Nigel Palmer - The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments: Using Locally Sourced Materials to Make Mineral and Biological Extracts and Ferments

Praise for The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments

In a world seemingly focused on the newest miracle from the chemists laboratory, it is refreshing to find a book that unveils the power of nature in gardening and equips savvy growers with proven tools and formulas to move their practickkes to a new level. Nigel Palmer makes the art and science of life-enhancing amendments accessible to gardeners everywhere.

Fred Walters, Acres U.S.A. magazine

Nigel Palmers new book is filled with fermentation methods for the garden. Its an exciting new DIY resource for soil regeneration and plant health.

Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation

Nigel Palmer has come up with a terrific new cookbook for the regenerative (and any other) gardener who desires to build and maintain soil and plant health. The easy-to-follow recipes are designed to satiate any plants appetite for the appropriate microbiology and nutrients. This guide to using locally sourced materials to make mineral and biological extracts and ferments is to gardening what Julia Childs classic guide is to cooking.

Jeff Lowenfels, author of Teaming with Fungi and Teaming with Nutrients

Attention, gardeners! The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments will instruct and inspire. Learn to make targeted mineral and biological garden amendments and sprays with this comprehensive and easy-to-understand manual. Nigel Palmers guide is a classic in the making!

Sally Fallon Morell, president, Weston A. Price Foundation

Herbal brews and probiotics keep us in good stead so why not the plants we grow for food and medicine as well? Nigel Palmer offers an enthusiastic exploration of fermented plant extracts and organism cultures to keep our gardens and orchards productive and healthy. Indigenous wisdom presented in a scientific light rocks! Making ones own garden amendments not only saves money but is truly the most effective way to grow. Phytonutrients prime plant immunity and friendly microbes protect from disease. Heed this advice and become a savvier grower today.

Michael Phillips, author of Mycorrhizal Planet and The Holistic Orchard

. Every gardener needs this knowledge!

Chris Smith, author of The Whole Okra ; director, The Utopian Seed Project

The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments is a wonderful book, giving the reader new insight into regenerative horticulture at homepreserving the soil, enhancing biodiversity, and producing healthy food.

Jake Fiennes, general manager of conservation, Holkham Estate

In The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments , Nigel Palmer offers a careful, thorough approach to creating abundance and health in and from the garden. The specifics of innovative and useful techniques, as well as the supporting concepts, are well presented for diligent gardeners to utilize. Nigels new garden model does a great service in moving forward our ability to feed ourselves in a cooperative effort with nature.

Bryan OHara, author of No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture

This book empowers readers to observe natures processes at work in the food garden, and to become aware of natural resources, such as weeds and leaf litter, that they can use to make their own mineral and biological amendments. Brilliant! Beautifully crafted by a first-rate teacher able to convey his in-depth understanding, passion, and knowledge, The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments will inspire many growers to embark on a never-ending journey of discovery; to grow nutrient-dense food by creating an abundance of healthy ecosystems in the garden.

Matthew Adams, cofounder, Growing Real Food for Nutrition; former director, Good Gardeners Association

The Regenerative GrowersGuide toGarden Amendments

Using Locally Sourced Materials to Make Mineral and Biological Extracts and Ferments

Nigel Palmer

FOREWORD BY John Kempf

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2020 by Nigel Palmer.

All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs copyright 2020 by Nigel Palmer.

Photos for Step 5 on courtesy of Michelle Mullin.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Alexander Bullett

Editor: Fern Marshall Bradley

Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad

Proofreader: Eliani Torres

Indexer: Joel Kaemmerlen

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing July 2020.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 21 22 23 24

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper from responsibly managed forests, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments was printed on paper supplied by Versa Press that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Palmer, Nigel, 1958- author.

Title: The regenerative growers guide to garden amendments : using locally sourced materials to make mineral and biological extracts and ferments / Nigel Palmer.

Description: White River Junction, VT : Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020019760 | ISBN 9781603589888 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: GardeningHandbooks, manuals, etc. | PlantsNutrition Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Soil amendmentsHandbooks, manuals, etc.

Classification: LCC SB450.96 .P35 2020 | DDC 635dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019760

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

Somerset House

London, UK

www.chelseagreen.com

To Joan, Miles, Cody

Love, Love, Love

CONTENTS

PART I
Nourishment from the Ground Up

PART II
Making Mineral and Biological Amendments

I envision a future where gardening, food production, and agriculture are holistically regenerative, where they quickly regenerate plant health, soil health, the health of livestock, and public health for all the people who consume the exceptionally nutritious food that can be produced in our gardens. In this future time we will manage agriculture from an ecological and ecosystems perspective.

Using this book as a guide, you will be able to produce your own microbial and mineral amendments to improve soil health and the health of your plants without purchased products. The ability to produce our own amendments to regenerate the health of our soils and gardens is important and necessary knowledge to develop sustainable gardening systems.

Sustainable gardening and farming are not yet mainstream practices. A system of growing plants cannot be called sustainable before a level of plant health is reached where crops are completely resistant to disease and insect pressure. As long as growers are dependent on synthetic inputs, the production system is not sustainable. Once we have used regenerative practices to achieve levels of ecosystem health that would be considered exceptional today, we can, for the first time, have a legitimate conversation about sustainable agriculture and gardening.