Traditional Agriculture and gardening methods use chemical approaches to feed a plant with often-synthetic versions of a natural substance to support the growth of the plant, not the growth of the soil as a living organism. The paddocks or fields in traditional agriculture are generally sprayed with a herbicide to remove any weeds and also sprayed with Pesticides to remove most other living beneficial organisms within the soil. Seeds or seedlings are then planted by drilling without any breaking of the soil surface. Repeated movement by tractors and harvesting machines also compact the soil.

These methods are used with the idea that soil erosion is being avoided which is a good thing. But unfortunately the down side is the soil is being effected in other ways through the elimination of beneficial soil bacteria, compacting of the soil, toxic herbicide and pesticide applications.

Soil works best when it is organic, loose, free draining and rich in micro organisms, earth worms and beneficial bacteria. It needs repeated applications of decaying matter, manures and similar things to enhance the quality of the growing medium.

Larger scale farms and gardens on sloping banks can benefit from the building of swales to capture and divert water as well as protect against soil erosion. Some inspiring farmers are now using hay and straw on sloping sites to cover soil and to build barriers to prevent soil erosion. These types of methods are far more sustainable than other traditional uses.

What we do in a small home garden can be duplicated on a larger scale by utilising the waste vegetation left after harvesting a crop and diverting it into compost or green manure depending on the type of material left after harvesting.

Combining Cropping and Grazing on the same property is a great way of eliminating weed growth  by strip grazing cropping paddocks before tilling or planting. To reduce the likelihood of transferring weed seeds from one area to another, farm animals should be regularly rotated between paddocks to prevent weed plants from developing seeds. Most animals will eat annual and perennial weeds but of the few they won’t eat like harder perennial weeds and rushes, burning is a good option of eliminating these from a paddock.

With a little outside the box thinking and a little bit of work we can easily build a soil up using organic gardening and farming practices while eliminating the need for chemical additives and encouraging soil micro organisms, beneficial bacteria and earth worms.

Commercial meat rabbit farming operations have become popular over the years and the manure is often sold as a sideline income source.

Where to find a supplier of rabbit manure:

You may find a rabbit breeder or farmer in your area that supplies rabbit manure or local nurseries or garden centres may stock the manure.

Farmers Markets may also be a good place to find the manure.

Keeping rabbits yourself may be an option to maintain a sufficient supply of manure for your vegetable garden. Cages should be designed so they are raised off the ground with wire floors to allow the manure to fall through for easy collection.

Rabbits can also be placed on the ground on top of your finished veggie beds. If their feed is supplemented with commercial pellets or food scraps they can remain in one spot for a week or more until they have eaten a section of ground bare. It is important to keep regular water and feed up to them.

5 ways to use rabbit poo around your home garden

• Rabbit poo is excellent dug directly into a garden prior to planting. Pre-dig your veggie patches or use a tiller or rotary hoe. Cast rabbit manure over the garden bed. 2 – 4 inches (50 – 100cm) is an ideal depth. Use a fork to roughly dig the manure into the soil.
• The manure can be added directly at the base of individual plants and watered in. This allows nutrients to slowly leach around the root ball of plants.
• Mixing a third of a bucket of rabbit manure with two thirds of a bucket of water can make a liquid fertilizer. Allow soaking overnight. Strain the liquid off into another bucket. Add 2or 3 cups of this concentrated liquid to a 10 litre watering can and water plants liberally. The solid matter left after collecting the liquid can be added to a compost heap or around trees or shrubs.
• Rabbit manure makes an ideal bedding material for worm farms. It is also an ideal supplemental feed or bulk feed if you will not be looking after them for some time.
• The manure can be added to traditional compost heaps. It is especially ideal where materials such as seaweed, that leach nitrogen from the heap are included.

Many Organic gardeners use seaweed regularly.

Seaweed can take a long time to breakdown especially when added as mulch. The longer it takes to breakdown the more nitrogen it is depleting from the soil.

5 ways you can beat the salt and use seaweed in your home organic garden:

• Store seaweed in a wire cage with no bottom. Leave the cage in an area that will not be effected by high salt levels. Let the natural elements wash and blow the salt from the seaweed and give it a regular wash through with fresh water.

• Shred seaweed and mix with equal amounts of fresh green lawn clippings. Use this mixture at a rate of no more than a third of total mix, in compost that includes chicken manure and hay or straw.

• Once the seaweed is well weathered and washed (a month during a wet winter would be sufficient) it can be dug into garden beds in preparation for spring planting. Using a trench composting method is ideal. Shredding is not necessary when digging into the garden.

• Chooks love to scratch around in seaweed. Placing seaweed on the ground and let the chooks scratch it over the winter months. This is an excellent way of eliminating weeds and adding extra nitrogen to the soil that the seaweed will deplete.

• Despite the high levels of sodium, seaweed is naturally high in other minerals that are beneficial to the soil and plants.

Seaweed used in the garden is not the same as the kelp often associated with seaweed/s. The seaweed used in the garden is more like a sea grass.

Something for you to try: I have had a lot of success growing organic potatoes under a mixture of seaweed and old grass hay. Lay potato tubers on top of the ground place loose hay around 12 inches thick. Add seaweed over the hay to another 12 inches thick. The seaweed will help prevent light from getting in to the tubers preventing them from going green. The seaweed will begin to decay as the potatoes grow. This hay and seaweed mix can be added to the compost heap or used as a mulch around beetroot, spinach, silverbeet or other beet crops. It will gradually break down and add more nutrients to the soil.

If you have read my articles before you may know I am not in favour of adding household scraps to a compost heap. Household scraps are the main reason a Compost heap smells and attracts vermon.

Household scraps do have a place in the garden however. I usually put these in my worm farm.

If you do not have a worm farm there is still several ways you can use house scraps in the garden.

In this Article we will look at Trench composting.

This is an excellent way to build up your Vegetable gardens fertility and get rid of your house scraps at the same time.

4 simple steps to start a Trench compost.

Start by digging a row in your vegetable garden. Now dig another row placing the soil on top of the first row so you create a trench. This trench will become your Compost heap. During the next week put your household scraps in this trench.

After a weeks worth of scraps have been added to the trench, dig another trench by putting the soil from the row you are digging on top of the waste you placed in the previous trench.

Step 3 requires repeating step 2 until you have your bed completely dug.

Once you have completed all steps above you will be left with a row of household waste and nothing to dig on top of it because you have come to the end of the bed. There are a couple of options for completing this step…

• Option 1: I prefer to use this option. Simply use some green/brown compost and fill the hole or empty your grass catcher in the hole until its full.

• Option 2: You can rake the raised garden you have created until the soil fills the hole.

There are several variations to this method of composting.

I have read articles suggesting a variation to include digging between widely spaced rows of vegetables. This can damage the root system of plants if dug too close. I do use this variation sometimes but I don’t recommend it to new gardeners.

Another variation includes simply digging a hole emptying a bucket full of scraps and fill the hole in. This is ideal around the base of trees and shrubs. It’s a good idea to place a marker where you have placed each bucket full to ensure you don’t dig in the same location for a few months.

Anything that was once alive is often what we are told should be added to a compost heap – with the exception of meat scraps, citrus and onions.

I like to break with tradition when making compost. A typical compost heap in my backyard would include shredded leaves, lawn clippings, hay (or straw) and seedless weeds. I would also add animal manure from rabbits, chooks or sheep, depending on what was available.

I never (or make that rarely) add household scraps to a compost heap.

Worm farms are increasing in popularity. Worms will eat their own body weight in food every day so in theory 1kg of worms will consume 1 kg of waste each day, though this doesn’t always happen in practice.

Household scraps are the ideal food source for worms. The average family would produce enough household waste to feed 2000 – 10,000 worms on a daily basis.

I therefore prefer to use a 2 step composting method.

• 1. A Green / Brown compost heap using yard and garden waste.
• 2. A Worm farm fed from Household waste and scraps.

Not putting household waste in a traditional compost heap also helps prevent vermon and reduces the typical smell most compost heaps have.

Plants grown in rich organic soil are by default strong and healthy. Earth worms cause a large part of this.

In his Book, Earthworms in Australia: A Blueprint for a Better Environment, David Murphy writes…

“The worms natural environment is the soil of the earth. They do well there and know it well, because it is their natural home and they have made a very significant contribution to its structure, stability and sustainable fertility. Healthy soil is a living organism, and worms are an integral part of it. The absence of worms is a good indicator of terminal disease. Aristotle called worms “The Intestines of the Earth”. He believed that the soil of this planet was a living holistic organism and understood the role of earthworms in its maintenance.

Soil without worms is noticeably less productive than soil with worms and far more prone to wind and water erosion. Such soil requires the constant application of fertilizers to maintain productivity. Eventually it dies…”

In his book The Green Gardener : Sustainable Gardening in Your Own Backyard Josh Byrne explains… “Green Manures are annual plant crops that are grown specifically to improve the soil. Leguminous species such as vetch, peas and beans are commonly used because they naturally take nitrogen from the air and fix it to their roots in tiny nodules with the help of beneficial bacteria. Green manure crops are usually sown in vegetable beds during winter, and they should be dug into soil just before they go to flower in early spring, when they contain the maximum amount of nitrogen. The crop will break down very quickly and the bed can be planted after two or 3 weeks.”