Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

Raised beds and Hugelkultur -

Folks, using framed beds is an option, not
a necessity.  I'm talking about the use of
tires or wood or concrete blocks.  Sometimes
these framed beds look good for certain situations.

But soil-mounded raised beds are thousands
of years old and there is no need to think of
raised beds as "framed".  

Secondly, hugelkutur looks like a lot of extra
work.   These might have special applications,
but not something I'd recommend for starters.
The woody material might add fungal biology
and lignin-humic substances, but both of these
can be obtained through other methods in
regular gardening.

The simplest and most effective raised beds are
mounded by throwing up soil from pathways,
about 4 inches higher than surrounding land.  
There's no need to raise over six inches in most
instances

Use compost as a surface application or lightly
forked into the soil.

Raise cover crops on beds when they are not
occupied with crops.

Alternatively, keep beds covered in mulch when
they are not occupied with crops.

Use sheet mulch in the pathways, newspaper
covered with straw, hay, or leaves

Use mulch around plants growing on beds
during the growing season.

Use an organic fertilizer blend of minerals
and proteins/meals/biology to boost crop
growth.

Supplement with liquid biology (compost tea,
EM, microbes) and substrate biology
(mycorrhizae), as you see fit.

This works for forked/tilled beds or with
no-till beds.  In different years, the bed
may be managed via tillage or no-tillage,
depending on the rotation.

I pulled out frost-dying flower plants from two
beds yesterday.  The root mass on cockscomb,
African marigolds, and zinnias was amazing.  

Steve Diver
Northwest Arkansas