Cloud layer gardening is a no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that adds layers to the soil like building Lasagna for dinner. Instead you are building your dirt. This method of building the soil, which is, essentially, adding layers of organic materials that will “cook down” over time. Your result? Beautiful forest floor dirt! I like to think of the layers we put on the ground as clouds, they regulate the amount of solar energy reaching the dirt. When we cover and protect the dirt like clouds we keep the dirt cooler and less water is evaporated as well as keeping the carbon in the ground which keeps the climate cooler. Keeping the climate in balance. This is also known as “sheet composting,” cloud layer gardening is great for the environment because you're using your yard and kitchen waste and essentially composting it in place to make a new garden.  And keeping the climate cooler. Rodale says:
“ This is recommended for all farms because it build soil organic matter,
which has far reaching benefits for plant health and farm sustainability.15 This
minimize biota disturbance and erosion losses while incorporating carbon rich amendments
and retaining the biomass of roots and shoots, all of which contribute to carbon sequestration
by photosynthetic removal and retention of atmospheric CO2 in soil organic matter.” Rodale White Paper

 What is carbon sequestration? 
The carbon cycle is a fundamental part of life on earth. 'Soil organic carbon' (SOC) – the amount of carbon stored in the soil is a component of soil organic matter – plant and animal materials in the soil that are in various stages of decay. Soil organic carbon is the basis of soil fertility.
Sequestration means maximizing the carbon dioxide pulled from the atmosphere by plant growth and minimizing the loss of that carbon once it is stored in soil. ... Regenerative organic agriculture is comprised of organic practices including (at a minimum): cover crops, residue mulching, composting and crop rotation.

One of the best things is you don't have to remove existing sod and weeds. You don't have to double dig or work the soil at all. The first layer is either brown corrugated cardboard or three layers of newspaper laid directly on top of the grass or weeds in the area you've selected for your garden.  The grass or weeds will break down fairly quickly because they will be smothered by the newspaper or cardboard, as well as by the materials you're going to layer on top of them.
Rodale says “We suggest an obvious and immediately available solution – put the carbon back to work in the terrestrial carbon “sinks”
that are literally right beneath our feet. Excess carbon in the atmosphere is surely toxic to
life, but we are, after all, carbon-based life forms, and returning stable carbon to the soil can
support ecological abundance. “

Anything you'd put in a compost pile, you can put into a cloud garden. The materials you put into the garden will break down, providing nutrient-rich, soil to plant. Add the following materials:

• Grass Clippings
• Leaves
• Coffee Grounds
• Tea leaves and tea bags
• Weeds (if they haven't gone to seed)
• Manure
• Compost
• Seaweed
• Shredded newspaper or junk mail
• Pine needles
• Spent blooms, trimmings from the garden
• Coir
• Wood

You'll want to alternate layers of “browns” such as fall leaves, shredded newspaper, peat, and pine needles with layers of “greens” such as vegetable scraps, garden trimmings, and grass clippings. In general, you want your "brown” layers to be about twice as deep as your “green” layers, Just as you might like different things for dinner, alternate different types of mulch for more balanced diet for your plants. layer browns and greens. I always put the nitrogen on top for it to break down quickly. Adding different types of minerals are also beneficial. Such as:

• greensand
• rock phosphate 
• bone meal
• granite sand
• lava sand 
• minerals plus

What you want at the end of your layering process is a two-foot tall layered bed. You'll be amazed at how much this will shrink down in a few short weeks.
When?
You can make a cloud garden at any time of year. Summer is an optimum time because of the heat breaks things down rapidly. You can let it sit and break down all winter. By spring, it will be ready to plant in with a minimum of effort. Also, fall rains and winter snow will keep the materials in your lasagna garden moist, which will help them break down faster.
Finish off the entire bed with three or four inches of finished compost or topsoil, and plant. The bed will settle some over the season as the layers underneath decompose.

When it's time to plant, just dig down into the bed as you would with any other garden. If you used newspaper as your bottom layer, the shovel would most likely go right through, exposing nice, loose soil underneath. If you used cardboard, you might have to cut a hole in it at each spot where you want to plant something.
To maintain the garden, simply add mulch to the top of the bed in the form of straw, grass clippings, bark mulch, or chopped leaves. Once it's established, you will care for a lasagna garden just as you would any other: weed and water when necessary, and plant to your heart's content.

Advantages:
While you will be maintaining a cloud layer garden the same way you would care for any other garden, you will find that caring for a lasagna garden is less work-intensive. You can expect:

• Few weeds, thanks to the newspaper suppressing them from below and the mulch covering the soil from above.
• Better water retention, because compost (which is what you made by layering all of those materials) holds water better than regular garden soil, especially if your native soil is sandy or deficient in organic matter.
• Less need for fertilizer, because you planted your garden in almost pure compost, which is very nutrient-rich.
• Soil that is easy to work: crumbly, loose, and fluffy.
• “With the use of cover crops, compost, crop rotation and reduced

tillage, we can actually sequester more carbon than is currently
emitted, tipping the needle past 100% to reverse climate change.
We know that agriculture has played a role in creating climate chaos
but, now, with your help, it can be part of the solution.”

Cloud layer gardening is fun, easy, and allows you to make new gardens at a much faster rate than the old double-digging method. Now your only problem will be finding plants to fill all of those new gardens!

“Simply put, recent data from farming systems and pasture trials around the globe show that
we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely
available and inexpensive organic management practices, which we term “regenerative
organic agriculture.” These practices work to maximize carbon fixation while minimizing the
loss of that carbon once returned to the soil, reversing the greenhouse effect.”





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What is organic: how does organic solve a problem?
Organic solves the problem of diversity. When we grow thing in a monoculture meaning only one thing. All the diversity is wiped out. Diversity is important for the relationships to flourish to pollinate and promote the food web of all beings of which we are apart. When we grow organic we are not polluting that food web with chemicals and fertilizers. When we use materials directly from animals, plants, minerals for gardening we are apart of the the food web. When we use chemicals we separate ourselves and are destroying other systems. It’s really not necessary.

Oh Lasagna Gardening
I do it bit by bit
I think I started doing because the materials are free and work very well
just aliitle grass here some leaves there, add some manure
and suddenly the plant is flourishing
the summer really seems like the best time because the materials break down so quickly
This year I had a lot of successs with wood mulch, which doesn’t break down quickly but it sure does hold the soil moisture
Carbon gardening or sequestration has really opened my eyes to why lasagna gardening has become so important which is what I want to share with you!
in Texas carbon goes out of the soil really quickly due to heat. I add it (wood, leaves etc)a lot because mixed with nitrogen (grass, manure etc) they make a complete diet for soil development.
in essence creating a forest floor

I realize I do a lot of things just to relax, just so I can think clearly. I eat relaxing foods, go to to chiropractor acupuncture massage (I wish) just to get to the work of clients feelings expectations and gardens and relaxing them. What if I were to build into activities the relaxation action of a modality as I go? What if we were to practice this.

How many of us don't feel welcome? Not at home, not at work, not at school.
When I look at it I realize I had a lot of fear growing up. I felt people didn’t understand or people around me had lots of feelings, that I took on as my "fault". I have carry this into adult life. I find it hard to feel I have a place in the world. Having feelings of not being welcome are widespread amongst everyone. They are universal. Everyone feels this in some way or another. So I hope when I heal it in me, I heal it in everyone!
The process of Ho'oponopono as I understand it is Hawaiian. Here are the words below that everyone needs to hear.
But how could you heal anyone by healing yourself?
When we heal our own emotional difficulties, we are able to heal everyone. We heal everyone by having the space for them thru our own words and deeds. Visualing them and saying these words makes a great ripple in the ocean of their suffering.
This is the truth: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, feel, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that dried up spring in the picture as the source of the San Antonio River, Trump, or anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal.
https://www.edwardsaquifer.net/saspring.html
They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you. "I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world. Simply evoke the spirit of love to heal within you. This will heal what was creating the outer circumstance.

1. I love you
2. I am sorry
3. Thank you
4. I am forgiven
5. You are forgiven
6. I welcome you
7. I respect you and all creation
8. I respond to everything in my life totally
9. The total universe is my creation and I am responsible
10. It's up to me to change.

I am beginning with I welcome you. When I hear it, tears well up in my eyes. It's hard to say. But I repeat it often. I really want all people to feel welcome on this earth. There are many of us. Taking responsibility for everyone is immense! As I look inside myself and I see all the ways I don't let my self feel welcome, I comfort myself and say I am sorry. I say it as many times as is needed. And then I let it go. When we feel welcome and accepted, we will welcome and accept all that is needed to care for it all.

"The process begins with prayer. A statement of the problem is made, and the transgression discussed. Family members are expected to work problems through and cooperate, not “hold fast to the fault”. One or more periods of silence may be taken for reflection on the entanglement of emotions and injuries. Everyone’s feelings are acknowledged. Then confession, repentance and forgiveness take place. Everyone releases (kala) each other, letting go. They cut off the past (ʻoki), and together they close the event with a ceremonial feast, called pani, which often included eating limu kala or kala seaweed, symbolic of the release." – Nana I Ke Kumu (Look To The Source) by Mary K. Pukui, E.W Haertig, Catharine Lee.

Mary K

I love this bee I found at the edge of the field where they are working on new construction at 45th and Bull creek. It's such a joy to see life even in such adversity. I struggle with talking about how this makes me feel, as do most everyone.
Things about this that make me angry?
A field stripped of its top soil, trees and vegetation; thereby eliminating any (bird, fish, insect) habitat, carbon sequestration holding or cooling air from the trees. I struggle with why we need another development. What we need more of is habitat, trees for carbon holding, cooling air, and top soil. but we live in a world where this doesn't seem to be valued or is it?
I value it! I know how much effort it takes to grow a tree or build top soil. I know I don't need a new development that brings more cars and less nature. How do I change this runaway rampant destructive cycle? I am just one person. We all feel this way, don't we? So right here right now this is what I propose:

1. Let's explore these feeling openly, honestly and loudly.
2. When you unleash your feelings and stop pushing them down, they come out and have a voice
3. When you have a voice you speakup when it is now needed!
4. When we all have a voice together the destruction gets interrupted
5. Let's talk to creation and ask what is needed, they want to help! (JOIN MY CLASS or here)
6. Love is the answer and the way
7. Greed is lack of Love, greediness is neediness or feeling a lack that you want to fill up
8. when you are filled with what you need you don't destroy
9. Really it's not outside of us that we need to change, it's inside! we need to love the destructive part of ourselves, the greedy part in everyone.
10. So let's practice. "I love you needy part of me that is never satisfied. Let me fill you up with everything you need today." 
​11. How can we practice this everyday in every way?

I wake up today with the hangover of a long week of bad news.
What do with the mad you feel?
What pushes my buttons about it?
I hate that I feel played by children in cages, women's healthcare in jeopardy, gerry-mandering.
I CAN stop reacting to these things designed to make me reactive, just to manipulate me.
They distract me, so I am used up for the other things that matter.
I have lived a lifetime of being second like every woman I know. I am done!
LETS CREATE A FEMININE WORLD TOGETHER!
What is so great is that we can decide to stop reacting now and reach for the feminine.
I woke up to this and decided to do my wonder woman stance. Put those hands on the hips ladies and feel your inner reserves and strength come forward to create.
Let's be like the sunflower and reach up to the sun with the many branches of our sisterhood.
I Breathe and do my wonder woman stance, I then cut sunflowers to take to my class for flower arranging.

Be a Good neighbor Rosemary day!Rosemary and friendship!
As for rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because my bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and therefor to friendship. — Sir Thomas More
I love celebrating this day because it is an opportunity to share your love to others. How fun is it to come home and find a gift on your door helps you feel appreciated when your lonesome!
Here we make rosemary gifts to give away to our neighbors, with a poem or message attached and be grateful for their gifts to our lives.

Oak Blessing
​Oh oak tree, how I love thee. Your strength and longevity. Your acorns for native people’s, you have feed countless generations. We stand on your shoulders. We survive because of you. How little appreciated you are. Many long lived trees are killed each year due to just mowing alone. Mowing compacts the soil and kills roots, especially Post Oak. It makes me weep to see another one lost. Mulch those trees you love and take care of them.
In this activity we make a blessing with the leaves from your yard. Its an old Dutch custom of blessing a house or barn with the geometry use of available plants and putting it on the front of the dwelling to bless it! I can help you make one.
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