Hail to the Dinosaurs!
I'm running late with this morning's
email message because I've been working
in the garden.
But since gardening means fresh, healthy
food -- which all Dinosaurs need -- I
thought I'd share a bit about what I'm
doing.
We started a backyard (and side-yard)
vegetable garden four years ago. We
have very thick, clay soil, so we do
the gardening in raised beds. They're
made of 2 x 8 boards, and they
range from 10 feet to 20 feet in
length. They're 4 feet wide. We
have six raised beds.
You don't have to start like that. We
certainly didn't. We started small,
to see if we could do it -- and when
we discovered that we could actually
grow things, we started to expand.
It's like lifting. You start out with
a basic barbell and dumbbell set, and
before you know it you have five tons
of stuff in your garage.
We garden all year round, using small
structures called low tunnels to keep
the veggies from freezing. More on that
another day -- but for now, I want to
talk about my special nutrition program
for the garden.
The key to growing healthy vegetables is
great soil.
Great soil doesn't happen by accident.
You have to build it over time. It's
just like building strength and muscle.
And -- like building strength and
muscle -- nutrition is critical. Your
vegetables absorb vitamins, minerals
and nitrogen from the soil. The more
good stuff in the soil, the more good
stuff goes into the veggies.
So you want your soil to get plenty of
good stuff. To make it happen, you give
it special supplements.
Over the years, I've worked many tons
of compost into the garden beds. I use
100 percent natural and organic composted
cow manure and a mushroom compost blend.
I also have put in many big bags of peat
moss.
I make my own compost, as well, using
all the left-over bits of fruit and veggies
from our meals. Since we use fresh fruits
and veggies, we always have plenty of stalks,
stems, cores, peels and other inedible parts.
We chop them up and throw them into the
compost pile.
I also throw coffee grounds and tea leaves
from used tea bags into the compost pile --
along with crushed egg shells. I always wash
the egg shells first so there's no egg white
in them -- that wouldn't work well in the
compost. You never compost fat, meat or
similar foods. They don't break down quickly
enough, they create a bad smell, and they
attract critters.
I follow the Vince Gironda approach and
use kelp meal to provide extra minerals.
Gironda used to tell bodybuilders to take
kelp tablets -- I tell my garden beds to
take them!
I also use green manures and cover crops
to build up the soil. In the spring, I plant
peas. Peas are awesome because they actually
create nitrogen as they grow. The roots end
up covered into little nitrogen-containing
nodes that feed the soil even as the soil
feeds the pea plants!
Gironda used to talk about nitrogen balance,
and told bodybuilders they had to do every-
thing possible to maintain positive nitrogen
balance. That was the origin of the egg an
hour program, and it was why Gironda liked
liver tablets so much.
But peas beat the heck out of any of Gironda's
nitrogen balance tricks. Vince would have
loved it!
This morning, I planted some crops, but I also
planted lots of buckwheat in some of the beds.
Buckwheat is amazing. It grows super fast and
super thick, and smothers any weeds. It attracts
bees and butterflies, which help keep your garden
growing.
After five or six weeks -- before the buckwheat
to seed -- you cut it down and turn it under the
soil. All of the nutrition in the buckwheat goes
back into the soil, and the buckwheat bulks up
the soil so it's nice and light, with plenty of
air. You want light, airy soil -- it holds water
better, it makes it easy for all of the earthworms
and other garden helpers to move around, and it
makes it easy for the roots of your plants to
grow straight and deep.
I'm a bit late on getting the buckwheat in, so
I'm going to give it some help. As soon as it
starts to come up and form leaves, I'm going to
spray the leaves with a mix of water, kelp powder,
and fish guts.
The kelp provides minerals, and the fish guts
provide nitrogen -- and the buckwheat leaves
absorb the stuff after you spray it on. It's
like a mixture of Gironda's kelp tablets, Bob
Hoffman's Proteen from the Sea, and the spray-
on suntan stuff that bodybuilders use.
Sounds crazy, I know -- but it will increase
my buckwheat crop by about 40 percent.
The only thing left to do is to get my raised
beds on some sort of weightlifting program.
I haven't quite figured out how to do that,
but I'm working on it. Two or three Dino-
style abbreviated workouts would work
wonders for them!
Anyhow, that's how I spent the morning --
building the soil so I can grow better and
more nutritious vegetables -- so I get more
nutrition from my meals -- so I can recover
better from my workouts and lift more weight
when I hit the iron out in the Fortress of
Strength a/k/a The Dino Garage.
It may sound like a lot of work just to set
a new PR or two -- but if you're a Dino, you
know how sweet those PR's can be -- and you
know that you will do whatever needs to be
done to set them!
As always, thanks for reading and have
a great day. if you train today, make it a
good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Be sure to reserve your copy of my new
book, Dinosaur Dumbbell Training, during our
big pre-publication special:
http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- and
DVD's -- are right here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Strong soil builds
strong bodies." -- Brooks Kubik
