellings); and humans learned to manipulate the natural world that surrounded them.

Some two hundred and fifty years ago, the Industrial Revolution further severed our connection with nature's systems and led great numbers of us away from farms and into cities. At the end of World War II, the move towards industrializing our nation's production and distribution of food accelerated. Most pertinent to this discussion is the development of products during wartime that saved lives by controlling malaria mosquitoes and lice. Once the war ended, this effective chemical pest control was leveraged to protect crop plants from other insect pests.

At the time, these chemicals seemed like answers to farmers' and consumers' prayers. Imagine the miracle of pesticides when your crop was not destroyed by pests and consumers received blemish-free produce. The miracle of herbicides provided relief from the backbreaking labor of hoeing and weeding. Anecdotal evidence abounds of farm children running behind the truck spraying DDT, and rural residents and towns had the sheer delight of a few hours' freedom from the torment of mosquitos.

Since then we've recognized the dangers of chemical substances to our health and to our environment. The first generation of broad spectrum agricultural chemicals in use through the 1970s have been replaced by much more environmentally sensitive products that control pests selectively while preserving beneficial insects. Different classes of materials in use in agriculture are now rotated to prevent resistance and are used at rates of ounces per acre instead of pounds per acre as were the early pesticides.  We now know that cancers have been linked to many chemicals in our environment; from some used in agriculture, to moth balls protecting clothes in our closets, to fire retardants on household fabrics, and including the gasoline that fuels our cars!  Chemical use has changed significantly as our knowledge of these products has improved.  Although cancer occurrence has increased in our lifetime, our life expectancy has also increased as other diseases that shortened life have been controlled by vaccines and pharmaceutical chemicals.

So -- how do we return to a method of gardening that works to regenerate soil and create healthy and nutritious food, while minimizing the use of pesticides and protecting our environment?  Cozad's research into Regenerative Agriculture, presented in her workshops, supplies many answers.

Part One, “Minimize Disruption,” assessed the advantages of No Till gardening to support the natural interaction of plants and microbes. Billions of beneficial critters inhabit the soil micro-biome;  the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, mites, spiders, and earthworms all work together to create a careful balance of nutrients on which plants thrive. Cozad discussed how mechanized farming tills the soil releasing carbon into the atmosphere, compared with the no till method, which actually sequesters carbon. [The no-till system has been widely adopted in Midwest agriculture as a means of reducing erosion and saving fuel when farming annual crops.  Ninety-five percent of orchards farmed in California now use a non-tillage method of orchard floor management where weeds are mowed instead.]  Here in the Northstate, CSUC's Center for Regenerative Agriculture promotes no-till methods, and no-till is used at the University Farm.  Cozad also explored the deleterious effects of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides on soil and plants.

In Part Two, “No Bare Soil,” Cozad looked at the role compost plays in keeping soil and plants healthy. Starting with two questions: “What does compost do?” and “Is all compost created equal?” she dove into the differences between and benefits of bacterial- and fungal- dominant compost; discussed the principle of keeping live roots in the soil; and offered examples of succession planting to utilize this Fall and year-round. By composting, gardeners can effectively reduce all of the following: the loss of microbial life in the soil; erosion caused by wind and water; soil compaction; and soil temperatures (critical to us, given the hot summers we experience here in Butte County).

In Part Three, “Diversity,” Cozad connected these concepts to the home gardener. Delving into research about the value of multi-species cover crops to soil and adjacent plants, Cozad offered details about what to plant when, and for what purpose. A color-coded cover crop chart prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes it easy to customize cover crops by noting whether they are cool or warm season plants, and divides them by type (grasses, broadleaf plants, or legumes).  The chart further categorizes them by growth cycle; plant architecture; and relative water use. Cozad also noted the many different purposes of cover crops: do you need to break up heavy soils, or add nitrogen? Perhaps you want to add organic matter to your soil or suppress weed growth. Some cover crops control erosion, others can attract beneficial pollinators or help manage plant pests. It's truly amazing what a little diversity can accomplish. 

Cozad peppered her review of the academic research and emerging body of knowledge about regenerative agricultural practices with examples of successes and failures from her own experiences. Throughout her talk, her passion for putting theory into practice in her own garden, and her sincere desire to make our world a better place for all flora and fauna, was clear. This passion was especially apparent at the end of the third workshop, where she included the intriguing concept of Quorum Sensing. This is the ability of bacteria, including those that reside in humans, to create a large enough quorum of beneficial cells, micro-biomes, systems, and environments to suppress disease. She ended her presentation with an invitation and invocation to us all: “You have become a part of the quorum to protect earth's surface.” Hear, hear! Please watch her entire series to learn how.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.