You can take weeds and put them in a barrel and mash them up and ferment them with added microbes for a great tea. Some weeds are more beneficial than others but they are great sources of nutrients.
I’m still learning about them and which ones are best. Nettles are great. @Sebring fermented a barrel of comfrey and horsetail and added in the microbes to do the work. He may have better info on the weeds. I will by next year! I have plenty, lol.
Woot! Another SoCal neighbor! South Bay representing here!! @WMoon518 is also in SoCal. It’s a Cali party!
I personally only use wood chips as mulch in my regular flower beds cuz they look nice. Barley Straw in my veggie patch and been trying to get a decent living mulch going in my cannabis beds. I’ve had a bitch of a time getting the dutch white clover to fill the beds, in the beginning the birds kept snatching the sprouts and then eventually the plants just shaded the beds out too much. Luckily, it doesn’t get that hot here and mulch hasn’t really been too necessary in there.
Why do I suddenly feel the need to post this…
Greetings, Meesh! Love the pics and grateful for the soil info. One the New England coast here and had a banner year of Milkweeds for the Monarchs. They self seeded and took over a whole patch but sure enough the butterflies came, as did a pretty little beele opportunist. 
And have let some large furry leafed, taallll flower plants growing everywhere too this year cuz the bees are at them like clockwork every morning. The bees occasionally fly up to my second floor porch and buzz around the flowering pot plants but never stop. Any idea why? (Maybe cuz they have plenty of other tasties in my yard?)
Greetings! Gorgeous plants! The bees don’t seem to come near my cannabis plants either, guess there are too many other fun things for them to eat. I love butterflies, just not a fan of the darn caterpillars on my bud. lol Good to meet you! Feel free to share your plants with me anytime.
For anyone who isn’t following my outdoor cannabis grow, you can link here if you are interested. My monsters are starting to bud! Yay!
My love of growing started with my first cannabis sprout emerging from the soil. Then I came to OG and saw some of the outdoor growers here and their amazing gardens and it just sparked something. My entire backyard project all started so I could grow some kick ass cannabis plants in the ground like many of my gurus on here! Truly believe that this journey is making me a better cannabis grower. Understanding soil, nutrients, microbes and plants of all kinds has really helped with this years crop.
I quickly wanted to ask for @LemonadeJoe blessing on this thread since it strays a bit from all cannabis specific growing, although it is part of my garden and of course any and all things cannabis growing is welcomed and encouraged on my thread. My last thread was picked up and read by many outside of the site and I am hoping to inspire more people to join OG as they read about my growing journeys and hopefully start outdoor cannabis gardens of their own.
OC in da HOUZ!!! (Trying to be a little “gangsta”… It’s not working) 
There were a couple more folks from SoCal on here, one from LB area, one in LA and one more up the coast.
@1BillionDollars I used to use alfalfa for my regular garden down in TX. You are right, it works great.
I think gardening threads should be welcomed, and especially when getting into recharging the earth and putting it back in balance with local microbes, companion planting, and natural practices.
It’s our duty as gardeners to teach others about the “correct” (IMHO) way to garden and how we all have a personal responsibility to leave the earth better than we found it. And, since humans got way off track, and let the earth suffer, it’s even more important to keep that message at the forefront.
The bonus is, that you will most definitely grow better pot and tastier vegetables. And grow prettier and healthier flowers. You’ll also be providing much needed food sources for insects such as bees and butterflies.
So, I say promote the gardening threads… after all, you sort of need to know some of that stuff if you want to grow pot! heh…
Chive on Meesh! I enjoyed following your last garden thread. It’s a nice fit with the cannabis pics and info. I’ll be adding a thread of my own, too. I have a grow thread but haven’t been updating lately. But I want one documenting my learning process in the living soil journey. I feel like we need to tell everyone how to do their part, right in their own back yard. It’s addicting, too! peace
Sup? Just stopping in to say High…
Hey Man! Welcome! Thanks for dropping in!
Thanks for the warm welcome fella’s, nice to meet you. I think ag should be taught to everyone in school, music too.
@Shadowz ru wanting to know what this plant is? I believe it to be a mullein plant herbalist use their flower and various other parts of the plant for medicinal value the leaves soft and velvety are sometimes called Indian toilet paper for obvious reasons depending on what year it is the can get to 6-7 feet tall see them a lot out in pastures and meadow areas.
Well said @GMan couldn’t agree more myself @Meesh has put together and awesome thread that all can take advantage of wanting to learn along the way!
That is cool - thanks Tinytuttle!!! They are in the most inappropriate spots in my yard (in front of my garage door) and the one pictured were the small ones. And the huge leaves could prolly give Charmin a run 
Ya probably left by a local bird that came in a nice little fertilizer package!
I have a lot of those… My morning glories that just keep coming back and my full grown 2nd apple tree. They tried to start a 2nd macadamia nut tree in my front yard planter too, but seeing how my other one is 30 feet tall, I opted for the chainsaw. lol
@GMan Homie, you’ve been here awhile now and we love you, the time has come to find an avatar. I realize you are the “G” Man, but you deserve a fancier G at least… 
#upgrade
Yeah, you’re right! I fergot, heh… I suppose I have to put the bowl down to make it happen… there’s my problem.
I have to think about this… Thanks!
I really want to discuss chemical vs. organic fertilizers and my personal observations, thoughts and theories on the matter.
My auto cannabis grows I’m using as an example here, so we are talking container plants. The last batch that I harvested a few weeks ago got nothing but organic nutrients from start to finish. My fade was minimal. The batch that is almost finished now was organic until 2 weeks ago. As soon as I fed it a chemical, yes it greened up some and looked perky, but a week later, I started getting fade, big time. All the green was still greener, but it started eating itself… As if before the plant was given a fine scotch and kicked back and lightly sipped it. Whereas the Megacrop was like crack and the plant sucked it up like a big gulp then ran out and was too strung out to go back to sipping scotch. From now on my autos are crack addicts and they want to feed their addiction.
What this tells me is that when I grow container plants, especially annuals, is that you will get greener and higher flowering plants faster if you use strictly chemicals on them. Unless you have some that self sow and come up automatically straight in the dirt anyway the next year. Those container annual flowers like petunias, annual phlox, some snapdragons, angelonia etc…have a very short life. I think I want to get as much out of them as possible, especially since they have to rely on me completely for water and such anyway. If you really want to kick it up a notch, use a soilless mix and chemical ferts. Downside is… you can’t compost the soil after the season, possible chemicals in the groundwater etc… Having said this, all of my million container plants are in organic soil and I can say honestly that it doesn’t really do them much justice. If you had a small container garden only and want organic soil I think one would benefit more from creating a soil mix that sits for a few months before you put your annuals in and keep it going. Personally, I have way too much shit to do in the ground to make special batches of soil and such. Not to mention pulling out grass and weeds which I’ve been overrun with since basically May when I had life stuff prevent me from getting out there.
Any of the earth back there though can only have scotch as I want to try and preserve the earth, replenish it, get it as close to a balanced state as possible to sustain over time.
