Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>]

> My experience is also that to simply stop ploughing is not 
>   always enough to improve soil structure of a field that has been 
>   ploughed for many years. A soil management, which in my 
>   case needs to include deep-rooted woody perennials to loosen 
>   the soil, may be necessary.  ~Dieter

Just to reinforce Dieter's excellent point here: It is not sufficient 
simply to stop plowing, or even to use mulches. To my mind an essential 
part of no-till is the regular growing of cover crops. The cover crops 
encourage earthworms and other soil life, both of which change soil 
conditions profoundly. Also, when the roots of the cover crops die, they 
decay (are consumed in place, undisturbed, by microbes) and like the 
worms open channels deep into the soil. All these life and death 
activities help loosen the soil at depth without the need of shaped steel.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."  
~Wendell Berry