I'm in favor of no till farming/gardening... but!!!!

jbest123

16 years ago

I'm in favor of no till farming/gardening but i would hate to see something like this disappear entirely.

John

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Comments (11)

flatlander
16 years ago
my grandfather plowed with mules. sure brings back thoughts of a simplier time. of course, i also remember how angry he would get when the mules wouldn't do what he wanted them to do, and how hard the work was.
shellva
16 years ago
This photo sure does bring up nostalgic feelings...but it also reminds me of how bad my body hurts after a day of hard gardening....where's the aspirin?
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Q
Comments (16)
Well, a rainy day and time to get back to the forum. Thanks for the encouragement, all. Hi Mabel. West Paris is a pretty friendly place, judging from all the folk who stop by to talk gardening or strangers who see me in the General Store and comment on the garden. (I do spend a lot of time out there and the garden is right on the road so the "new guy with the garden that moved in over at Mrs. L's house" has become a topic of conversation around town, I'm told.) Thought I'd take a couple of minutes and post some pictures that I posted earlier on another forum I participate in. The garden is progressing pretty well and I'm generally happy with what got done this first year thought there is a whole lot of room for improvement and better planning. (I do tend to be overly critical of my own work, although too forgiving of other's. A bad trait for an engineering manager, I suppose, but that's me, I guess.) I did manage to get most of the weeds in check these past couple of weeks, so that's something to crow about. I centered the garden between two Red Maples and around the enormous lilac that falls dead center between them. Here's some views taken a few weeks ago: The west side: Finished the fence and only a little of that soil is still unplanted. Fall crops like kale and late snap peas will go there. One of the broccoli beds: (harvesting every day now!) And the east side: Following is a picture of the lilac that is at the core of the garden, taken earlier in the season. As I worked on the east side of the garden, the first half I focused on, the breeze from the west made the scent a constant fixture. I'd like to eventually cut it back to about 2/3rds its current size to make it a little less overwhelming and a little less shade-casting. This is where the main gate on the road-side will be. I still haven't gotten around to building a proper garden gate, but that is on top of my (ever-growing) wish-list. Wayne
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No Till Gardening
Q
Comments (5)
I tried round up and killed everything I had planted (even though I "protected it"). I had a tractor come in early winter and till with the concept that it turns up the grass and weeds so they freeze out during the winter (doesn't work). I tried landscape fabric (disaster, grass and weeds under, through and on top). I tried turning, weeding and covering with thick wet newspapers, then covering with landscape fabric and cedar mulch to hold it down...its covered in weeds and grass, but I can "roll it back" and the ground underneath is beautiful and ready after a year of hiding (but it was a small experiment to expand my rose garden). I'm now of the belief that mulch is the only answer. The less we disturb the soil, the healthier it can be with its own eco system. The only time I till is if I'm digging a hole for a bush/tree, then I till in the hole with a small tiller, then till the top soil into the hole, then till the clay/ hard stuff from the hole back into replacement 'topsoil'. From then on its strictly mowed grass/clover/leaves as organic mulch. (Although for this year's 'new March additions' I was short and put on cottonseed hulls.) Weed seeds that sprout on top of mulch are a flash to pull up. I've been amazed to see grass thickly growing everywhere right up to the edge of anywhere I have mulched. And when I 'weed' everything is filled with spiders, frogs, turtles, earthworms and beneficials. I have an orchard that is a continuing challenge, but I now mulch 6 foot circles around the trees and mow paths to them and just let the grass in between grow for the beneficials... or at least that's this year's plan (LOL) (I do occasionally 'till' a grass edge to weed it to expand a mulch area, but I may in the future try just mulching over the grass.) I have concerns that plastic and some other methods do not allow air and water circulation for a healthy beneficial soil to develop. So my vote is to mulch not till...
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How often do you dig/till your gardens?
Q
Comments (17)
I just finished planting tomatoes in my new-as-of-last-year garden 'humps', or raised beds on the cheap. Three weeks ago, we emptied the compost bin and put a heaping shovel full of compost in a pile along the humps where we wanted to plant the tomatoes. Today was a pretty good objective lesson on what worms can do for you. Under every shovel full of compost, the worms had gone to work, and the soil was amazingly soft and easy to scoop out for the tomato roots. Every scoop had numerous happy worms. Just beside these compost mounds, the exposed soil was considerably denser and more difficult to work. And when I brush off the dried grass clipping mulch, you can see dozens of little worm heads disappearing back under ground.
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I'm about to give up on my garden :(
Q
Comments (15)
Dave brings up some good points, as usual. :-) If you are in zone 5, I would not say that planting the end of May was too late. Especially this year, with the winter and early spring weÃ¢ÂÂve had. Tomatoes and peppers, sweet potatoes, they all want heat and sun, right? We still have a lot of that ahead in July and August. If you can get your soil checked and stop adding anything more until you find out what the soil test says, you may still be able to get your garden growing. I grow organically, so I donÃ¢ÂÂt use synthetic fertilizers like 12-12-12 or Miracle Grow, so I donÃ¢ÂÂt have experience with using those, but with synthetic fertilizers, thereÃ¢ÂÂs always the possibility you are adding too much. The soil test will determine the level of nutrients in the soil as well as the PH. I see you are adding grass clippings and I use those as well, but my own grass has not had anything applied to it and I do mix them with chopped brown leaves from the Fall. That is good organic matter, which your soil needs, if they have not been treated with any chemicals. Not sure about using the leftover plant material. If it was healthy leftovers and they were broken up into smaller pieces that could be okay. One thing that did catch my eye, is the crop growing next to your garden. Is that corn? Is it your own corn or a neighborÃ¢ÂÂs? Do you know if it has had any pesticide sprayed on it or is a lot of synthetic fertilizer being used on that too?
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hoorayfororganic
16 years ago
I see that as primitive and erroneous. Screw the nostalgia, it isn't worth it.
jbest123
Original Author
16 years ago
There are those that consider themselves as organic farmers/gardeners and say screw contemporary organics they are erroneous. I donÂt think we want to get into a pissing contest.

John
hoorayfororganic
16 years ago
It's been shown that tilling, without a doubt, is damaging to an already healthy soil system. Those that reject it are just in denial.
jbest123
Original Author
16 years ago
hoorayfororganic, reread the last sentance of the previous post.

John
lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
Tilling has proven to be benefical only if the fungi ratio to bacterial is off the chart for vegetable crop. Tilling kills fungi, reduce the ratio closer to 1:1 ratio for growing vegetables. Otherwise, trees and shrubs benefit the most from high fungi population. I'm not talking about tilling every year. Just once every other years if the fungi population is too high.

In the other words, it depends what you're trying to do.
Heathen1
16 years ago
I have a picture of my Great Grandfather pulling a harvester with 40 draft horses. My mother said that him and his neighbors would get together and sometimes use 100 draft horses. :o) She said it was very communal. Then when one of the local families happened to be Japanese and were put into a Camp during WWII, the others got together and took care of their farm till they got back.
So, it may be old fashioned but sure sounds like it was a good thing.
justaguy2
16 years ago
So, it may be old fashioned but sure sounds like it was a good thing

Yup. Modern methods may be easier, but this isn't always a great thing. Having something be difficult meant people needed to rely more on others. This built a sense of community.

When things are easy we tend to behave in a more individual way rather than a communal way.

I don't think this is all bad, but I also don't think it is all good either.
dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
I like these little guys, but I wouldn't till with them. They'd be good for pulling wagons in parades.

{{gwi:135495}}
Heathen1
16 years ago
Where's Paul Bunyan? Aren't those oxen supposed to be blue? :D

I'm in favor of no till farming/gardening... but!!!!

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flatlander

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I'm in favor of no till farming/gardening... but!!!!

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