To Good Gardeners Association

Thank you for the magazine winter 2003/04. In answer to your queries on P. 15, subscription increases, I am happy to accept the increases. The magazine is informative, comprehensive and interesting yet small enough not to be inundated with extra reading that is not necessary. I enjoy reading it and look forward to its arrival each time it comes.

Patsy O’Callaghan, Tyne & Wear

Dear Matthew

I really must congratulate you on the content of the GGA magazine. It is now very forward looking and extremely educational and I thoroughly enjoy reading it. You are doing a marvellous job of promoting organic gardening and I much enjoy the section on nutrition, as that is my line.

At the moment I don’t actually go into schools but tend to teach people in their 20’s and 30’s from my home through seminars. Briefly I do two seminars, the first on nutrition where I encourage people to eat organic whole foods, and the second one where I talk about the importance of avoiding all chemicals and returning to natural products. This also includes organic no dig gardening.

I am only at the very beginning of this project but believe it will soon become very popular. I would be delighted to help the GGA in any way I can. If you have any leaflets available I would be delighted to distribute them to those who come to my seminars. I always tell them about the GGA, for instance. I have also been asked, by a large organisation I belong to, to educate them on better health and nutrition.

With reference to your plea for help with the schools project, I will gladly tell my friend who teaches small children and is fully into organic gardening. She may well be interested in helping.

I absolutely agree that it is vital to get this information over to as many people as possible, to counteract the genetic modification problem, which, to me, seems horrific.

Maureen Hadingham, West Sussex

Aubergines and squashes

I am writing in the hope that you can help me with a couple of queries which have arisen this year.

First, aubergines. I grew these for the first time last year with some success. The crop wasn't huge but, despite suffering red spider mite, they produced about six small aubergines from three plants. This year I have grown eight plants, a mix of Long Purple and Red Egg, and have had not a single fruit. The plants have flowered, I have sprayed them with water, and they've eventually dropped off or just withered on the plant. I keep them in pots in a glassed-in area outside the back door, which is north-west facing, but does receive sun for several hours a day and which does get quite hot. No red spider mite this year, but quite a bit of green fly. However, my sweet peppers also suffered from greenfly and have gone on to produce a very respectable crop. I'd be grateful for any ideas. Aubergines are a bit large and messy to grow just for the pleasure of their leaves!

Second, squashes. This is the third year I have grown these and I have noticed the same problem each year. The early flowers are all male. Only towards the end of the summer are there numerous female flowers. This year I have ten plants, with eight squashes between them. None has more than one fruit. I didn't pinch the growing tips from any of them until a couple of weeks ago to try to encourage growth of what's there. If I had pinched them out a lot earlier, when the plants were two or three feet long, would female flowers have appeared, or would I have destroyed what hope each plant had of producing them? Is there any way of encouraging the female flowers earlier, so that the fruit can start developing earlier?

Any suggestions will be greatly received.

Miss H Gazeley, Surrey.

In response:

Thank you for your letter re Aubergines and Squashes:

As you probably know the aubergine is related to the tomato and therefor can be grown under the same condition. Moisture plays a great part and so it is important to keep the atmosphere charged with a damp feeling. In the early stages growth is vital the growing point being taken out to form a bushy plant and once this has been achieved and the flowers start to form the air needs to be moistened. Remember to feed the plants well for they are gross feeders. A good liquid feed is necessary every time you water.

Squashes are usually very easy to cultivate. Sow in April singly in pots placed in a warm position covered with brown paper so the pots do not dry out As soon as they come through give the seedlings plenty of light. They should be planted out when there is no danger of frosts or put under cloche in prepared soil. Usually dig a hole a foot square fill it with compost and put one plant per mound. They love water and make sure that the compost was made very wet before planting. To encourage a large plant it is necessary to pinch the tips out after five leaves and then the side shoots to five leaves. The plant then must be allowed to grow at will. You of course can help with pollination by placing a male flower into a female this certainly will help.

Ramsay Shewell-Cooper.

Re: Ms.T Mekonnen’s letter (Autumn 2001). How to spread good organic advice to farmers in Ethiopia?

My first reaction was to contact Permanent Publications. I don’t take the Permaculture magazine now but I seem to remember reading about one (at least) Permaculture demonstration site in the North of South America, I forget exactly where. News of such could be passed to contacts in Ethiopia.

Would back numbers of "Living Earth" be useful to pass on? I could provide 5 or 6. Other readers could do the same I dare say. For that matter back No.s of the GGA newsletter also.

Obviously, the ideal solution would be a group of small farmers getting together to explore Fukuoka’s (Japanese natural farmer) ideas, on the same sort of modest, self supporting exploration and demonstration of green, organic procedures. Could this be set up? With aid from the government or some other body? Could some small farmers who still use traditional methods, be linked to form a nucleus?

One last thought, I see that HDRA has a scheme called THIRD WORLD ORGANIC SUPPORT GROUP. This may be what is needed by Ms. Mekonnen’s friends in Ethiopia.

Let me know if I can help

Yours sincerely

Mr. E Ross, Somerset.

About the mycorrhiza approach

Ref. J Reeves, "Natural Agriculture and Health". I am very deterred by the prospective loss of yield, combined with rising world population.

However, "The One-Straw Revolution" is certainly remarkable in several ways - from my point of view it has extremely satisfactorily answered my first concern in today's world, viz. YIELD: in his first three pages Masanobu Fukuoka states that the yields on his fields (25 yr. unplowed) equals, or is greater than, the average Japanese farm.

He details the practical steps through which this has been achieved, but he seems totally unconcerned as to theoretical explanations as to how and why!

Yet it is very suggestive that what he is supplying is an example of what we must expect from Reeves work with Mycorrhiza. Would you introduce the book to him, if he does not know it already?

As I have scarcely scratched the book it seems possible that Reeves would know if the Fukuoka soils have been examined and their mycorrhiza identified — it would appeal to me immensely to see the two ends of such an important story tied firmly and unequivocally together. It would surely appeal to all of us!

With my Best Wishes

Harry Fisher, Herts.

In response:

Re: the "One Straw Revolution" Mr Fisher seems to know as much about the Japanese work as I do.

It is possible that the field has Mycorrhiza (M). The undisturbed aspect would have allowed any residual M to develop. I will point out that a colleague knows of a pasture undisturbed for 30 years which still has no M. At the date in question I very much doubt whether M was considered.

We really must try to get away from the mania about yield. It is this yield problem that has consistently influenced our existing health problems.

John Reeves (GGA Council Member)

The cost of artificial fertiliser in Ethiopia

Dear Sir/Madam,

Having made a visit home during the summer, I would like to share my concern about agriculture in Ethiopia.

I came to the UK many years ago, but I was born in Addis Ababa, and brought up in the south west of Ethiopia. I lived there until I finished primary school.

I remember, as a child, my father was a great organic gardener, harvesting every kind of vegetable I can think of to feed the family, friends and neighbours. We never had to buy anything else from the shops except salt, oil, and sugar. He even used to keep his own beehive, and eating fresh honey was fun.

My mother, who is still a wise woman, cooked wholesome food for all of us and treated us with herbal medicine whenever we got the odd cough or cold. We were happy and healthy.

Based on my own upbringing I also brought up my children with wholesome food, free from processed food and additives. I used herbal medicine to treat them for the occasional coughs and colds. They never had any modem medication.

Since my last visit home, 6 years ago, a lot has happened, and I decided to visit my widowed mother and relations. It was nice to see them all to relax, to be away from the big noisy city, and to enjoy the tranquil country life. I had a great time.

One evening, while I was watching ETV, I saw artificial fertiliser and all its accessories being promoted as if it were a wonderful thing. It was just like the Kellogg's cornflakes advertisement over here in England. I was amazed, devastated and horrified. I could not believe that such an advertisement was allowed. Was it to make all farmers use it without question? Was it to make them feel that they were using the modern methods that the world uses? Was it to oblige them to use it? I asked myself such questions all that night.

I started making enquiries straight away from the local farmers. Luckily there are still some sensible small farmers who still use the traditional farming methods. But sadly I was told that most of the country has been using artificial fertiliser for years. They told me that the land does not produce grains without it. They have found it expensive; a lot of farmers are in prison, unable to pay their debts. As a result of this, a lot of women are suffering, juggling life working indoors, cooking, cleaning and rearing children, and work on the farm.

In one part of Ethiopia (a location similar to the Nile delta in Egypt,) where once a lot of tropical fruits grew because of its fertile location, now a horrible weed has taken over the land and is causing a big problem.

Why are big companies allowed to get away with making huge profits in poor countries, and appearing to be helpful, when they are destroying the natural order, and the traditional methods which used to work in harmony with the environment? How can Gods creatures survive on our planet? How can we help to heal the world, which is our one world?

I am very keen to share my experience and plans to encourage the restoring of organic farming in Ethiopia. Is there any thing you can do to help? Perhaps organic farming promotional leaflets, that bring an awareness of the dangers of using A.F.

Yours Sincerely,

(Ms) Tewedaj Mekonnen, Ethiopia