Sat Atma Khalsa

I saw on Youtube a girl who has planted her sweet potatoes straight into a pile of wood chips.
She said that she had great results.
As I had a pile of more or less sawdust with a few small bits of wood in it from a mulberry tree
and not much earth or compost otherwise, I decided to follow her example. I planted some sweet potatoes in this sawdust. They are doing ok but not growing much as far as the leaves go.

In my place there are a lot of 'green' oaks (that's what we call them in french), maybe called holm oak in English? And there are also a lot of chestnut trees. Wood and leaves from both these trees are supposed to make the soil acidic because they have a lot of tannin. So I never use their leaves for mulch or in the compost.
But I thought that wood from the mulberry tree would be a different story as mulberry trees also bring up a lot of miinerals from deeper layers in the soil.
We will see how it goes!
IT is an interesting added source of fertility. Where I live we saw wood to burn in the winter for heat so there is always sawdust which I considered an irritating waste product. Now all of a sudden it has become an exciting source of (possible) abundance!

I live in the south of France in a mediterranean climate. The comfrey I have is in a place with half
day sun and I need to water them in the summer. But those plants have multiplied and are occupying
their whole patch now. They grow high and have flowers too. In the first years they did not do that.
Now I can cut them down several times in the season.\
I also have the other kind that is like a ground cover but this one needs even more water and never gets
very big or high.
I am inspired by this article, I took a flower stalk and cut it in pieces for propagation. I read elsewhere
on permies that that works as well. If it doesn't work, I will take some pieces of the roots.

I want to do veganic growing on my place and I do not have enough compost. With more comfrey and
application of urine, I think I can get closer to self sufficiency for the fertility needs of the place.
I am also making some leaf mold. I put it down last autumn but I think it needs more time than compost to get ready. Does anyone have experience with that?

This is a great thread. Thanks to all!

As for the remaining portion of the original plant, I plan to cut it several times this year.  I normally
make an early cutting to give fertility to the seed potatoes when I plant them.

Hi Kate,
I know this post was written long ago but if you are still out there, I wonder, do you just put the comfrey
leaves around your potato plants? Or do you get them cut up in small pieces or do you make compost tea
from them?
I want to do the same with my comfrey leaves now but I wonder which method is the most effective.
Any idea?
Thanks in advance!

This year for the first time , we cut our seed potatoes. We ended up having way too many.
And after cutting, the potatoes went bad quite quickly. I had read on internet that you had to let the cut
potatoes sit for a few days before planting. But that does not seem a good idea as they were going bad.
I was also wondering if we would have the same yield. In previous years we put in whole potatoes.
I probably will have many potato plants in the compost as we threw the left over pieces there.

I hope the pieces will yield!
I will give lots of mulch and urine as a support. I don't have a lot of compost left. But I have compost teas of nettle and I will make of comfrey also. I have some big comfrey plants. Soon I will cut them.
Will I get more fertility by putting the comfrey leaves around the potatoes or by first making compost tea out of the comfrey plants?

I am sorry to hear you got no yield, Nick. But other people do seem to have yield with cut potatoes.
I will have to wait and see!

Bonjour Paul,
thank you for sharing. It is sooo good to hear that changing your diet has such a great impact on your health.
I hope you feel lighter too.
You are asking for help and it is not so clear to me what kind of help you need. I have not had cancer in my life until now but I am in the realm of natural life, permaculture, meditation and healing.

My experience is that thoughts and emotions also have a big impact on the body. For a while I used to do urine therapy. Have you heard of it? You drink a part of your own urine. As I am a vegetarian, vegan even, my pee normally tasted just like vegetable water, the water that you are left with when you steam vegetables.
But on a day when I was angry the day before, the taste of the pee was totally different, same as when I had eaten chocolate the day before. The taste was less sweet and kind of acid, it was a bad taste.
Our thoughts and emotions have a lot of impact on the health of our bodies. I feel.
Most of us can do a lot of improvement in this domain. Negative thinking is so common that we may not even be aware of it. I catch my self so many times even though I am already busy with it for years. Does this approach interest you?

You are very brave to share with us all. I love the connection you make between healing and community. The sharing, the giving and receiving in community is such a powerful force for healing.
At the same time this opens us up to our own vulnerability.
And this could be a very important part of the healing process. Being in touch with our own vulnerability.
Opening up to it. Most;ly we would want to push it away, I'd say.

Thank you for opening this subject! There is always healing to do in everybody's life.
I feel inspired to step up my own awareness and dedication to getting real well.
Many blessings to you!

I am reading some inspiring books:
Radical Remission by Kelly Turner. Maybe you know it already?
Blessed with a Brain Tumor by Will Pye.
And this one I just came across:  Healing the Angry Brain by ronald potter-efron.
The first and last ones are available on www.pdfdrive.com. There you can download a lot of books for free. IT is a super site if you like reading!

I cannot go behind the paywall. I do not live in America. I do not really know what a paywall is but it does not sound very inviting to me. So I don't mind.

Thank you, again!
Take care.
Love, light and laughter,
Sat Atma

That is an amazing list!
I just want to let you all know that there is a web site where you can download a lot of books for free, a lot of permaculture books and also a wide range of other books.
The site is called www.pdfdrive.com. You just have to create an account and then you can start downloading your books. Even without an account I downloaded books last year.
As far as I understand the authors agree that their books are available free of charge.

All though I downloaded a bunch of books from this site last year, right now it is not working for me. I do not know why.
I just sent them a message to ask for help. I will keep you posted. But do try the site if you like books! There is an amazing range of inspiring books there. Please, let me know if you manage to download any!

As far as I understand swales are used in areas where there is a slope. Then the water is invited to go in the earth rather than run over the surface and cause erosion. I have swales and I am on a slope. Erosion is a real issue here as the earth is very sandy.

In permaculture they say that it is good to observe your land at least during a year and then make plans for it. So you can adjust your plans to the qualities pf the land. IF not you are fighting against nature all the time. Rather you would like to work with nature. As you already have trees, that can give you an idea what trees would do well on your land. If you have flat land, I guess the direction from where the sun comes is less of an issues. All though, if you plant trees you have to think about that they are not going to create shade in an area where you might want to plant other plants or bushes that need sun.
They also say it is good to talk to your neighbours to see what grows well in your area. Have you been long on this land?
You have to look what kind of soil you have, clay or sandy or loam, or a mix. You can do a test by putting some soil in a jar with water and then shake it up. After letting the jar sit for a day or 2, you see the layers of different soil part. The organic matter floats on top.
It is very interesting! You can find more about this on internet, I presume, if you google 'soil test'.
Buying a book is a great idea, but you can also find a lot of free resources on the internet. There even exist free permaculture courses online. There used to be one in the Netherlands.
If your soil is good, you do not need to do raised beds. If the soil is poor, you can do raised beds so you do not have to improve all of the soil. Also are there any animals or pests in your area? We have wild boar. Before even thinking of a garden , we have ot make a fence against the wild boar. And even then..., they get in when they really want to.
Good luck and a lot of fun serving your land!

I use chickpea flower sometimes in baked goods to replace eggs. I don't eat eggs and the chick pea flour is good to hold things together I also make pancakes of it, just mixing chick pea flower (besan as it is called in India or garbanzo flour in spanish) and water until you have the right consistancy. Whip well with a whisk. Then I add herbs and spices, lots of them to mask the taste of the flour a bit. These pancakes are very nice, everybody likes them even kids! I have never tried a sweet version but that may be possible too.

In Indian cooking besan flour is used to put in yoghurt when the yoghurt is heated. It holds it together as well.
It is also used in batter for pakoras etc.

I never tried bean flour, see if I run into some or if I have a lot of beans in the garden I could make some. Such a mill is a good idea. What is a good brand for this mill? (grinder?)

Thanks for posting this thread, it is just what I need. I tried a hat too but I really like to feel the sun on my face and body  especially now in spring time.

Here is an article on natural oils that you can use to protect your skin from the sun.
https://wildernorthbotanicals.com/blog/5-of-the-best-natural-oils-with-spf-protection/

I have used wheat germ oil a few times but I do not know how effective it is. I am inspired to buy the raspberry oil and mix it with wheatgerm oil and shea butter to make a sun screen that is easy to use.
I don't like the organic sunscreen cremes with zinc oxide as they make my face all white looking in a strange way.


All the best under the sun!

To make beans easier to digest, you can add epazote, a Mexican herb. There is a European herb as well, what is it called in english? Bean herb?  Aah, no, it is called savory.