Cultivate Conference

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Eastward Missions

Home Gardening

Edwin Dysinger

Where Should we Put the Garden?

So in this course I'm going to be kind of going back and forth between practical hands-on things in the garden and then spiritual applications.

He planted a garden eastward and eastward.

Well, but there was something, even before the curse, in Genesis 2, it talks about them tilling.

It says there was no man yet to till the ground.

Speaking of creation, before the man was made, and There was no man to till the ground.

And then God, it says that God put Adam in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

So that tilling and keeping, there was some role for that even before sin.

And I'm gonna get into that in some of the later lessons.

You know when I first started farming my mind, you know I appreciated the first chapters of Genesis but when I started farming my mind just went, it was like a magnet, it just kept going back to those first chapters.

And they just suddenly started having more relevance to me than they'd ever had before.

And so I just spent a lot of time pondering what was in these chapters and what does it mean for me.

So, 1 thing I just want to mention that, you know, we mentioned in there, this concept of niche.

Everything that God created had a particular place, where it functions best.

You all don't grow cassava down there do you?

Okay so that's not the niche for cassava, right?

So you know every plant has a niche, every creature has a niche where it performs best, where it lives best.

And that niche is, it's not just a place, it's, that niche has a lot to do with the connections, the relationships around it.

I mean, everything that's growing in the ground has a relationship with the soil, with the microbes in the soil.

It has a relationship with the weather patterns that that particular place has, and with the seasons.

And so there are all, and with the other plants and the other creatures that are surrounding it.

Other creatures eat the plant, you know, but they're all in relationships.

And so that's a niche, is the concept of niche encompasses this idea of all these relationships that are taking place.

And, you know, so God created the whole creation is a creation of these relationships.

You know, There's systems and webs and networks in the whole creation.

And as I started farming, I started seeing that.

Before that, when I thought about God's creation, I was just amazed at how detailed and intricately he created different things, different creatures, how he created me, the I, you know.

But When I started farming, what even awes me more than the intricacies of those individual things is the intricacies of the relationships, how everything is connected.

That was his purpose, that everything be connected.

That's really amazing because they all worked, when they're connected in the right way, they're working together for life.

Each 1 is giving and taking something to the rest, and they're all working together for life.

So, God has given us, you know, as human beings, I believe that God had a niche for man when he created man.

Can any of you guess what that niche might be?

Yeah, but he placed him, the physical place that he put him and the relationships that he set him in was the garden.

You know, God himself is part of those relationships because he's the sustainer of life.

Yeah, God had a niche for man, and niche is where something performs best.

And there's something in us, I believe, that really responds and comes out best in that setting.

And I'm not saying that everyone has to be a farmer, but I do think there's real value in every 1 of us having our hands in the dirt.

I mentioned that the seeing world teaches us about the unseen.

I just want to read something from Christ's object lessons.

That we might become acquainted with his divine character in life, Christ took on nature and dwelt among us.

Divinity was revealed in humanity, the invisible glory in the visible human form.

Men could learn of the unknown through the known.

Heavenly things were revealed through the earthly.

God was made manifest in the likeness of man.

So it was in Christ's teaching the unknown was illustrated by the known, divine truths by earthly things with which the people were most familiar.

Natural things were the medium for the spiritual.

The things of nature and life experiences of his hearers were connected with the truths of the written word.

Leading thus from the natural to the spiritual kingdom, God's parables are links in the chain of truth that unites man with God and earth with heaven.

In their original perfection all created things were an expression of the thought of God.

To Adam and Eve in their Eden home nature was full of the knowledge of God.

Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received into the heart, where they communed with God in His creative works.

When the Lord was training Israel to be the special representatives of Himself, He gave them homes among the hills and valleys.

In their home life and their religious service, they were brought into constant contact with nature and the word of God.

So Christ taught his disciples by the lake on the mountainside and the fields and groves where they could look upon the things of nature by which he illustrated his teaching.

So through the creation we are to become acquainted with the creator.

So through the creation we become acquainted with God.

We have to have it balanced because there are a lot of nature religions out there that got it wrong.

Animism and New Age spirituality, they're only looking to nature without the Word of God and they get off course being man.

But both of them together, it's like, you know, you have, you have, if you have a point of truth, which is nature, you can look at it this way or You can look at it this way, or you can look at it this way, and in other ways.

But if you have another point of truth, the Word of God, there's only 1 way that you can view both.

So, if we have both of them, if we can line them up, then we know that we can be certain that we have truth when it's lined up with black.

So I want to talk about planning your garden.

There are a lot of things that we want to think about if you're choosing a garden site.

Now some of you already have garden sites.

And I don't know, does anyone here not have a garden site?

Okay, so I'm just gonna go over a number of things to think about in choosing a garden site.

I just want to be clear from the beginning, I don't think anyone, anywhere, has all of these criteria lined up perfectly, because that kind of place doesn't exist.

You do you do your best with what you can work out but it is good to be able to think about these things.

We're going to talk this afternoon I think about soil more, but it's obvious we want to have good soil.

But I have heard stories of people who develop beautiful gardens in rock quarries.

Yeah, it was, it was a place of poor soil.

Yeah, and so, it's gonna take more effort, That's clear, but it can be done.

But If you can get water nearby your garden spot, that's going to be such an advantage, particularly for a home garden spot.

Unless you happen to live in a place that has plenty of room.

Brett mentioned his place has a lot of trees around it, so particularly in wintertime, sunlight can be an issue.

More than “Just Dirt”: What Makes a Good, Healthy Soil

So we're going to talk about soil and just some spiritual connections first.

And when Adam and Eve sinned and and God gave the curse What did he said?

When they died They would return to the dust.

And for the period of our lives in between when we're born and when we die, we are not dust, but we are living on the dust and our lives are coming to us from the dust.

Okay, so the dirt, dust, is very significant for us.

In fact, we like to say that it's more than dirt.

And I feel like there's a lot of significance to, you know, soil makes land.

And there's a lot of significance to land or place.

And the Bible, there's a thread of, a meaning all the way through the Bible about what land means, what the earth means.

There's, you know, when God made Adam, he put him in a particular place.

That place was called the Garden of Eden.

It was a special place that Adam was to manage.

And the goal, as we said at the beginning this morning, was that that place would be replicated in other places, but each is a place, you know, occupying land.

And the, you know, somehow in the Garden of Eden, food was important.

You know, they had the Tree of Life, and that was something that somehow gave them eternal life, but that did not make food irrelevant.

You know, God told Adam, I'm giving you every seed-bearing plant and every tree which has seed in its fruit.

So food was important even in the Garden of Eden.

I've got some ideas but I'm still trying to understand exactly what that meant.

But the food, you know, our life, the food that we eat that gives us life comes from the land.

And it's the, and you know, originally it was, it was the land that we occupied, that we cared for, that gave us our life.

And, so there was something significant about the place where a person lived.

And when the children of Israel went into the land of Canaan God gave every family a piece of land.

And if you remember, there was something almost sacred about that piece of land because it was never allowed to go out of the family's hands.

Remember, it could be, they couldn't sell it.

They could lease it to somebody, but at the Jubilee, after 50 years, it would come back to them.

I know I have, and I'm sure you have experienced the same thing where you have lived.

You develop a special attachment to that place.

I grew up in Southern California and whenever I go back there, it is like, ah, it is just the atmosphere, the smells, the feel of the place.

It's all the mix of the plants, the environment, everything.

I believe all of this is built into us by God.

So in the Bible, Like I said, there's this thread of meaning connecting, making a spiritual application for land all the way through the Bible.

You remember in the parable of the sower, Jesus in Matthew 13, 19, Jesus said, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil 1 comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

And this is the connection that's all through the Bible.

It's a connection of the heart to the land.

So, And well, another example is Jeremiah 4, 3 and 4.

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, break up your fallow ground and sow not among thorns.

Okay, There's this connection between the land and the heart.

And in Hosea 10, 12, Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground.

For it is time to seek the Lord until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.

And it doesn't say it explicitly there, but it's obvious.

What is he talking about when he says, break up your unplowed ground?

Yeah, he's not talking about your fields, he's talking about your heart.

So, there's this connection all the way through and actually from the very beginning.

You remember when Eve ate the fruit, what was What was happening in her heart?

Yeah, yeah, but anyways, this was something taking place at the heart level, right?

You know, what did God tell them as a result of that?

He said that the land wouldn't continue to bear like it had and that it would produce thistles and thorns and that they would have to eat by the sweat of their brow.

So there was a connection between what happened in the heart and what happened on the land.

And when God looked down and saw that the earth was corrupt and every imagination of man's heart was evil, and he found 1 righteous man, Noah, you know, what did he do?

Again, the earth was cursed because of a spiritual problem with people's hearts, Right?

And when the children of Israel went into the land of Canaan, God told them, if you follow me and if you obey my ways, then I will bless you.

I will bless your fields and your kneading bowls, which is the bread that comes out of your fields, and your animals and everything.

I'm going to bless you and I'm gonna bless your land.

But if you don't follow me, I'm gonna curse you and via the land to a large extent.

And if you persist in not following me, I'm gonna take you out of the land.

You know, when the Northern Kingdom persisted in worshiping idols, God sent Elijah to King Ahab and he said, there's gonna be no more rain for 3 years.

The land was cursed because of a spiritual problem.

And so this is a meaning that runs through scripture.

There's a connection between our hearts and the land.

And I think we can safely say that the land is a picture of our hearts, and maybe vice versa, also our hearts are often a picture of the land.

But that's the, that's the spiritual meaning of the land.

It's a very deep meaning that goes with it.

So And I know Whitmore is talking about that in there.

There are 3 primary constituents of soil.

So we have, well what do you think of when you think of soil?

Sand is the largest kind of mineral particle.

And then you have clay, and those are the smallest kind of mineral particles.

So, if the clay particles are extremely small, you can't see them except with an electron microscope.

And of course sand you can easily see with your eye.

Doctoring the Soil: Compost, and the Difference between Organic and Synthetic Fertilisers

I just want to talk about a little more about some of these different options for soil amendments.

The first 1 I have listed is peat moss and coconut coir.

And it's the it's the husks that have been pulverized so they're you know it's a fine fine material but I'm thinking I'm thinking you're more likely to have that than you are to have peat moss.

Is it really okay because I Mean peat moss is going to come from northern Europe or Canada Yeah, but I don't think I mean it's it comes from very cold places Yeah, I mean we We have it in a few places in the United States, but most of the peat moss by far that we get comes from Canada.

And then northern Europe, far northern countries.

It's and then northern Europe, you know, far northern countries.

It's just a good filler of organic matter.

And so we use it as a, For example, if we want to make up our own potting mix, the peat moss is kind of the base that we work with.

Peat moss and coconut coir in America are sold in bales.

They're usually plastic wrapped Bales that you know about this 1 this time Is that something that you have in garden supply stores?

But you're seeing people Already quality is my suspicion.

So, anyways, in the United States there's quite a debate among, you know, ecology-minded organic farmers as to which 1 is better, the coconut coral or peat moss.

There are some who say that the peat moss is non-renewable.

It is renewable, but they're concerned that it's not renewing as fast as it's being taken out There are there are others who say that's not the case it is being Anyways for us heat mosses and the other thing is transport You know so for us heat mosses is closer and more local.

It doesn't take as much transport as coconut coir.

Coir, yeah, that's C-O-I-R, and it's the outside husk that's been pulverized.

Yeah, it's not quite a powder, but it's it's it's not it's not Yes So the organic soil amendments we were just talking about peat moss and coconut coir.

I'm sorry I'm not familiar enough with Australia to know what's commonly available in garden stores and that sort of thing.

So those are good, particularly if you're wanting to to Pot things or or or start transplants and that sort of thing, But it is handy to have something like peat moss or coconut coir.

We will use it when we're making a new garden bed.

Just to add a bulk of organic matter into the ground and give it a you know kind of charge the ground with organic matter and It's it's probably the the cheapest and easiest way to do that quickly and it usually For us it usually comes in and plastic wrapped bales that are about 30 to 50 pounds.

And They're about this size and this tall.

And they're compressed in these plastic wrapped bags.

We'll add probably about 2 bales for, well, probably about 1 bale for 50 feet of of garden bed.

So That's just a, like I said, it's a way to add a lot of organic matter quickly into your ground and it's a kind of an easier and cheaper way than most anything else.

Now compost can be used too and what we'll usually do is we'll put that much peat moss on our bed, and then we'll come and maybe add that much compost on top of it.

So we're adding both, but we're just Really trying to bulk up on the organic matter in the soil Initially just to get it going and we once we've done that we don't ever add Peat moss to our soil again after that, but we keep adding some compost every year or having to mulch on the surface.

So the next option for organic matter is going to be things like manure.

Cow manure, horse manure, chicken manure, things like that.

We are starting to get a fad in America for veganic farming.

That is farming without any animal products.

I don't know if you, has anyone been talking about that here Yeah, we're talking about animal waste I mean it could be any animal product the animal parts as well as waste.

Well, I feel that there is some good reason for doing that, but I don't buy it just across the board.

The reason behind it is that most animal manures that you'll find bagged and for sale in the shops comes from what we call a CAFO.

That's a centralized animal feeding operation Feed lots, okay Yeah, so I think we used to call them feed lots, but they're always generating new kind of fancier terms so Yeah, so that's your your big stockyards where you have thousands of cows just on a lot or chicken operations, you know, huge chicken operations, or anything like that that's a centralized animal feeding operation.

And those kinds of places tend to, because of the close confined conditions of the animals, they have to treat them with antibiotics and they often treat them with hormones for growth and things like that.

And almost for sure they're feeding them GMO feeds.

And you know for all of these reasons, and as well as the fact that we just think it's wrong to do that, We don't want to use animal products from those kind of situations.

And so like I said, most anything that you find bagged is, you can almost be sure it's coming from 1 of those situations.

But I don't have a problem with, you know, if I've got horses or my neighbor has horses or, you know, cleaning out the stall and using that you know you know you know how those animals are being cared for and you know that to me it's 2 different situations.

Manure and discover that they worm their horses.

So if you use that, it kills all your worms, which I think is what happened.

I mean, that makes sense, but I hadn't come across that before.

Well, I mean to verify that, that's what I was told.

Same thing about half-nets and everything else that people sell on the side of the road.

That's, where I live, some people sell on the side of the road, this manure.

Like alpaca, for instance, they make a living as well, just like horse manure.

So I know when they do the work, so I'm going to wait before I can think about using it.

So have you had that experience also or heard that?

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Series

Home Gardening

The Sower Went Out to Sow: Direct Seeding and Transplanting

Transcript

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