Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>]

A couple of small disagreements.

 

First.    Nature does till, just not the way we do.    Moles, gofers, shrews, rats, mice, earthworms, rabbits and a host of other animals and insects bring dirt ( including subsoil ) to the surface and take organic matter below the surface.    I could show you some big rocks in my sisters yard that had almost been buried by the action of gofers in the last 3-4 years.

 

Second.    Not everyone will have the same success with the same method, and saying that someone failed and the system didn't, is disrespectful.    Some methods work for some people, other methods work better for other people.    So just because No-Till didn't work for someone, is by no means any reason to say someone failed.    Even the son of the Japanese farmer ( I couldn't even begin to spell his name ) that made a No Till method popular  couldn't get the same results that his father could.

 

Greg H.  

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ken Hargesheimer

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 17:36

Subject: [Livingontheland] composting, no-till, etc

Dear oganicites,

 

As far as I am concerned, there is no debate concerning, organic, no-till, mulching, etc.  I have seen this in 7 states and 18 countries and there is no place on earth that organic, no-till is not the way to do it. 

 

All the technical talk is worth little; what happens in the garden/field is what is important.  Nature does not plow or dig, add amendments, etc.  I am a "neighbor" to 20 villages on www.nabuur.com and one guy today said that since there are different climates and conditions they need to see what works.  No, organic, no-till works everywhere. I know a farmer in AR who did it for five or so years and stopped.  The system did not fail; he failed.  It works!!