Agroecology Techniques for the Fall

Reader Contribution by Eugene Cooke and Grow Where You Are
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Leaves are falling. Time for planting low, small, leafy foods. It is also the time for clearing vines, melons, squash and sorghum. The yam harvest and pumpkin gathering will happen soon here in Atlanta. All the summer plant growth is a crucial organic ingredient and fuel for the compost alchemy. We are offered this season for refinement as well. Integrate the sweet, steamy lusciousness of summer inspiration for a deepening of purpose. The soil is cooling. All the moisture held in the mulch will be distributed to the plants and microbes.

Over the next few lunar cycles, we will plant fruit trees and berry shrubs. Garlic will be planted between the next full and new moon. We have begun opening compost piles and adding the finished material to planting beds for transplants. Collards, kale, broccoli, turnip, cabbage and mustard are already standing tall. The sunchokes are blossoming and soon they will lay to the ground signaling us to come dig up their delicious tubers. This week, we saw the first healthy wild oyster mushroom fruit from its usual spot on the planting mounds. It is cool enough now.

This is a brief sketch of agroecology in the urban, Southeastern region of the United States. In Pierre Rabhi’s book As in the Heart, So in the Earth: Reversing the Desertification of the Soul and the Soil, we get a lesson in indigenous Earth care and capital-driven mind control. Agroecology is the term that Rabhi created to resonate the balance that his practice of agriculture encourages.

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