No-Till Gardening!

No-till gardening is so exciting to me because I've seen how effectively it works and because it's something that can absolutely change the face of food production for the better. Particularly for anyone who's been intimidated out of gardening (since maybe you don't have a tiller or don't know where to rent one or you don't have pickaxes and shovels, or you want to garden so small a space that it doesn't warrant renting a tiller), TRY THIS.

I had read about nature farming methods, about Ruth Stout, about reducing the tillage I do in my garden before plowing this year. Then I plowed anyway since it was the way I knew to 'start' the garden every spring. It's easy enough with the roto-tiller we inherited from our grandparents. What really twisted my arm in getting me to adopt some of these techniques was the shoulder surgery I had a bit later, limiting me to the use of solely my left hand. Since I couldn't shovel, rake, start a roto-tiller, barely maneuver a trowel with my bad hand, I had to find an easier way to plant.

So I cut loose a bale of hay, pulled it apart into thick layers and spread them on the ground in a row, and covered the top with some compost. I sprinkled on Belgian endive seeds and watered them in. That was it and it worked. Sooner than I thought the hay began to decompose, worms were working their way up into it, and it maintained consistent moisture.

Such an unassuming pile of hay is all it takes. Since it's softer than dirt weeds come out easily, as do your crops. I was able to gently lift out the grown endives by their roots.

It's just so EASY: 
since you can do it with one hand! No wrestling with a tiller or pickax. Rain moistens the soil and the worms till it under a comfy cushion of hay. You grab a trowel and stick your transplants where you want, or simply pull back the top dry layer of hay and sprinkle on your seeds.

It's just to FAST:
since you certainly won't need to water, weed, or fertilize as often (if...ever?!)! Mulch is incredibly important in all gardens since it suppresses weed growth and  maintains moisture. If there's no system in place to suppress weeds and maintain moisture, YOU get to be the system! You'll be breaking your back weeding and trucking around a hose twice a day everyday in the peak heat of summer. Instead of caving to Home Depot's pressure to futilely spray herbicides (which is simply fucking bad for everything) or to install an expensive irrigation system, just do it the way nature does it. If you check down about two inches into the mulch around the base of your plants and it's moist, your root zone is good to go! If the mulch is thick enough you're blessed with a constantly active layer of decomposing organic matter which rebuilds and fertilizes your soil. So you can focus on things other than the most inane garden tasks.

And it's just to CHEAP: 
since I told you all these things you don't need to buy! No tiller, no repairs to the tiller, no gas, no herbicides, no drip hoses, less water. 

This is the first year I've employed faithfully no-till methods, so I'm hardly an authority, but I truly anticipate greater fertility and moisture retention as the beds area allowed to regenerate and be reused (and rotated!) year after year.

HOW IT'S DONE IN 1, 2, 3!

1. Thickly cover the area in which you wish to plant with hay, leaves, grass, paper bags, or another cheaply-acquired biodegradable substance that can fully cover weeds and grass while letting water and air through.
 

2. Let it sit and break down, for at least a month where you can spare it. Over time the bottommost layer of mulch will become dark, moldy, slimy, and full of little circular black worm turds. ALL GOOD THINGS. Once the grass underneath dies and you notice some worm and bug holes extending directly into the dirt, you are probably ready to plant. 

3. Dig into the supple dirt and plant those transplants, or sprinkle seeds right into this moist mulchy germination matrix!

I'm trying to build up some new areas from my own cornstalks and squash vines, hay, and Starbucks' spent pounds of coffee grounds, layered on top of each other as I get them. These spots are for potatoes, which I can already feel being so easily loosed from their beds rather than arduously dug from the soil.

The more time you can give the mulch or bed-building materials to decompose, the better. You'll be left with more of a more dirt-like substance to plant into. Now is the perfect time to get something started for next year! Though decomposition generally slows in the winter, you're still getting a head start on all that great microbial action.

 

Here's one we can try together. Corral fallen leaves, keep them in place with whatever you can find (some welded wire and metal sheeting, in my case, sticks work, too), and let them hang out. I plan to keep collecting leaves to fill out this space, while shifting the stabilizers from older and mildly decomposed spots onto spots with new leaves. 

Happy mulching!

 

What is permaculture?

Permaculture was a word that I pretended to understand since I was into organic gardening. I would nod along like "yeah, coool" whenever somebody started talking about it. But I was thinking "Permanent-culture? Like...shrubs? Trees? You can only grow trees?" When I looked it up I got more confused, 'cause there were multiple answers, interspersed with a good amount of hippies carrying on pseudo-pagan rituals and cultivating more confusion in me over these 'philosophies' they failed to actually describe.

It isn't the kind of gardening I was taught. My grandparents lived where I do now, and they grew all their own vegetables. Every spring my grandfather would tune up the roto-tiller, plow the plots, plant the plants, probably use some synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, then pick the vegetables until they died in winter and do the same again the following year. It's what I did as a kid. When I became interested in gardening again in the past few years, I followed this model. This year I've done much of the same. It all works and it's very straightforward, but as I'm reading more and more into other methods, it doesn't make the most sense.

That's because plants live in nature. People have worked to breed certain kinds of plants, but they'll always be part of nature. So why not let them grow like they do in nature?

You don't plant the weeds in your garden, but every year, every week, more grow. Their roots trail underground or they drop new seeds, which don't fall into plowed dirt, don't get covered with a quarter inch of fine soil, and aren't guaranteed consistent water, but they always make it back. That means the plants you want to grow can do it the same way.

Although at this point I'm playing a highly active role in cultivating my plants, I'm taking steps to assure that in the future I won't need to, and my plants can grow in a way like they might in nature. My number one rule is don't use any substance that I wouldn't touch or eat. Any food scraps I turn into compost, which I use to fertilize my plants. Insects need to eat, too, and if I were to use pesticides I could kill the critters I want around which kill the critters I don't want around; lately I've seen a lot of wasps, bees, and spiders, along with a lovely lack of caterpillars nibbling my plants.

With certain plants I take a few extra steps, like tomatoes: a Tums near the base of each plant to provide calcium and ward off blossom end rot, a sprinkling of Epsom salts once a season to provide magnesium, and an occasional misting of a little baking soda dissolved in water to help keep away fungus. They're still substances I have no problem touching or eating, and they've been working so far.

I put down a lot of mulch, which composts over time to fertilize and rebuild the soil, it reduces the erosion that a wide-open plowed field would experience, and conserves a huge amount of water. Ruth Stout says that by mulching, she never had to water, and I'm coming to believe that. I also do a lot of interplanting, and use companion plants. Interplanting, I can be sure, works, because I've seen insects and fungi have a much tougher time traveling from this plant over here, to that same kind of plant all the way over there, than to one right next to it. Distance and variety have been my friends. 

Organic farming is better than chemical farming, but nowadays it doesn't have the integrity I'd like to put in it. It's funny to see "organic hydroponic lettuce" and "organic farmed salmon" in the store, since I really can't imagine any natural situation where lettuce will sprout and grow to maturity while just suspended in water, nor where salmon corral themselves and spend the rest of their lives making babies 'til they die. 

So permaculture is organic farming that happens naturally. It's recognizing that your plants need to, and are able to, grow the way they grow. Naturally. I think that makes sense.