So I was watching an interesting group of videos on youtube for the use of copper and zinc to create an ion exchange that benefited the soil, and therefore, the plants in that soil.

The videos explain that dead trees underneath the soil, planted in the ground, then soil, leaves, and so on, are put on top, the tree serves as a moisture retainer and eventually the plant doesn’t need watering.

I had read of hugelkulter, the name for it, in organic gardening magazines. So I am revisiting all of what I read about and dreamed about putting into use. Before I lost my house, I was exploring plans of putting in a bunch of plants and flowers all over my 3/4 acre of ground. And then those dreams were smashed when they took my house illegally.

But now I am trying container gardening so I have a bit of a garden, but not near as much as I would like.

Two things I have come upon are:

1. Using terracotta (clay) pots as a slow watering system. Some folks have glued two small pots together, and then plugged one hole and let the water seep out, like a more expensive slow drip system.
2. Using wood, especially char, to continually break down into nutrients for the plants and soil, that retains moisture in the soil.
3. Using zinc nails placed in the opposite direction of copper wire or some people have used copper pennies. The copper pennies must be made before 1982 to have the highest copper in them. They must be opposite of each other to create the energy “zoom” for the plants to give them extra energy to grow.

I am already trying the copper pennies in the plants because it is also supposed to help with stopping fungus growth and bug repellant. I bought Miracle Grow soil in bags last year and thought my plants would thrive. Nope. They came with nasty little gnats that fly up one’s nose. Seriously. I’m not the only one, as others have reported the same thing of being overcome with gnats.

I am going to try burying a piece of wood in the planter and put the soil and leaves on top. This is similar to what would happen if I had a compost pile. Some of my long time readers might remember that I blogged on my compost bin that I had at my house. It was great fun to put egg shells, food scraps, and stick and leaves into the bin, and then wait a few months to see this nutrient rich, black soil emerge after the little critters did the job God intended them to do. It really is stunning how they turn food scraps into this “black gold” as they call it.

Now I don’t have zinc nails, but I do have a couple of options for zinc with two containers of galvanized steel, which contains zinc, and that could deliver the necessary zinc, as well. One container is for water and the other is for a planter.

So as I was watching the video on hugelkulter, and the need for the dead wood to hold moisture, I was reminded of the stupidity of former administrations, and one was Reagan, who actually told the American public to “tidy up” the forests by taking old trees that had fallen down. Along with the destruction of the Fairness Doctrine, that ensured the media must present both sides of a story, or lose their license to broadcast, telling people to “tidy up” the forests by removing a source of forest renewal is one of the dumbest things to tell people.

The dead wood is meant to be there to aid in feeding the critters and establishing new plants. The seeds dropped by birds onto the dead wood will take root and sprout. And the dead tree adds and retains moisture in the soil. This is a symbiotic relationship with the sky, that draws moisture up, and releases it in rain storms. At least, that is the way that nature works. With weather modification, they have really messed with the natural balance and harmony.

Here’s an excerpt from Gene Logsdon’s book: Wildlife in Your Garden. He called himself the “contrary farmer” because he was not about huge commercial farms, but family farms that used sustainable and reciprocal methods of growing food and raising animals.

p.76

One third of all the birds and mammals that live in the forest need dead trees for nesting, feeding, and roosting. [Smith] told the farmer, who tried to appear properly chastened throughout the entire speech. The dead wood also supports a whole world of fungi absolutely essential to life. Without dead wood rotting back into the soil, there would be a net loss of fertility. […]

p. 77

According to an article by Peter Steinhart, “Leave the Dead” (Audubon magazine, January, 1981), an Arizona study showed that cutting all the dead ponderosa pine out of a given forest area eliminated 50% of the wildlife, including most of the woodpeckers and swallows. The red-cockaded woodpecker is almost gone from parts of Louisiana where it was once common, because not enough dead and dying pines remain. The mountain bluebird is on the decline because of lack of hollow trees for nesting sites.

In Europe, experiments demonstrated that the prevalence of certain forest diseases was directly related to lack of dead and dying trees needed for nesting places. With nesting boxes installed in sufficient numbers, bird populations built up again and controlled the bugs that caused the diseases.

See how nature works? The birds used the dead trees for nesting. They ate the bugs that gave the trees diseases. A symbiotic relationship.

When I was out West, in Idaho, there was a glaring omission of dead trees in the forests on the mountain. And it was dry. Very dry. So it didn’t take much to get a fire started. And I am adamantly against the “control burns” that they keep telling us is beneficial to the forests. I’ve argued with those promoting that idea when they say that it is to save the forests. I asked them how much wildlife is killed with these control burns. They had no answer for me. It’s the same as “we have to have war so we can have peace” baloney.

The dead trees bring moisture into the forest to protect it. A moist forest is hard to ignite. And I can tell you since the Reagan blunder, and folks started “cleaning up” the forests of dead trees, the air has become less clean and so dry. I wonder how much of the wildlife has disappeared because of this stupid idea. It is very noticeable in my area of the decline of the birds because my particular area is in a severe drought.

And the area is a small circle in northern Indiana. The southern part of the state has seen plenty of rainfall. So has the very upper region. But the middle area is glaringly in drought. Tell me you don’t believe in weather modification and I’ll say you have your head stuck in the sand.

While I’m talking about trees, there is the issue of them killing the old growth trees. A few years ago, I got into a heated debate about old growth trees and their necessity. Trees give us oxygen while they take away the carbon dioxide. They are windbreaks. Their roots hold the soil together (otherwise we have desert conditions with windblown soil, like the dust storms of the Great Depression).

So someone wanted to take down an old tree because…wait for it…the tree was in the way of his internet reception…!!

How dare this 100 or 200 or 300 year old tree grow there and spoil this person’s internet or satellite tv reception?? /snark

I have read that our trees are being cut down and shipped to China. And I kind of thought it might be true because a lot of the people arguing with me about the value of old growth trees were Asians. But not all.

One thing that isn’t usually mentioned about the old growth trees is their value in providing a home for the eagles. Eagles build their huge nests in large, tall, old growth trees. They have to have a large tree to support their nests. If you’ve ever watched the live cameras on eagles nests on youtube, you see how huge they are and that they need huge nests to bring up their little ones. Before the eaglets fledge, they become as large as their parents. So huge, old growth trees are necessary for the eagles to survive.

I had a 300-400 year old tree in my front yard at my house and when I drove by there after many years of avoiding it because it was too painful, there was a stump where my beloved tree had been!! The pain and shock I felt was almost as bad as losing the house! I could not believe someone would do that to this beautiful old tree. Everyone who came to my house remarked on this tree’s interesting appearance. She looked like a hand reaching up to God. Seeing her gone was like one more jab at my soul. I will never understand why they took her down.

Speaking of the life cams, the eagle parent has brought a fish to the nest that has a bobber or fishline attached. This was a real danger to the eaglets as one got the fish line caught in its wing. Thankfully, the fish line eventually worked itself out, but that isn’t always the case.

On reddit, a person posted a photo of a Canada goose with what looked like a fishing lure on it chest. He asked for comments and everyone thought it looked like a lure because of the splayed black fuzzy stuff. A person who does goose rehab put a blanket over the goose, and then went to work to free the poor thing of the fishing lure. But wait, it wasn’t a lure after all…it was a stupid plastic grocery bag that apparently the goose had dived under water, and come up at the moment this bag was floating on the water, and got it around the neck. The goose must have been smaller as the bag was very tight around its chest.

I have read horror stories in the magazine Birds and Blooms, where a reader had taken a picture of a Loon, not seeing the fish line circled around its neck. She only realized it after she had the film developed and saw the Loon was actually struggling against the choking fish line.

And fish line and bobbers are not the only hazard, as toxins are impacting the wildlife as well. There is a horrible video of an eagle being stricken with seizures after something she ate. It was the Kisatchie National Forest eagle cam about two years ago, I think. I’m not going to post it on here because I don’t want to look at it every time I pull up my blog. Being in Louisiana, I wander about the BP oil spill and “clean up” down there and if this had anything to do with the eagle’s distress and death. And while I am speaking to toxins, remember that mice eat poison and then they are eaten by eagles and hawks and other birds. I have tried other ways of repelling mice naturally.

One last thing before I go — there has been an intimidation game of folks insisting on grass being cut very close to the ground. I just want to remind folks that grass needs to grow to three inches in height so that the roots will grow deeply enough that during the dry times of July and August, you don’t have to water your lawns. It also feels better on the feet. This helps to conserve water and another bonus is that the moisture returns to the atmosphere, just like the trees and the dead trees’ holding moisture in the ground.