no-till question

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Permalink Reply by Amber Nore on May 2, 2009 at 3:20pm

Great question! I don't have an answer...so I'll keep checking back and see what the replies to this are. I am interested in doing something similar (without oak leaves, though ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Doug Boyd on May 3, 2009 at 11:38pm

I'm no expert, more just a lazy gardener, but clear or till enough space to get your seed started. You don't have to "turn the dirt" but remove the existing competing plants/roots and loosen the soil as deep as you can. Then you can use the leaves or bricks or old newspapers or a combination of the above to cover the ground surrounding your seedlings to keep the competitions under control. Gardening is as much about keeping stuff from growing as it is encouraging stuff to grow. Any experts out there got an opinion about this?

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Permalink Reply by Donald L. Robertson on May 3, 2009 at 11:56pm

Thanks Doug for your advice and Amber for your encouragement, here's an update.
We put in two 8x4 beds this weekend using a layered mulch and dirt arrangement. I loosened up the grassy soil last week by putting a spade in about 4 or 5 inches without turning the soil over, then applied sheets of cardboard. Today I removed the cardboard, put down some high nitrogen cow manure from last summer and some garden scraps with a little wood ash as a first layer. Then the cardboard, then more compost, a little more ash and some woodier mulch keeping each layer pretty moist like a wrung out sponge. Then oak leaves, then worm castings mixed with black compost. now to decide on 3 inches of top carbon mulch like straw, leaves or wood shavings. And we'll start planting.
The exciting thing about these beds is everything stays in there except the fruit and leaves and roots so each year the soil should get deeper and loamier with humus as it matures. I'm excited.

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Permalink Reply by Barb on May 5, 2009 at 2:46pm

I've read that you can plant things that will normally grow in your compost pile in your beds this year. think about all the odd things you have found in your slow compost, like potatoes, tomatoes, onions, squash, melons. They love that environment. I already have potatoes coming up in the not till I built for them this spring. Next I'm going to set up a bed for the tomatoes and just plant them right now. smame with the rest of the above. I'm excited too about the no till concept. Can't do anymore digging, so this opens up more gardening for me.

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