Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

This explains intensive, no-till organic from a different angle.

How do you multiply production in a given area of garden?

1. Permanent (double-wide) 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.

For me, it's helpful to continue to think in terms of rows.  I just stagger alternate rows.  Also, I plant a different species in the alternate rows.  All of the area is still covered, but it's easier to keep track of, with a simple sketch, than pure random.  The next year, I swap rows.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

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

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 11:05 AM

Subject: [Livingontheland] intensive, no-till organic from a different angle

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



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