Spring Garden Seed Wish List…Dynamic Accumulators!
I’ve made mention in previous posts about utilizing dynamic accumulators as a method to heal your soil and combat unwanted plants (AKA weeds) in your homestead garden and pastures. You can check out my musings on Soil Health and Combating Canadian Thistle without chemicals by following the links. Today I thought I would retouch on the theory behind dynamic accumulators, and provide you with a nice list of plants along with the nutrients/minerals they have a tendency to accumulate.
To recap the idea is that certain plants that have a strong, deep 
running tap root are able to penetrate the subsoil, mine nutrient and minerals not available in the topsoil, accumulate those nutrients in their stems and leaves, and make those nutrients available to other plants or soil organisms by depositing those plant parts on the surface (either through natural means or chop and drop style pruning/mulching techniques). So that’s the short version of how this is supposed to work and benefit your soil. There hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot of scientific studies to test the theory, but I have managed to find a pretty nifty PDF that was put together by the fine folks over at Oregon Biodynamics. They’ve done the sampling and put provide a good list of dynamic accumulators and the nutrients/minerals they will provide to your top soil. I’ve attached a link to the file below:
I plan on going through this list, checking my seed bank, and planting as many as I have into the new garden beds this spring! Along with that I’ll be looking into ordering some of these seeds in bulk to add into my pasture mixture as I overseed the pasture this spring to boost productivity and forage value for the livestock this year. Many of the plants on this list are edible or make a fine medicinal tea as well(no need to let the soil keep all that nutrition to its self right?!?!). Anyway I hope you find this info useful in your garden planning and seed ordering adventures!
