Martha’s Magic Minerals

June 17th, 2010, 2:27 am

A few weeks back, during class, Noel Harding handed the Wildflower group a jar of magical minerals. He told us that if we sprinkled the minerals onto the soil where our garden was going to be that it would nourish the land and help our garden grow. When asked where they were from and what they were made of, he pointed us in the direction of his friend and donor of the minerals, Martha Gay Scroggins, co-ordinator of the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming. Martha’s instructions and words of wisdom were “…The minerals consist of over 60 micro nutrients in a fine ground powder… they are sourced from Global Minerals and this product is called “Rama Rock”…They will last for years in the soil and can be returned to soil by leaving vegetative matter in fall and not removing- or composting…they are primarily used to increase plants immunity in organic food production systems…they must be watered in — do not leave on soil to dry out- best to hand broadcast, like adding fairy dust, during a rain is best time to apply…”. So we listened to Martha and sprinkled on the minerals like fairy dust before a rain. Hopefully Rama Rock helps our garden grow.

A little dab will do...or maybe a sprinkle.

Thanks for the advice Martha!

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Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho…It’s Off to Work We Go!

June 7th, 2010, 2:39 am

Wildflower Group Cleaning up the Land

Not unlike Disney’s ‘Seven Dwarfs’ who like to ‘dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night’, the Wildflower Garden Group donned their gardening clothes and eagerly dug into the next step of the Wildflower Garden plans—preparing the soil.  A few hours were spent with some help from the Urban Agriculture group (who also aided in the purchase of a permanent tool collection for the Eco-House garden) sorting through the tilled lot removing garbage, large rocks, and other debris that could hinder the growing of plants as well as digging up the grass the till had missed.  The soil was found to be incredibly hard and so it was only the biggest rocks and clay that were removed in the hopes that the flowers and rain would be able to break up the smaller mounds of dirt.  Slowly, the land is improving, and though we don’t have any Disney magic to instantly transform the lot into supple soil, we’re not far off with the generous donation of minerals from Noel Harding which will shortly be sprinkled over the land to aid growth.   It was difficult work, and I think we all left with a greater respect for those working outdoors–those seven miners included.
Wildflower and Urban Agriculture Working Together to Clean the Land

Minerals to be Sprinkled Over the Land

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