Kada's Garden Farm Soil: Before and after

The soil on our farm, and in the entire area, is a VERY heavy, almost clay, type soil. It has been heavily farmed for about 70 years that we know of and the soil has taken a real beating in Taiwan due to poor agriculture practice. Unfortunately most old school farmers of Taiwan are of the spray to kill and feed. Heavy pesticide and fertilizer use has lead to serious soil degradation.

When we first moved into the farm, it had a tree farm there before us and was thus not heavily sprayed as they were growing native trees to transplant to mountainous regions. Our first step with the farm was to plow it, as much as I did not wish to. Due to incredibly hard rain in typhoons if the land is not level there is sometimes serious loss of soil due to channeling. After plowing it rained pretty hard and made all that somewhat soft dirt into mud. At this time we could see that due to literally zero organic matter the soil had become anaerobic. It got that rust colour from the micro organisms that thrive in low oxygen environments and it stunk. Not nice stuff, in fact it was complete garbage. And it doesnˇ¦t grow much of anything but weeds without fertilizers, so says everyone around us.

At this stage in the game, there were 2 things going on with me and my planning. 1) I was in a massive rush to get the greenhouse built so I can start being serious about my cactus breeding projects and 2) I was completely ignorant about how fast the weeds grow in tropical areas. Also due to the soil being, to put it bluntly, complete shit, I was quite willing to let the weeds, at that time mostly Mimosa pudica, have a go at it and add a bunch of organic matter to the surface.

It wasnˇ¦t until 2010 when I started getting more serious in the farm and leafy plants that I realized just how bad weeds can be. But it was actually for the better. When you think that 1 acre of bare land can be literally completely filled with weeds about 2 meters (6 feet) tall in only 1 month, you can imagine how much organic matter can be added to the soil. And this is what became my goal. I planted some trees I liked and let them grow along merrily, and I began my task, which turned out to be a very labour intensive one, at cutting down weeds and letting them compost as is. I have been doing this now for about another 1.5 years. Due to the heat in the day and my thick blood I am often at the farm around 10pm to 2-5am working away. All these dead weeds, which are very dense and very tall, really add massive amounts of organic matter. And in this heat it does not take long to break down!

Now after almost 3 years the top soil has gone from ˇ§dead-grayˇ¨ to brown and there is also at any given spot/time 2-30ˇ¨ of brown plant matter composting away on the surface. This has also meant almost zero soil loss through floods and the amount of animal life on our land has skyrocketed. I will work on a table of animal life I have found on our farm, and compare it to a catalogue of species I found at the beginning.

I have also not had to add any manure since early 2010 and the plants show zero sign of deficiency. Now in the Fall of 2011 we have decided to turn the entire farm, minus the greenhouse, into a tropical food forest. This farm we hope to make a permanent green oasis for life that is beneficial to us humans and also does not rely on the killing via spraying of many animals. We witness many species disappear with chemical sprays, not just the targeted pests. And so we feel in a land of farms this is really a sanctuary for all species to come and be a little safe from human ignorance. At the same time this will continue to be a commercial endeavor. We will see how it works out.

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