Holistic No-till Earth Systems
At Bhoomi Devi Seeds, we grow crops and seeds using no-till bed management and homegrown fertility abiding by the principles of permaculture.
We feel that the most significant element of our no-till practice is that crop beds are eternally sheltered with a dynamic blend of mulches, row crops, cover crops, and compost. With this system of permanent organic ground cover, soils stay moist without irrigation, are weed free, and biologically fertile. Crop beds are continuously generating fertility from the top down as mulches decay and compost is added. As cover crops grow, accumulate, and release their alchemic residues back into the soil, crop beds generate fertility from within themselves. By using permanent organic ground cover, the soil's microbiome flourishes. The microbiome contains a host of microorganisms that are responsible for building and maintaining soil and assisting plant communities. By leaving this beautifully complex web intact, everything from soil structure to nutrient holding capacity to vigor of the plants themselves will be improved.
Most contemporary agricultural practices rely on bagged minerals and bagged fertilizer that are sourced, mined, and shipped far away from the fields where they will be used. It is an unsustainable system. This extractive model breaks everything into parts and pieces and then tries to reassemble those pieces in the field. The truth is that soil fertility and minerals are abundantly available all around us, unrefined and in organic forms. At Bhoomi Devi Seeds we farm using a near closed-loop system of soil nutrition and farm exclusively with homegrown fertility. We generate fertilizer on the farm in the form of pasture grass and leaf compost, cover crops, leaf mulch & pasture mulch, ramial woodchips, compost/nitrogen tea and woodash. We use sustainably and respectfully harvested biomass from a neighboring ecosystem (the field and forest) to feed another(our crop beds). Trees and deep-rooted pasture species have the wondrous ability to mine deep into the earth for minerals to regenerate the nutrients we harvest in the form of leaves and plant matter that is composted to feed our agricultural crops. We take care to replenish these ecosystems with mineral-rich woodash and annually rotate our leaf catches.
Join us and learn how you can create and use your very own homegrown fertility on your farm and in your garden!
We see a future of truly sustainable small-scale farming that recognizes surrounding ecosystems as an integral part and extension of agricultural practices. We are trying to create models and blueprints of successful no-till systems of intensive cropping and production farming using homegrown fertility. We think this approach helps localize agriculture from input to output. It would also ensure the planting and protection of forest, orchard and field ecosystems to generate biomass and it would create opportunity for a community to up-cycle organic "waste" (think raked leaves and grass clippings), redirecting it from landfills and contributing it to local farms.
Our growing practices have always met and far surpassed the requirements of organic certifiers and at this time we are not yet certified. We have never used chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, or pesticides. We address pest management and plant health holistically by creating habitat for predator insect and bird species, supporting rich biodiversity, rotating our beds, and a host of beyond organic methods.
