Strengthen Soil
The most productive thing any gardener can do is to apply effort towards strengthening soil. Optimally, soil is strengthened as (1) organic material is increased and (2) an ecosystem approach to gardening is used. Out of the total time a person applies towards gardening, the majority of that time should be soil strengthening activities. If more time is being spent planting, weeding, watering, etc., the person is not being as productive as possible and neither will the garden. If fact, a gardener who does not spend a significant amount of time strengthening soil is like a person who tries to fill a glass turned upside down – some water is collected on the bottom of the glass but not nearly as much as is collected when the glass is turned upside up. A lot of wasted effort can be avoided by strengthening soil first and always.Save Seeds
(1) Saving seeds is an inseparable part of ecosystem gardening.(2) Saving seeds is cost effective.
(3) Saving seeds educates the person about the cycle of the gardening process. (4) Saving seeds provides a fair advantage. Each time a plant goes through a complete cycle, the plant's genetics are honed and tuned for the environment it is in. This honing and tuning is usually a gradual process. When seeds are saved, the gardener now has a more refined seed than the year before because the seed is more suited to the conditions where it will be grown. Do not allow gardening efforts to go to waste by not saving seeds. Plant saved seeds the next time you want to grow the same plant and you will start out with an advantage. In other words, saving seeds takes advantage of genius. (5) Many gardeners know that some seeds will not grow the exact same plant or fruit as the plant it came from. This is due to lower-self manipulation of the seed's genetics. This is okay because all that needs to be done is to start planting more heirloom (original, non-messed up) seeds in the form given by the Creator. Gardeners should start “weeding out” of their seed supply, all seeds whose offspring (more seeds) do not hold true to the genetics of the seed it came from.
