Sustainable Nations Organic Gardening Webinar PennElys GoodShield

Food Security and Sovereignty  Food security, medicine plant, and food sovereignty workshops  Principles of permaculture, organic and sustainable agriculture  Curriculum and program design in traditional and organic agriculture, including creation of value-added Indigenous products  Seed saving techniques and principles

Organic Gardening  Why Organic? Use of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers contaminate not only the produce itself, but also the earth and the water. Cancer, thyroid and endocrine problems, as well as a host of other disease, is known to be caused by both direct and indirect exposure to herbicides and pesticides. Benefits to the use of these products are far outweighed by the danger they present, as well as the fact that pests gradually build up resistance to them, requiring use of more and more toxic materials.

 Organic gardening is more than just not using dangerous chemicals  It requires an awareness of the garden as part of an interconnected living system. Awareness of native plants, water sources, local insects, and working within this relationship is an excellent way to integrate traditional cultural principles into your garden work, as well as principles of food sovereignty.

What is Food Sovereignty?  Food Security is the ability of a community to have access to healthy food year-round  Food Sovereignty is the ability of a community or Nation to provide for it’s own food security through a combination of growing its own traditional healthy food, and determining its own trade, labor, and market systems regarding food. This includes the support and protection of traditional food systems, seeds, natural resources such as water, livestock, agricultural land, and game.

Alternatives  Alternatives exist to the use of toxic materials!  Fertilizers:  Nitrogen: Compost, manures, bat guano, fish emulsion, blood meal, cottonseed meal.  Phosphorus: Bone Meal, phosphate rock, bat guano  Potassium: Kelp meal, Sul-Po-Mag, granite meal, greensand

General Purpose Fertilizer  4 parts cottonseed meal (in spring, substitute one of the parts as blood meal for faster acting fertilizer)  1 part dolomite lime  1/2 part bone meal or soft rock phosphate  1/2 part kelp meal

Alternatives to Pesticides  Tobacco Spray  1 C homegrown or chemical free tobacco  1 gallon water For caterpillars, aphids, and worms Let stand for 24 hours until it is the color of weak tea. Do not spray this on tomatoes or pepper plants

Soap Spray  Good for slugs, and various insects  Use old dishwater!  Or, 1/2 C dishsoap in a gallon of water

Salt Spray  Good for cabbage worms and mites  2 tbs salt  1 gallon water

Garlic/Pepper Spray  1 garlic bulb  1 quart water  1 onion  1 tbs cayenne  1 tbs dish soap Mix crushed garlic, chopped onion, and cayenne with the water. Let sit for a few hours. Add dish soap. Good for slugs and a variety of insects, including whiteflies

Basic principles for a healthy garden  Good living Soil!  Diversified ecosystem  Different plants, cycled through  Beneficial insects and other animals  Recycled nutrients (compost!)

Weed Control  Mulch! This also helps retain moisture, and slowly returns organic matter to the soil.

 Questions and Discussion….

Contact Info  PennElys GoodShield -  Cheriena Ben -