Several years ago my children and I started a no-tillage growing system inspired by Ruth Stout, a well-known garden writer of the 1960s era. We found, as Mrs. Stout did, that growing this way was a lot less work than conventional vegetable and flower growing. While Mrs. Stout purchased hay for her garden we use grass clippings and leaves delivered to our gate by commercial maintenance gardeners. It's free, of course, since these gardeners would otherwise have to pay at the landfill and even at commercial composting operations.
We have been market growers of flowers and vegetables since 1996 and we have found that we have been able to compete in the marketplace with farmers using tractors--that's how easy our system is.
"Times are getting hard, boys, and money's getting scarce" as a depression era song goes. Many more people will be starting gardens this spring ushering in a renaissance of self-sufficiency. I want, as much as it may be possible, for people to have a successful first experience. The permanent mulch growing system replaces tillage, compost making and much of the weeding allowing gardeners to concentrate on planting and growing. Please visit our website where we share our experience.
Good growing in a new era,
John Warner, http://www.wholesystemsag.org
No-tillage vegetable growing on permanently mulched beds
Very, very interesting. Thanks for posting the link.
I had a garden area tilled up this fall and have vegetables growing in it now. It is mulched heavily and I don't intend to till again. We have a bagger on our lawnmower and save all the clippings (we mow almost 3 acres). I compost those for a few months and then use that for mulch.
I garden the same way. In the winter, my raised bed is surrounded by chicken wire, and I just pile in anything that comes my way. In the spring, I plant directly into it. By then, it has gone down to about 2 feet tall, and continues to shrink as the summer passes. I pull soil out as needed for other garden areas.
haven't tilled in over 17 years here
This sounds like a great idea and there was an article in Scientific America last summer about the disadvantages of tilling erosion and so onbut our ground here is hard as a rock. I add "good stuff" the ground year round. I have even had truck loads of "good dirt" brought in and my garden dirt isn't too as hard. The surface of the dirt actually cracks and our water is really alkaline could I still not till?
1lisac, I don't recall exactly where, but somewhere in the Stout book is the comment that [paraphrased] "in a couple of years the soil will be transformed". You can accelerate things by tilling in lots of composted material or raw organic matter (that is to say, not bags and bags of commercial compost), then mulch on top of that. That's what I do with each new raised bed we put in.
I didn't set out to use the no till method, but kinda wandered into it trying to get control of soil moisture in the extreme climate here. BTW, this also changed the ph of our alkiline soil to neutral.
Good luck,
Frank
(edited for clarification)
This message was edited Dec 21, 2008 6:46 AM
So...how long do you leave that bed to mellow before you plant in it?
So...if I had a bed of so-so dirt, I would load on a foot or more of green waste, load on about a foot of mulch from the Greenwaste place at the landfill and then wait (how long? ) before planting in it?...Can you just put vegie starts right into it?
Do you add anything like Dolomite or chicken poop or....?
I am really interested....will check out the links. thanks.
Carol
"So...how long do you leave that bed to mellow before you plant in it?"
Assuming Greenwaste is shredded bark, leaves, limbs, clipping, etc, my approach would be to till in loads of it along with some nitrogen to replace that used in the decomposition process. I wouldn't over do the N. Planting could be done immediately.
"Do you add anything like Dolomite or chicken poop or...?"
My suggestion is to get a soil analysis and amend the soil based on what it shows.
" . . .load on about a foot of mulch . . . "
For us, the big deal about the incorporated material and the mulch is that it enables us to keep soil moisture consistent - a few inches is adequate.
Frank
(edited for typo)
This message was edited Dec 21, 2008 5:19 PM
"Assuming Greenwaster is shredded bark, leaves, limbs, clipping, etc, my approach would be to till in loads of it along with some nitrogen to replace that used in the decomposition process. I wouldn't over do the N. Planting could be done immediately."
I would never plant immediately in something like that because, as Mola mentioned, it will heat up and burn plants, especially if it is tilled into the ground. It is best to only till into the ground that which is completely broken down for immediate planting; I think Tarheel (Go Tarheels! *grin) may have assumed those ingredients were well broken down. If they are not then it is best to wait a month or more, depending on the soil and air temps, so decomposition takes place and the heat that goes along with it, before planting in it.
Carol, what is your soil like in Hawaii...I'm guessing more alkaline than acid but that's probably cus I equate your island with volcanoes, lava rock, etc!
Shoe
Horseshoe, I agree. Though we haven't experienced a problem, it would be a good precaution to let it age.
Merry Christmas!
Frank & Cindy (aka S,WMBO - She, Who Must Be Obeyed)
"She, Who Must Be Obeyed" Hehehe, I hear that~! Got one!
And thank you very much, Merry Christmas back to you and yours.
Best,
Shoe
OK now my life has returned to what I consider normal. There is some great info. on no till gardening on the FUKUOKA FARMING WEBSITE. I don't know how to hyperlink it. I'm much better with dirt then computers. I really want to try this no till thing this spring. I live on a ranch so I have plenty of manure and hay. Every day I bring over a large bucket or 2 of this delightful mixture and put it in the garden. My garden has been in the same location for 10years the only thingg I want to do different this year is not till it under but plant right in to it. Any suggestions?
Shoe...our soil (IF you can call it that???) is about 3" deep and full of roots, sitting on top of lava! We have to dig holes in the lava to plant...someplaces where the lava is lose, we can make room for a plant and add 'soil' we buy or make!
Bought 'soil' - called cinder soil. A mix of the depleated dirt from the cane fields and lava cinders. Generally nothing in the dirt...so it has to be amended heavily. DH makes a 'witches brew:" of chicken manure, gypsum, epsom salts etc. etc....tailored after soil test 'averages'. The 'stuff' on the ground is slightly acidic...cinder is fairly neutral, but our rain with the volcanic emissions is a bit acid from time to time. We use alot of Dolomite and calcium additions because the soil is pretty depleated of caldium...
I am off to create some havoc.... later!!!
FYI, Fukoka's book is being reprinted and will be released late May, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/8jb8ld
That is going on my Wish List!!!
1lisac,
Posting a link here is not really hard. When you have a site you want to share here, Left click the mouse on the URL address slot. It should turn blue. Then right click the mouse and a box will appear. Left click the mouse on copy. Now when you come to DG, left click the mouse in the message box where you want to place the link and then right click. Then left click on paste. That is all. DG will do the rest. Often it is good to click the link on while previewing to make sure it works...before hitting send.
This message was edited Jan 3, 2009 10:05 PM
Now my brain hurts. I will give it a try.
I can't believe that book is going to be reprinted! Thank you so much for that info. If you don't till what do you do about weeds? I use horse manure so there is some johnson grass.
1lisac, very few weeds seedlings make it up through the mulch. Those that do are easy to pull. Much less effort than with bare soil.
Frank
The only thing I had to pull was when the maple tree seeds dropped, and they came right out of the mulch. The next time I weeded was in the late fall, where a few things had sprouted around the edges (my beds are raised.)
IME, you do not have to wait a month to plant into tilled-in green. I till sod, wait two weeks, then till again and plant immediately into it. I have been doing this for a long time and have not had a problem with my plants burning. Maybe if I were tilling in tons of grass clippings it would be a different story.
Ok, I guess I won't be able to do no till gardening this year. My 11 yr old son told one of my clients that he loves to rota-till because he loves tthe feeling of the turned dirt on his bare feet. I don't want to take that a way from him. Most kids don't even know what that feels like. Maybe we will do half the garden.
Lisa
Garden2grow
Has anyone read any of Stout's books?
I'm considering purchasing one of her books.
Maybe Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent, or Gardening Without Work - The Original No Work Gardening Book.
There is an interesting article at http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2004-02-01/Ruth-Stouts-System.aspx about her system.
I love Ruth!! RIP
She was a city girl who moved to the country when she was 'older', I think her husband retired. But anyway, her first garden was a 'bare dirt' garden, 100 feet wide and I don't remember how long. All her rows were one hundred feet long!!!!!!!! haha, can you imagine weeding?
Her mulch gardening ideas began when she noticed things growing very well around a pile of stuff, I don't remember what. Maybe even horse piles in a pasture.
A protoge of hers was tilling in huge amounts of stuff in his new veggie garden, then his wife took his nice soil for her flowers around front of the house. He ordered a half ton of spoiled hay, not knowing how much that'd be. He pulled each bail in two, and packed them on his garden, flat side up, thinking the hay would rot down over winter. Nope. He kind of stuffed little plants down in the cracks between the half-bales, and his garden, rocky clay under the half-bales, was gorgeous! Any heat must've settled out over the winter.
I'm starting a garden now, putting down five or so inches of seaweed(lucky me, seaweed!!) over spotty grass. I'll have some little plants in by the end of the week, will post "before' pics.
Whew, I yakk too much!
I'm trying this method for the first time this year. I'm planting into aged horse manure (among other things) and so far my garden looks better then ever. My tomato plants are huge and have only been in the ground a month, and they already have fruit set. Also I found tons of worms.
Lisa
I'm not sure if I read Ruth Stout's book, but I've certainly heard of her.
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-189,00.html
I think she is the lady who went around her neighborhood collecting all the leaves/clippings being thrown away. I do this all the time thanks to her - I call it "free dirt."
we have an old pick-up and pick up all of them, too. we are starting a new bed at my daughters, 4 kids and sky high food prices, how do you keep a teen boy filled?
Plus it will give your children knowledge and a fun constructive activity. I wish I had paid more attention when my parents (and I) gardened when I was young. Those are some of my most cherished memories. I relive those feelings when I am out in my garden.
We had a garden when I was growing up, but it was always work pulling weeds and such. I rarely have to weed with the no-till garden, just a bit around the edges now and then, and right after all the maple tree seeds fall in the spring. It holds moisture better, too, very little watering. It is so much better.
i love this idea, i read the web link with much interest! so this is what i am shooting for.
daddyoat, thanks for the link! would pinestraw be ok for this, or would it make the veggies have a 'piney' taste?