November 17, 2023 • 16 mins
Have the balls to design for humans rather than consumer goods. Unless you are a landscaper by trade, you are likely using string trimmers and leaf blowers the wrong way. These devices are sold by challenging your manhood, yet make you look weak.
Do this to never blow another leaf, yet have your yard leafless. Do this to eliminate the need to string trim. You can have a lawn and still be holistic. While I’d rather you have a pasture, you don’t have to make so much noise and cause distraction to have grass.
This approach reduces the time you are working for big box stores. You’ll spend more time with your family enjoying your small farm or homestead. Today’s episode has advice that works for suburban and urban spaces as well. Throw away your string trimmer and leaf blower, you don’t need them.
Want practical tips on managing or starting your homestead? You’re in the right place. Join us at https://www.prosperityhomestea...
#StringTrimmer #LeafBlower #NoisePollution #RakeLeaves #NaturalLandscaping #HomesteadingSkills
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/prosperity-homestead--3659183/support.
Do this to never blow another leaf, yet have your yard leafless. Do this to eliminate the need to string trim. You can have a lawn and still be holistic. While I’d rather you have a pasture, you don’t have to make so much noise and cause distraction to have grass.
This approach reduces the time you are working for big box stores. You’ll spend more time with your family enjoying your small farm or homestead. Today’s episode has advice that works for suburban and urban spaces as well. Throw away your string trimmer and leaf blower, you don’t need them.
Want practical tips on managing or starting your homestead? You’re in the right place. Join us at https://www.prosperityhomestea...
#StringTrimmer #LeafBlower #NoisePollution #RakeLeaves #NaturalLandscaping #HomesteadingSkills
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/prosperity-homestead--3659183/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I have a hate for string trimmersand leaf blowers, and so should you.
And I'm going to share with youtoday, probably more than five reasons
why these hideous devices waste your time, destroy the environment, and ultimately take
you away from the homesteading success thatyou need to have, food security,
(00:23):
and the other aspects that deliver apeaceful life. Now I'm just in hit
with prospecting. I see, Ican't even think straight. I'm just in
hit with prosperity homestead And I'm gonnadeliberately slow down because I'm trying to record
podcasts this morning, and I hearthe droning and screaming of a leaf blower
(00:46):
blowing leaves hundreds of miles an houragainst the soil, destroying soil structure,
blowing seeds away, killing it beneficialinsects, and destroying the habitat. Besides
the fact that these divis ices aretwo stroke small engines and put out a
lot of pollution associated with the burningof not necessarily the burning of fuel.
(01:08):
You can use fuel effectively, anda two stroke chainsaw is different than a
It's equally noisy, but it's muchdifferent than a leaf blower or a string
trimmer. Because it doesn't cause thedestructive factor that we get with these devices.
Now, if you are in asuburban space or an urban space,
you might have gotten used to hearingthese things, but for me, it
(01:32):
drives me mad to hear a stringtrimmer. I had to get up after
the last podcast episode I recorded,and I walked over. I want to
make sure that I wasn't being attackedby Iranian drones or a drone swarm outside,
because there's somebody three houses over blowingthe leaves in their backyard and they're
(01:52):
walking back and forth and blowing leaves. Now, I know how these are
marketed, by the way the stringtrimmer and the leaf blower is a phallic
symbol that has men thinking they havea giant dick where they can swing their
dick around and blow stuff around.And I don't mean to be rude.
I just want to make sure youunderstand that the leaf blower and the string
trimmer is completely useless. Now we'vetalked about it in other programs. Perhaps
(02:15):
you've missed it, but if youmow your grass a certain way, the
leaves will not stay on the grass. Now what is that way? So,
first off, as we move towardsfall. We want to slow down
the period in which we're mowing thegrass and allow the grass to grow slightly
taller. Now what do I meanby taller, I mean five to six
(02:38):
inches tall. We do that fora variety of reasons. But first let
me explain what it'll look like,because I know some of you guys are
all panicked right now that you'll havequote tall grass. To me, tall
grass is fifteen feet tall. Fourfeet tall. It's not six inches tall.
Normal grass is six inches tall,which allows enough airflow along the surface
(02:59):
of the of the ground to keepthe grass from getting moldy or too much
moisture, but also to provide shadeto the ground so that during hot seasons
the ground maintains enough moisture for thegrass to grow consistently. Also, at
five to six inches tall, enoughairflow can get through the grass to keep
(03:19):
the grass dry, but also tolift leaves off of your lawn, to
blow them in the woods where they'reproviding nutrients for the trees and where they're
providing nutrients in the ground. Now, if you're in an urban space or
a suburban space, it might blowthose leaves all up against your fence,
and now instead of blowing leaves everywhere, nature has done all the work for
(03:40):
you. There's no need for anexpensive leaf blower. There's no need for
any expensive things to pull the leavesup off the ground, which, by
the way, a mulching mower willtake the leaves up off the ground too,
if you absolutely must have all theleaves up. But all the leaves
will blow up against a fence,or blow under some bushes, or blow
into the woods where they become mulch. And if they are up against your
(04:00):
fence line, that tells you thatit really ought to have a small garden
along that fence line. And thenyou wouldn't have to do anything because the
leaves would blow into the garden atthe end of your season and they can
serve out their useful life as habitatfor beneficial insects, as insulation for the
soil, as nutrients for the soil, and they could provide you free resource
(04:26):
in your garden. Now, what'simportant about understanding this is that we've completely
eliminated the need for expensive string tremors, and we'll talk about that here shortly,
and expensive leaf blowers as well asthe cost to operate and the damage
it's doing to your hearing. Ihave not seen one person that's a consumer
using a string tremor or a leafblower with the proper protective equipment. And
(04:53):
frankly a professional landscaper who uses thesethings because they're on the clock, they're
not gonna spend as much time asa consumer will swing in their big dick
around. Now this goes for womenas well. It gives you that vibration
and that power, that sense ofpower that you've got this engine blowing stuff
around. Do you see how theadvertisements work. They're always telling you about
(05:15):
how much it can blow. Well, it actually sucks a lot because with
landscape design, especially a natural landscapedesign, we can look at where the
leaves accumulate on the law the lawn. Anyway, I'm not against lawns,
especially if you're using them as grazingareas. But if you allow the grass
to grow towards the fall five inchesthe six inches tall, which is pretty
(05:38):
normal for grass, it allows thegrass to thicken up, It allows the
you know, a habitat for newseeds to accumulate. You can do this
after you've topped dressed it with compost. You can do this after you've ierrated.
But where those leaves blow is wherewe're gonna put large gardens, and
we're gonna put a large mulched areabecause those leaves are mulch. The tree
(06:02):
took all year to accumulate the nutrients, to accumulate the minerals, to accumulate
the carbon, to exchange it withsolar energy. Everybody's talking about solar energy
today, and yet the greatest resourcefrom the sun, which is biomass from
trees, is being bagged up andsent away. If you layer these leaves
(06:26):
over your garden space, over yourbulbed flowers, over different areas in the
yard, and because the grass isa little bit and I don't even want
to say taller, a lot ofthese fescues really do best at four inches
to six inches tall. Because you'reusing those leaves, whether you're composting them
(06:46):
or you're just letting them lay,you're now going to be protecting the soil,
conserving nutrients, creating habitat, andreally building abundance. Now I said,
we're going to eliminate the string tremoras well. When we talk about
natural landscaping, when we talk aboutpermaculture design, the string trimor itself has
no place except maybe under your fencing. You know, if you've got electric
(07:11):
fencing, maybe under your fencing streetyou can justify a string trimor. And
if you're walking two miles a fenceline, you're just gonna get that work
done and you're going to use theproper blades. You're not going to use
those little wires or the little plasticthings that chip off and end up polluting
your yard. But again, youcan eliminate the string trimor in an urban
lot, in a permaculture garden.You can eliminate the string trimor in a
(07:35):
suburban lawn by creating mulched beds thatedge your grass spaces. Now why is
this important, Well, the mulchbed allows you to ride your mower one
wheel over the mulch bed and cutall the way up to the edge without
cutting plants, without herding flowers,because we basically bordered the property with a
(07:58):
renewable resource, which which is woodchips, basic unpainted woodchips. You can do
this around the house. You're notgonna end up with termites. You can
do this around trees and other typesof the diicious plants that the trees that
are dropping all these leaves, andthen you can simply leave the leaves on
top of the mulch and then comespring refresh it with just a little bit
(08:20):
of mulch after the leaves have driedout and the temperatures have risen above fifty
five degrees, so that the beneficialinsects, the moths, the butterflies,
the food for birds can all moveto the next stage of their life.
Without a string trimmer, you don'thave to hear that noise, you don't
have to see all the dirt anddust kicked up. You don't have to
(08:41):
see rocks flinging across the yard.You can have a clean and pretty looking
design by doing this one thing,which is bordering your grass with mulched beds.
Now. I prefer garden beds.I prefer places to grow food,
fruits, vegetables. I prefer placeswhere we have bulbed and cut flowers or
(09:05):
wildflower beds. I prefer things thatcan layer this new nutrient in order to
build the soil more than ever before. Now, what problems might you have
using leaves to build soil. Mostleaves like oak and other leaves that fall
in in the spring, the fallin the fall and winter and come back
(09:28):
in the spring. Most of thoseare going to be a little bit of
cidic. So if your leaves haveaccumulated and you've layered them on your garden
bed, you're going to be protectingthat garden bed over the winter. You're
going to be able to sometimes haveroot crops over the winter, but you
may want to put in a littlebit of lime. That lime will help
balance the pH a little bit.But meanwhile, the leaves are going to
(09:50):
suffocate any weeds so that you haveless weed pressure the next season. These
leaves are going to be building ablanket over the winter, also going to
help soak in any snowfall or anyrain and prevent erosion. Now come spring,
do you need to till in theseleaves? No, No, you
don't need to till in these leaves. If the leaves get a little bit
(10:11):
compacted and they hold water, youcan use a fork, either a broad
fork to open up the soil andimprove the drainage, or you could use
a fork and some straw to turnover those leaves so that you continually have
this mulch layer of three to fiveinches of mulch on your bed. And
then you could just take your plantstarts, move aside the leave the leaf
(10:33):
broken down leaves, and basically justplant in the soil. Now, what
you're going to notice is when youpull those leaves aside, if the leaves
are mad it and you're not gettinga lot of airflow, you do want
to mix in some straw so youcan get better airflow, which is going
to help feed the right microorganisms tostart breaking down those leaves. But you're
going to want to just be amazedin the quality of your soil. There
(10:56):
was no hauling compost in a wheelbarrow. There was no turning piles of compost,
there was no digging holes and turningover double dig beds. They're simply
nature doing its job, just likein a forest. The only difference is
is if we're growing vegetables, wehave to bring the pH down or get
the pH right for the vegetables.But if this is around your fruit trees,
(11:18):
if this is around your blueberry bushes, if this is around your roses.
My grandfather had a beautiful row ofroses, and he would simply take
the leaves from his neighbors and putthem around all of his plants, and
then what leaves didn't cover the surface, because you don't want it to be
too thick. The leaves that didn'tcover the surface around the mulch, he
would put in the compost pile andturn that to make beautiful potting soil.
(11:41):
But then comes spring, he wouldsimply around the roses add a little bit
of untreated wood chips to kind ofhold down those leaves because once say they
dry out, they will blow arounda little bit. But again, if
they are thick enough matt, they'regoing to protect the root structure. They're
going to protect the soil enzymes andsoil health. They are going to provide
nutrients, minerals and other nutrients thatyour plants need. They're going to do
(12:05):
way more than the expense and thenoise and the frustration of leaf blowers of
string trimmers. Now we have theseedged beds which essentially have mounded mulch at
the edge of the grass. Themounded mulch is eight inches thick because we're
building soil over time, and thenwhen we mow that grass in the spring,
(12:28):
which you can mow it a littlebit lower in the spring, down
the four inches or so, becausewe might be top dressing we might be
overseating. I have a program aboutyear round green grass and it has a
holistic approach to managing your grass.But again, we're going to have one
wheel of the mower on the mulchbed so that we're mowing right up to
(12:48):
the edge, so we don't needany edgers, we don't need any string
trimmers, and we definitely don't needany leaf blowers because we're either bagging the
grass or we're chopping it so farwith a mulching blade that it's just going
to be absorbed in the soil.We're now composting in place. We're feeding
the earth, We're allowing nature cyclesto complete, We're supporting beneficial insects.
(13:13):
We've got birds that are having betterhabitat and nesting over the winter. We
may even leave some areas where arewildflowers or our cereal grains actually just grow
all the way out and build outhabitat mulch. In my particular situation,
I allow tall grass to grow onslopes so that we have nesting habitat for
(13:39):
birds over the winter, as wellas biomass accumulation as we convert atmospheric carbon
and sunlight into surface carbon or capturingcarbon. So again, please please throw
away your string trimmer unless you've gota big, long fence line. Well
even then, actually there are designsfor your fence line that don't need a
(14:01):
string trimmer. But again I digress. Turn off your leaf flower, especially
at eight o'clock in the morning.Get rid of your string trimmor and designed
for efficiency, which allows you tospend more time enjoying your law rather than
maintaining your lawn. Now, Iknow news media and the local ordinance and
(14:26):
the black and decker advertising and stealadvertising are going to keep selling you on
these phallic symbols of your power overnature. Get a chainsaw, cut some
firewood, or actually could use deadfall. You don't really have to cut down
trees very often. But again,let's use the appropriate tool in the appropriate
(14:48):
praise a place and design to reducethe amount of time and labor we have
to work. We don't work forlows, we don't work for home depot.
We want to work for ourselves.We want to have abundant gardens.
We want to be able to growfood. We want to be able to
spend more time with family and lesstime doing yard work. And there are
design methods that we've shared today.There's many more methods that we can teach
(15:09):
you. We can show you demonstrations, but ultimately, let's work smarter rather
than harder, and then let's cutout a lot of this surplus automation because
nature can take care of itself.Nature can, with a little bit of
guidance, can do a lot ofthis work for you. It's just a
(15:31):
matter of getting in touch with theenvironment around you, observing the environment around
you, using permaculture principles again togrow food, to build family, to
build community, to build that homesteadthat you're dreaming about. I'm justin hit
with prosperity homestead, where we helpyou get your homestead up and running,
(15:52):
and we get it through sustainability,through subsidence, into a prosperous homestead that
you can build a generation of memoriesand you can have food security, physical
security, and all those things thatwe need today in this modern world.
It is chaotic that someone would thinkthat blowing the leaves and destroying soil structure
is actually beneficial. But again,we've been conditioned to believe certain things that
(16:17):
are not so. But allow usto continue this consumer mindset. I want
you to be a producer. Iwant you to be able to produce and
feel confident in your homestead, startingright now. If you have any questions
about what I've covered today, maybeeven suggestions, or you want additional free
content, visit us at www dotprosperityhomestead dot org, join our free newsletter,
(16:42):
or go to the contact page toask your questions. Thanks for listening.
I'm just a hit with Prosperity Homestead
I have a hate for string trimmersand leaf blowers, and so should you.
And I'm going to share with youtoday, probably more than five reasons
why these hideous devices waste your time, destroy the environment, and ultimately take
you away from the homesteading success thatyou need to have, food security,
(00:23):
and the other aspects that deliver apeaceful life. Now I'm just in hit
with prospecting. I see, Ican't even think straight. I'm just in
hit with prosperity homestead And I'm gonnadeliberately slow down because I'm trying to record
podcasts this morning, and I hearthe droning and screaming of a leaf blower
(00:46):
blowing leaves hundreds of miles an houragainst the soil, destroying soil structure,
blowing seeds away, killing it beneficialinsects, and destroying the habitat. Besides
the fact that these divis ices aretwo stroke small engines and put out a
lot of pollution associated with the burningof not necessarily the burning of fuel.
(01:08):
You can use fuel effectively, anda two stroke chainsaw is different than a
It's equally noisy, but it's muchdifferent than a leaf blower or a string
trimmer. Because it doesn't cause thedestructive factor that we get with these devices.
Now, if you are in asuburban space or an urban space,
you might have gotten used to hearingthese things, but for me, it
(01:32):
drives me mad to hear a stringtrimmer. I had to get up after
the last podcast episode I recorded,and I walked over. I want to
make sure that I wasn't being attackedby Iranian drones or a drone swarm outside,
because there's somebody three houses over blowingthe leaves in their backyard and they're
(01:52):
walking back and forth and blowing leaves. Now, I know how these are
marketed, by the way the stringtrimmer and the leaf blower is a phallic
symbol that has men thinking they havea giant dick where they can swing their
dick around and blow stuff around.And I don't mean to be rude.
I just want to make sure youunderstand that the leaf blower and the string
trimmer is completely useless. Now we'vetalked about it in other programs. Perhaps
(02:15):
you've missed it, but if youmow your grass a certain way, the
leaves will not stay on the grass. Now what is that way? So,
first off, as we move towardsfall. We want to slow down
the period in which we're mowing thegrass and allow the grass to grow slightly
taller. Now what do I meanby taller, I mean five to six
(02:38):
inches tall. We do that fora variety of reasons. But first let
me explain what it'll look like,because I know some of you guys are
all panicked right now that you'll havequote tall grass. To me, tall
grass is fifteen feet tall. Fourfeet tall. It's not six inches tall.
Normal grass is six inches tall,which allows enough airflow along the surface
(02:59):
of the of the ground to keepthe grass from getting moldy or too much
moisture, but also to provide shadeto the ground so that during hot seasons
the ground maintains enough moisture for thegrass to grow consistently. Also, at
five to six inches tall, enoughairflow can get through the grass to keep
(03:19):
the grass dry, but also tolift leaves off of your lawn, to
blow them in the woods where they'reproviding nutrients for the trees and where they're
providing nutrients in the ground. Now, if you're in an urban space or
a suburban space, it might blowthose leaves all up against your fence,
and now instead of blowing leaves everywhere, nature has done all the work for
(03:40):
you. There's no need for anexpensive leaf blower. There's no need for
any expensive things to pull the leavesup off the ground, which, by
the way, a mulching mower willtake the leaves up off the ground too,
if you absolutely must have all theleaves up. But all the leaves
will blow up against a fence,or blow under some bushes, or blow
into the woods where they become mulch. And if they are up against your
(04:00):
fence line, that tells you thatit really ought to have a small garden
along that fence line. And thenyou wouldn't have to do anything because the
leaves would blow into the garden atthe end of your season and they can
serve out their useful life as habitatfor beneficial insects, as insulation for the
soil, as nutrients for the soil, and they could provide you free resource
(04:26):
in your garden. Now, what'simportant about understanding this is that we've completely
eliminated the need for expensive string tremors, and we'll talk about that here shortly,
and expensive leaf blowers as well asthe cost to operate and the damage
it's doing to your hearing. Ihave not seen one person that's a consumer
using a string tremor or a leafblower with the proper protective equipment. And
(04:53):
frankly a professional landscaper who uses thesethings because they're on the clock, they're
not gonna spend as much time asa consumer will swing in their big dick
around. Now this goes for womenas well. It gives you that vibration
and that power, that sense ofpower that you've got this engine blowing stuff
around. Do you see how theadvertisements work. They're always telling you about
(05:15):
how much it can blow. Well, it actually sucks a lot because with
landscape design, especially a natural landscapedesign, we can look at where the
leaves accumulate on the law the lawn. Anyway, I'm not against lawns,
especially if you're using them as grazingareas. But if you allow the grass
to grow towards the fall five inchesthe six inches tall, which is pretty
(05:38):
normal for grass, it allows thegrass to thicken up, It allows the
you know, a habitat for newseeds to accumulate. You can do this
after you've topped dressed it with compost. You can do this after you've ierrated.
But where those leaves blow is wherewe're gonna put large gardens, and
we're gonna put a large mulched areabecause those leaves are mulch. The tree
(06:02):
took all year to accumulate the nutrients, to accumulate the minerals, to accumulate
the carbon, to exchange it withsolar energy. Everybody's talking about solar energy
today, and yet the greatest resourcefrom the sun, which is biomass from
trees, is being bagged up andsent away. If you layer these leaves
(06:26):
over your garden space, over yourbulbed flowers, over different areas in the
yard, and because the grass isa little bit and I don't even want
to say taller, a lot ofthese fescues really do best at four inches
to six inches tall. Because you'reusing those leaves, whether you're composting them
(06:46):
or you're just letting them lay,you're now going to be protecting the soil,
conserving nutrients, creating habitat, andreally building abundance. Now I said,
we're going to eliminate the string tremoras well. When we talk about
natural landscaping, when we talk aboutpermaculture design, the string trimor itself has
no place except maybe under your fencing. You know, if you've got electric
(07:11):
fencing, maybe under your fencing streetyou can justify a string trimor. And
if you're walking two miles a fenceline, you're just gonna get that work
done and you're going to use theproper blades. You're not going to use
those little wires or the little plasticthings that chip off and end up polluting
your yard. But again, youcan eliminate the string trimor in an urban
lot, in a permaculture garden.You can eliminate the string trimor in a
(07:35):
suburban lawn by creating mulched beds thatedge your grass spaces. Now why is
this important, Well, the mulchbed allows you to ride your mower one
wheel over the mulch bed and cutall the way up to the edge without
cutting plants, without herding flowers,because we basically bordered the property with a
(07:58):
renewable resource, which which is woodchips, basic unpainted woodchips. You can do
this around the house. You're notgonna end up with termites. You can
do this around trees and other typesof the diicious plants that the trees that
are dropping all these leaves, andthen you can simply leave the leaves on
top of the mulch and then comespring refresh it with just a little bit
(08:20):
of mulch after the leaves have driedout and the temperatures have risen above fifty
five degrees, so that the beneficialinsects, the moths, the butterflies,
the food for birds can all moveto the next stage of their life.
Without a string trimmer, you don'thave to hear that noise, you don't
have to see all the dirt anddust kicked up. You don't have to
(08:41):
see rocks flinging across the yard.You can have a clean and pretty looking
design by doing this one thing,which is bordering your grass with mulched beds.
Now. I prefer garden beds.I prefer places to grow food,
fruits, vegetables. I prefer placeswhere we have bulbed and cut flowers or
(09:05):
wildflower beds. I prefer things thatcan layer this new nutrient in order to
build the soil more than ever before. Now, what problems might you have
using leaves to build soil. Mostleaves like oak and other leaves that fall
in in the spring, the fallin the fall and winter and come back
(09:28):
in the spring. Most of thoseare going to be a little bit of
cidic. So if your leaves haveaccumulated and you've layered them on your garden
bed, you're going to be protectingthat garden bed over the winter. You're
going to be able to sometimes haveroot crops over the winter, but you
may want to put in a littlebit of lime. That lime will help
balance the pH a little bit.But meanwhile, the leaves are going to
(09:50):
suffocate any weeds so that you haveless weed pressure the next season. These
leaves are going to be building ablanket over the winter, also going to
help soak in any snowfall or anyrain and prevent erosion. Now come spring,
do you need to till in theseleaves? No, No, you
don't need to till in these leaves. If the leaves get a little bit
(10:11):
compacted and they hold water, youcan use a fork, either a broad
fork to open up the soil andimprove the drainage, or you could use
a fork and some straw to turnover those leaves so that you continually have
this mulch layer of three to fiveinches of mulch on your bed. And
then you could just take your plantstarts, move aside the leave the leaf
(10:33):
broken down leaves, and basically justplant in the soil. Now, what
you're going to notice is when youpull those leaves aside, if the leaves
are mad it and you're not gettinga lot of airflow, you do want
to mix in some straw so youcan get better airflow, which is going
to help feed the right microorganisms tostart breaking down those leaves. But you're
going to want to just be amazedin the quality of your soil. There
(10:56):
was no hauling compost in a wheelbarrow. There was no turning piles of compost,
there was no digging holes and turningover double dig beds. They're simply
nature doing its job, just likein a forest. The only difference is
is if we're growing vegetables, wehave to bring the pH down or get
the pH right for the vegetables.But if this is around your fruit trees,
(11:18):
if this is around your blueberry bushes, if this is around your roses.
My grandfather had a beautiful row ofroses, and he would simply take
the leaves from his neighbors and putthem around all of his plants, and
then what leaves didn't cover the surface, because you don't want it to be
too thick. The leaves that didn'tcover the surface around the mulch, he
would put in the compost pile andturn that to make beautiful potting soil.
(11:41):
But then comes spring, he wouldsimply around the roses add a little bit
of untreated wood chips to kind ofhold down those leaves because once say they
dry out, they will blow arounda little bit. But again, if
they are thick enough matt, they'regoing to protect the root structure. They're
going to protect the soil enzymes andsoil health. They are going to provide
nutrients, minerals and other nutrients thatyour plants need. They're going to do
(12:05):
way more than the expense and thenoise and the frustration of leaf blowers of
string trimmers. Now we have theseedged beds which essentially have mounded mulch at
the edge of the grass. Themounded mulch is eight inches thick because we're
building soil over time, and thenwhen we mow that grass in the spring,
(12:28):
which you can mow it a littlebit lower in the spring, down
the four inches or so, becausewe might be top dressing we might be
overseating. I have a program aboutyear round green grass and it has a
holistic approach to managing your grass.But again, we're going to have one
wheel of the mower on the mulchbed so that we're mowing right up to
(12:48):
the edge, so we don't needany edgers, we don't need any string
trimmers, and we definitely don't needany leaf blowers because we're either bagging the
grass or we're chopping it so farwith a mulching blade that it's just going
to be absorbed in the soil.We're now composting in place. We're feeding
the earth, We're allowing nature cyclesto complete, We're supporting beneficial insects.
(13:13):
We've got birds that are having betterhabitat and nesting over the winter. We
may even leave some areas where arewildflowers or our cereal grains actually just grow
all the way out and build outhabitat mulch. In my particular situation,
I allow tall grass to grow onslopes so that we have nesting habitat for
(13:39):
birds over the winter, as wellas biomass accumulation as we convert atmospheric carbon
and sunlight into surface carbon or capturingcarbon. So again, please please throw
away your string trimmer unless you've gota big, long fence line. Well
even then, actually there are designsfor your fence line that don't need a
(14:01):
string trimmer. But again I digress. Turn off your leaf flower, especially
at eight o'clock in the morning.Get rid of your string trimmor and designed
for efficiency, which allows you tospend more time enjoying your law rather than
maintaining your lawn. Now, Iknow news media and the local ordinance and
(14:26):
the black and decker advertising and stealadvertising are going to keep selling you on
these phallic symbols of your power overnature. Get a chainsaw, cut some
firewood, or actually could use deadfall. You don't really have to cut down
trees very often. But again,let's use the appropriate tool in the appropriate
(14:48):
praise a place and design to reducethe amount of time and labor we have
to work. We don't work forlows, we don't work for home depot.
We want to work for ourselves.We want to have abundant gardens.
We want to be able to growfood. We want to be able to
spend more time with family and lesstime doing yard work. And there are
design methods that we've shared today.There's many more methods that we can teach
(15:09):
you. We can show you demonstrations, but ultimately, let's work smarter rather
than harder, and then let's cutout a lot of this surplus automation because
nature can take care of itself.Nature can, with a little bit of
guidance, can do a lot ofthis work for you. It's just a
(15:31):
matter of getting in touch with theenvironment around you, observing the environment around
you, using permaculture principles again togrow food, to build family, to
build community, to build that homesteadthat you're dreaming about. I'm justin hit
with prosperity homestead, where we helpyou get your homestead up and running,
(15:52):
and we get it through sustainability,through subsidence, into a prosperous homestead that
you can build a generation of memoriesand you can have food security, physical
security, and all those things thatwe need today in this modern world.
It is chaotic that someone would thinkthat blowing the leaves and destroying soil structure
is actually beneficial. But again,we've been conditioned to believe certain things that
(16:17):
are not so. But allow usto continue this consumer mindset. I want
you to be a producer. Iwant you to be able to produce and
feel confident in your homestead, startingright now. If you have any questions
about what I've covered today, maybeeven suggestions, or you want additional free
content, visit us at www dotprosperityhomestead dot org, join our free newsletter,
(16:42):
or go to the contact page toask your questions. Thanks for listening.
I'm just a hit with Prosperity Homestead
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