Annelieke and her husband had moved to Sweden. There they had set up their own sustainable vegetable gardens based on EM and Bokashi. Read their wonderful story below.
I first went to see what plants and grasses were actually growing there to assess the soil quality. By examining that, you knew what deficiencies your soil had. Then we borrowed sheep from a friend to graze on our land. They had done some great groundwork for us this way. They ate a lot, fertilized, and removed leaves, which made pruning easier. Then we mowed everything short and started building containers on top, simply from old corrugated iron that I could pick up for free. I made oblong containers from them, simply placed on the ground with the bottom open.
I'd gathered wood in the woods, preferably wood that had been lying around for years so it would be full of critters. Before filling the boxes, I'd laid cardboard on the grass to block out light and prevent regrowth. Then I'd put a thick layer of wood and bark on top of that. Then I'd added a layer of grass to each box—just plain, green, wet grass. Next, I'd searched for leaves in the woods, adding a layer of leaf litter to each box. Then another layer of grass, followed by more leaf litter. Then I rang the neighbors' doorbells for horse manure; some of them had manure lying around for over 10 years. I added a thick layer of it to the boxes, followed by another layer of grass. We call this the lasagna technique. I could get soil from the municipality as a final layer to top off the soil. I didn't have enough for all the boxes, so I topped off a few boxes with horse manure. I knew from the past that you couldn't sow in horse manure alone, so I decided to give it a try. I deliberately chose crops that require a lot of nitrogen, like cabbage, beets, onions, leeks, and zucchini. I simply added them to the horse manure, and they grew like crazy! I'd never had such large onions or zucchini before, and it was much easier. I hardly had to weed, and they just kept growing. I also started collecting mushrooms from the forest and crumbling them over the beds; naturally, they were teeming with micro organisms. All of this combined resulted in fantastic soil, incredibly rich in micro organisms and insects. Nice, loose soil that allowed the roots to grow well.
This photo shows how rich the soil was. I hadn't sown anything there, but the compost and the rich soil caused pumpkins and tomatoes to emerge, still from the bokashi.
We also had an old-fashioned outdoor toilet, just a hole with a plank over it. Every few months, I scooped it out and put it in a separate compost pile, where I sprinkled effective microorganisms with some water. That compost pile was chock-full of fat worms and other insects. It was really good fertilizer; it didn't smell. After a few months, I could just throw it into the bins. I could also process my own vegetable and garden waste in a Bokashi bucket, which I could use to feed my plants. The bucket also produced liquid, which you could dilute with water because it was highly concentrated. It contained only beneficial bacteria. Perfect for watering your entire garden.
