Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Paul,

People have different views, but since you ask for comments on your text, here is my 2 penny´s worth.

To me, raised beds and double digging are the exception rather than the rule, they are not necessary to practice no-till. I like to keep my garden level for best water efficiency. Raised beds can make sense when you want to improve degraded soil quickly or have a lot of stuff like wooden logs and branches to bury. Most people don´t understand that building even a thin organic layer at the soil surface can significantly improve the soil underneath.

Also, there is too much emphasis on compaction and not walking across vegetable beds. I have a few permanent paths between which I have areas of around 10 by 20 meters for planting/sowing at random. Basically, I just walk between the vegetables when needed. When I have to cross the same places every day for harvesting etc., I put some wooden planks or pieces of cork (I have a lot of cork oaks) on the ground to step on. This also conserves moistures. Some plants, like cabbages, like the soil to be firm. For water conservation and earthworms a loose soil can also be a problem. I only avoid walking on the planting areas after heavy rainfalls.

What is most important for furthering organic no-till is a better understanding of cover crops. There is a lot of disparate information available on the net, but it is difficult to find specific information for addressing specific problems. What is needed is a comprehensive cover crop data base for different climatic and soil conditions listing the characteristics of cover crops that are important for organic no-till.

To be quite honest, the above comments are motivated by the fact that I have plenty of space to work with. At present, I use less than 1% of our land for my vegetable garden. Therefore, the term "intensive" as used in your text is not all that important to me.

Regards,

Dieter Brand, Portugal

TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

> This explains intensive, no-till organic from a different angle. 
>
> How do you multiply production in a given area of garden?
>
> 1. Permanent beds and narrower aisles between that increase actual growing
> area to 2/3 of the garden space, compared to single rows that use only 1/3
> of the garden space for growing. 
> 2. Close planting that has leaves touching in all directions as plants
> mature, doubles production. 
> 3. Interplanting that keeps something growing in all bed areas all season
> doubles production. 
> 4. Transplanting starts among other plants that will be finished when the
> new transplants need more room.
> 5. Growing cool weather plants early spring and late fall. 
> 6. Season extension
>  techniques to protect early and late varieties. 
> 7. Vertical growing on trellises for vining plants.
>
> What will cut down on weeds and time spent weeding or cultivating?
>
> 1. Mulch will help prevent weeds in growing beds and in aisles. 
> 2. Not tilling at all will avoid bringing a new crop of weed seeds to the
> surface to germinate. 
> 3. Close planting at optimum distances, keeping plants growing in all parts
> of the beds all season, will shade weeds that sprout. 
>
> What will conserve soil moisture?
>
> 1. Not tilling and exposing more soil to drying air.
> 2. Keeping a permanent mulch cover on the soil surface. 
> 3. Close plantings that shade soil and mulch cover.
>
> What will reduce losses to pests and disease?
>
> 1. Mixing different plants in each bed to confuse pests, the opposite of
> monoculture.
> 2. Healthy, humus rich soil that grows healthier plants less attractive to
> pests. 
> 3. Annual crop rotations.
> 4. Timing
>  of crops to avoid certain destructive stages of pests. 
>
> What will reduce the labor or cost of soil amendments and building
> productive soil?
>
> 1. Concentrating soil building in permanent beds instead of paths between
> single rows. 
> 2. Not tilling the growing beds or paths between beds.
>
> How can you avoid tilling to loosen soil for planting?
>
> 1. By making permanent beds that don't get walked on, so soil is not
> compacted by feet or machinery. 
> 2. By keeping a mulch and plant cover that protects soil from direct sun
> and rainfall.
> 3. By rotating produce with deep rooted cover crops. 
> 4. By adding new compost as much on top of beds annually or as needed.
>
> How much work is it to get started?
>
> Beds can be double-dug or built up. Either way beds need deep soil for root
> growth in close planting. Soil building involves organic compost or
> composted manure, rock dust minerals as needed, and/or other
>  amendments
> including natural sources of nitrogen. The soil in beds can be made in one
> season, and once beds are made, they stay made. Or a garden can be
> converted gradually, one bed at a time, from wasteful single rows to
> intensive beds. 
>
> You maintain soil organic matter and nutrients by periodically adding
> compost mulch on the surface, and/or by adding amendments through the
> mulch. Other than that, the soil is not worked each season, very little
> weeding is done, and the primary labor is transplants and harvesting.
> Without having to till or prepare seed beds, you don't have to wait for
> soil to warm up before planting or transplanting the cool weather crops,
> which gives you an even earlier start. Also, without the need for tilling,
> drip irrigation lines under the mulch don't need to be moved every time you
> put in new crops. 
>
> Without the expense of machinery and with reduced cost or labor for weeding
> and irrigation, the
>  home garden is a lot less trouble for what you get, and
> the market farm is definitely more profitable. And with far less labor and
> cost per unit of food produced, the market farmer can grow far more
> profitably without machinery than with machinery. Heresy? Of course. Trust
> your own common sense: why will a certain thing work or not work?
>
> Of course this contradicts the agribusiness experts. They're the reason
> millions of farm families have been forced off the farm over several
> decades. These intensive practices are all demonstrated and I have them
> heavily documented, though it appears no single book or writer has pulled
> them all together in one consistent package. 
>
> Naturally none of these points are original with me, so fortunately I don't
> have to be an expert at all. I'm an ordinary gardener who, like many
> others, discovered what works late in life. 
>
> I welcome any questions or comments, for or against, on or offlist
>  doesn't
> matter. If my sources can't answer anything, or if anything appears
> contradictory or unsupported, I really need to know. 
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

---

Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.