Projects
Mother Nature and us
We need to live in harmony with Mother Earth. We need to listen... We need to use all of our senses and listen to what she is saying. We need to look at her and feel her needs, which, at the end of the day, are our own needs. We need to touch her and understand what she is all about.
Care of the earth
The way of our ancestors with nature was gentler than today's ways. The indigenous ways to farm and harvest were also gentler than ours today. We need to go back and study these practices. Gilles is a descendent of the Algonquin nation and works with great care with Mother Earth. His knowledge can in turn be used to repair the damage done to our soils, and Mother Earth.
Gilles is a direct decendent of Roch Manitouabeouich and Oueou Outchibahanouk on his mother's Mother's side. Both Algonguin. On his mother's father's side, it would most likely be Mi'kmaq but the trace is nebulous and from the Acadian registries which are incomplete. His great great grand mother could be Mi'kmaq and buried in the US/border to New Brunswick where a Mi'kmaq reserve used to be.
The French upon their arrival on the continent learned the Indigenous ways and needed them to learn how to survive on this new land; even today the Quebec population still works using round tables of knowledge sharing and in order to reach decisions. The French and Indigenous intermarried for survival and for more!
Project 1: 2020.
Regenerating a field from bare ground.
Some Cover crop mixtures give different results. But they improve soil health. However you can get better results with a more appropriate mixture for your land situation.
When one does not have a penetrometer, a shovel works...
The cover crops open the soil and allow us to "push a shovel" deeper after 5-6 months
Test performed after a 5 month growth period.
On bare ground we have the impression that water sits on top of the soil (slow rate) while the water infiltrates the soil nicely under cover cropping.
Spring: April 2020 Fall: October 2020
Mycorrhizae appears during the second year of the regeneration. It is visible under microscopy. Aggregates are also seen attached to the mycorrhizae network. Microorganisms and plants secretes metabolites in the soil which trigger aggregation and exchanges.
One year Regeneration
These laboratory results demonstrate that all parameters of a soil (physical, chemical and biological) are improved under cover cropping and/or compost use. The bare ground is a demonstration of typical practices on fields where the soil is worked, in order to prepare the next crop. When we touch the soil, we lose!
here the management activities were modified which increased profit for this field.
Compaction decreased
Employee time, farm equipment use were decreased
overall "wellbeing" of the field was increased. Butterfly, bees, insects, birds and animal presence increased.
Project 2: 2022.
Regenerating a field from post harvest.
Chose the right cover crops mix, use a proper technique to regenerate.
Outcomes: less compaction, increased plant health, increased biology, plants that auto-seed, more profit, less work, healthier soil, GREEN cover crops at the end of the season.
REGENERATE IN 5 MONTHS
Lets introduce the concept of an "autonomous field": it is a field that does not require anyone's work, that brings in Mother Earth's intervention almost without the help of men!
Fallow field regeneration
Phase 1 of a regeneration project.
Cover crops R&D for conifer in a nursery
Cover crops choice, self-seeding trial, and weed control.
Cover crop selection for compacted soils
Compaction is problematic and along with it nutrient cycling needs to be addressed.
Trial on compost tea
Compost tea has been demonstrated scientifically and anecdotally to increase fields potentials for growth.
This project had many facets from weed management, to increased microbial population in soil, to disease control above ground.
Regeneration of a 100 year old dead field
This field had been farmed for over 100 years using very little organic inputs, lots of herbicides, and at the end soil was imported to increase the height of the field.
No soil structure was left.
Only a few bacteria were surviving in the soil with thriving very low weeds.
Before the regeneration project, sorghum could not even grow.