Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Valid questions but are we making this too complicated? YMMV - no one will
come up with the same exact yields or expense or labor, so what's the
point? We don't need exact numbers to compare it to conventional row
cropping which wastes space and amendments and water and money - and labor.
It's a simple question of what works better. And I'd venture to add, if we
can't trust our own common sense then we shouldn't be trying to grow
anything. 

Let's think about what we know.

-Mulch helps suppress weeds and conserves moisture. Ergo, less work weeding
and less irrigation cost.

-Intensive planting gets the same production in a fraction of the space.
Ergo, less land needed, and amendments get concentrated in growing beds
instead of aisles that only get walked on. Less expense. 

-Permanent beds with constant mulch don't get walked on and compacted.
Ergo, no tilling needed, no expensive machinery to pay off, no labor for
tilling, and not bringing more weed seeds to the surface to germinate every
year. 

-Season extension techniques such as growing transplant starts or row
covers increase production for the available space and investment. 

Extra labor preparing permanent, deep, mulched beds the first season pays
for itself in savings in one year. The only study I would believe is the
one I conduct myself. You probably wouldn't believe any study that
contradicts your own experience. And you'd be right to trust your own
experience.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/22/2007 at 4:35 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>This is great stuff!  I have several questions:
>
>1) Did Ecology Action document their time & labor in any of their
>publications (other than what I've already referred to), so as to compare
>with this study?
>2) Has anyone done any similar yield/labor studies for raised-bed no-till
>relative to feeding oneself in a sustainable manner?
>
>
>Actually, I have another question: Now that my garden's planted (it's been
>drizzling for a few days), I need to apply mulch, but I don't recall any
>conversations about what kind of mulch to use.  I have three main choices:
>
>1) Double-ground and aged hardwood mulch (mostly Oak, and fairly coarse).
>2) Compost, which is #1 plus paper, spoiled milk, manure, etc. and
>aerobically composted.
>3) Fresh shredded hardwood from my own trees.
>
>Leaf mulch, pine bark, and other, commercial, mulches are also available,
>but more expensive.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz