on of soil there may be a billion microorganisms, with perhaps 10,000 species represented. It will take us several hundred years to understand how life itself is perpetuated on this planet.
Because each plant community is unique to its own region, soil profiles are unique as well. Out of this knowledge of local soil’s unique microbiology, we will learn how to create food systems that evolve from our local ecological networks.Our approach at The MB Center is to copy nature and grow intellectually to interpret its microbial complexities, as time will allow us to do. So, until we have more knowledge, we follow the principles of forest ecology to grow food. We copy a natural system that renews itself.
These are the principles of a growing movement, a global agricultural revolution called regenerative agriculture. Our work in San Jose, Africa, India, France and Chile is all based on these local ecological principles combined with regen ag methodology.
Never leave the soil exposed to the sun. Overplant. Plant many species. Establish polyculture. Always add organic matter from the top down. Disturb the soil as little as possible. Plant food plants in close proximity to native plants that are organized as local systems.
In addition, we harvest daily. We add other food systems that stack function and increase production, like vertical gardens or aquaponics. We grow many categories of plant foods like native edibles, nitrogen fixing plants, super foods, perennial foods, drought tolerant foods and comfort foods.
Join the ecovillage movement
Come, visit and join our community.
Join us for our second annual Makers Faire and the grand opening of San Jose’s first eco village. Come and welcome all our partners in this local ecovillage.
Mindful Ways, Mindful Aging Project, Epic Coffee, MB Native plant nursery, Engineers Without Borders, SJSU, EPICs program students from SJSU, our student interns, Good News Wood Salvation, Miss Pat Art classes, Lisa Wong, acupuncturist, and of course, Middlebrook Gardens and The California Native Garden Foundation and Ameritrade, our new partner in financial contributions and investments.
And let’s not forget the many maker vendors who will be coming to our Makers Faire. To be a vendor you must have made or personally created what you will be selling.
You’ll be receiving regular email blasts, social media posts and watch for beautiful posters in the neighborhood. Tell your friends! Help us celebrate. And when you come, notice the yards and street scapes on your way to the Center. Do they look different than the gardens at our eco-village?
Think a minute. What will our future cities look like? Will they look productive? Will they (we) be able to sustain themselves (us) like a forest does? Do these neighborhood yards grow food? Protect natural systems? Protect biodiversity?
Or will we have to keep using fossil fuel energy to maintain them? Which landscape can endure? How will you describe what the city of the future looks like?