No-Till Experiment

Ruth Stout was an advocate of a gardening method called no-till.  Tilling has many disadvantages. The primary one is that it exposes dormant weed seeds that then sprout.  Tilling is a lot of work, even with a gas-powered or electric tiller.  It disturbs the soil structure, and displaces earthworms.  As I recall, Stout's method involves piling compostable materials atop the garden beds: leaves, pine straw, grass from untreated lawns, compost, etc.  These materials are left on the top of the bed and renewed as needed.  You do not till at all, but simply plant into this mulch.

I am interested in no-till gardening for one main reason:  I am in my mid-50's and am looking for  easier ways to garden.  Though I am not yet old, I am also not young and have some of the usual twinges and aches associated with my age.  No till will save my back, which has been a source of trouble for me for years.

Last fall, I asked someone in my neighborhood for their bagged leaves (after checking that they did not have walnut trees in in their yard-all parts of walnut trees, even leaves, inhibit plant growth).  I took these, and spread them on one of my vegetable garden areas, along with grass clippings and pine straw.  The mulched areas sprouted almost no weeds over winter, as compared to the weedy beds that are often tilled. Benefit one!  When I moved the mulch aside to plant squashes, I saw no weeds sprouting underneath.  The soil was light and fluffy and seemed to have more earth worms that other areas: benefit two! (These earthworms may attract tunneling moles, so this benefit has a cost).  And the most important benefit: I did not have to till!

We'll see how this experiment fares and if I will use this method all around the garden.

Happy gardenig!

More Garden Gold?

We have few deciduous trees in our yard and either the trees are such that we can let the leaves lie and decompose, or we have to rake them up and dispose of them, because of disease (mostly leaves from fruit trees).  I have been eyeing these lovely bags of leaves during my regular neighborhood walk.  Once I established that there were no walnut trees in or near this particular yard (walnuts contain juglone, a plant growth inhibitor), I asked the homeowner if I could have the leaves, not that I expected him to say no, but I did not want to trespass.

What am I going to do with them?  I am going to compost some (the Brits call composted leaves "leaf mould" and boy is it great for the garden) and I am going to dump the rest right on my garden beds to inhibit weed growth over winter and to begin the process of no-till gardening (more on this in the spring).  I want to stop tilling (and most of the weeding it causes one to do) and plant directly into mulched leaves, straw and compost.

Those tree leaves will become garden gold!  Happy gardening!

No-till Gardening: The Use of News

The New York Times has an excellent article called "Fending off Weeds with Newsprint" at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/garden/09garden.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

I have written on this topic too (see index for "bed" or "no till"- the entry is called "EASY garden bed preparation"). There are lots of benefits to not tilling or tilling only minimally....

Happy Gardening!

EASY Garden Bed Prep

Fall bed preparation (Photo Captions: two garden beds being readied this fall for spring planting).

I do several things to prepare grassy areas for spring planting and I start the spring or fall before. The first is to decide where you want the new bed and cover up the grass with wet newspaper and perhaps a tarp (I have also used old sheets of plywood, old carpeting, too). Under the tarp I layer whatever materials we have that will decay and improve the soil. This year I am making a new tomato bed in my back yard- I covered it all summer with a tarp, then my garden drudge (spouse) lightly dug it up to remove persistent weeds (I helped)(a little). Then I started adding stuff- I dug raw kitchen compost waste into it (though the dog found some and ate it-yuck) and sprinkled coffee grounds from my nearest coffee shop on it (ask for “grounds for your garden). Then we layered on pine straw and leaves (NOT WALNUT) from the front yard, and grass clippings from our last mowing this season. I watered it all in and covered it back up with the tarp. I will continue to add coffee grounds to it over the winter, they are high in nitrogen, should help with decomposition and break down quickly. I am looking for a source for animal manure to compost and add in, too (let me know if you have a source for manure in the Richmond area!). I will uncover it in early spring, dig in everything, and water it again…and should have some great soil for my ‘maters!

I also started a flower bed this fall (see photo). I covered the grassy area with wet newspapers, surrounded it by bricks and covered it with spent soil from various pots of annuals I had this year. To this I added clover seeds as a cover crop, to prevent the soil from washing away and to improve the quality of the soil. This bed will be ready for some sun loving plants come spring!

Happy gardening!