My wife and I love gardening; it’s our favorite pastime, besides watching all things Star Trek. Utopias like the Star Trek universe aren’t built in a day, but from the sum total of their parts. We strive to use environmentally friendly principles in our gardening to lessen our footprint, create a more enjoyable space—not just for us, but for all the flora and fauna—and hopefully build toward a shared utopia from our own backyard.
As someone working at a marketing agency that specializes in the future of food, I’d expect nothing less of myself because I feel the utopia we can make tomorrow is the one I'm helping to create today—at work and from home.
My wife and I have slowly been connecting the dots on how environmentally friendly practices that went into creating our Certified Wildlife Habitat® garden are similar to those of regenerative agriculture. You’ve probably seen that regenerative term on your bag of tortilla chips, rice, almonds or any number of grocery items lately and wondered what it means and why food brands are touting it.
Put simply, regenerative agriculture is a methodology of farming practices that creates harmony with nature and natural resources. This can look like a system of sustainable farming practices that rebuilds organic soil matter (which plays a part in reversing climate change), uses less water, manages pests in environmentally friendly ways and creates a thriving ecosystem for all involved that will sustain us well into the future.
Ok, I may have lost you in the last few sentences. I think some examples will demonstrate what regenerative agriculture looks like and showcase the parallels between native gardening and commercial farming. Those similarities have become more obvious to me after seeing how brands we work with like Farmers’ Rice Cooperative, Pomona Farming and Sun Valley Rice put regenerative agriculture into practice.
Fertilizer Free
At home: Removing your lawn can be the start of many good choices in gardening. For us, it saved a significant amount of water per month and eliminated the need for additional fertilizers. To start, we “flipped the grass” which consists of digging up the existing lawn and turning it over on itself. The grass is rich in nitrogen, and as it decomposes after being buried, it helps feed the variety of new plants growing atop the old lawn. We also planted a legume family plant, silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons), a gorgeous California-native shrub, to “fix” nitrogen in the soil by pulling it in through its leaves and adding it to its own root structure in the soil. This negates the need for additional nitrogen fertilizers.
On the farm: Some farmers choose to plant cover crops like a winter legume/bean because it pulls nitrogen in from the air and deposits it in the soil for agricultural crops to feed on. This lessens the need for synthetic nitrogen. These cover crops later decompose and add their essence to the soil, helping with soil compaction, water retention and creating a thicker, richer soil.
Pollinator Paradise
At home: We planted many different native plants for all pollinators (bees, butterflies and many others) to forage on. Having one monoculture of grass doesn’t cut it to attract pollinators; most insects don’t care for grass at all. In our garden we’ve planted over 40 California native species including poppies, bees bliss sage, foothill penstemon and evening primrose.
On the farm: It’s becoming increasingly popular on commercial farms to seed wildflowers in orchards. On a recent farm tour with Pomona Farming, I saw wildflowers mixed in between rows of almond trees to create a smorgasbord of plant biodiversity for pollinating honey bees (Apis mellifera). I was lucky enough to see California native foothill carpenter bees (Xylocopa californica) hanging out with the European working honey bees. Having supplemental pollinators can be a free benefit to farmers.
For Our Flying Friends
At home: Giving space and a respite for birds with a simple fountain or water feature, or a place to build a nest in a bush, can add to the beauty and tranquility of a native garden. By creating this welcoming space for birds who then feed on a variety of insects, we can manage bug infestation without the use of chemicals or insecticides.
On the farm: Raptors and other birds of prey are welcome on farms via provided nesting boxes to help eliminate and eat rodents that could pose a threat to crops. As we’ve learned from our friends at Farmers’ Rice Cooperative and Sun Valley Rice, in the Sacramento Valley the rice paddies are re-flooded during winter to give a home for migrating birds along the Great Pacific Flyway. This re-flooding of the fields also allows the wildlife to leave more natural fertilizer and helps with the decomposition of the rice straw from harvest.
Progressive Pest Control
At home: We try to control pests naturally by using earth-friendly solutions. Besides creating a space for birds as previously mentioned to help with pests, we also use crushed eggshells around veggies to prevent slugs from boring into our cucumbers. Cultivating a space where beneficial insects like ladybugs eat aphids also helps contain unwanted pests.
On the farm: On a recent orchard visit, I was able to see a product called Semios in action. It’s a pheromone system used to disrupt navel orangeworms (Amyelois transitella) from mating. The amazing thing is that it uses no more than a few spritzes from a hairspray-sized can every few hours. This keeps the bugs from reproducing and spreading.
I love the outdoors, whether it's in my backyard or on a farm, I appreciate and enjoy both spaces so much. I, like many other people, want to keep my outdoor spaces as happy and environmentally low-impact as possible. Not just for me but all creatures. I also want farmers to succeed and grow the best bounty of food, and to be good stewards of their land. Selfishly because I love the taste of a good carrot pulled straight from a field with dark rich soil.
All of this is possible knowing the scalability of the principles of regenerative agriculture. Whether it’s the ladybugs frolicking in the garden, or a 5000-acre almond orchard bursting with wildflowers, those principles are helping make tomorrow’s utopian food system a reality today.
