Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Elizabeth B." <spacecitydx@webtv.net>]

I do alot of things peculiarly Mark and maybe some of the things I do might afford you a few ideas.

I have a fair few but small "hills and valley's" to my land. I fill these areas with compost and whatever else I care to add to it and grow manure crops. Basically, you have small islands growing, aiding the soil and producing OM for your garden. Having critters, I can also dry and augment my winter hay. Great thing about these islands is that you can start one, harvest for the OM, plant a legume or other cover crop and leave it be. Just rotate the islands as you go. If you need to break up the ground a bit, after harvesting your OM, plant root crops such as carrot or beets. As Ken mentioned, sudan, buckwheat and oats are good cover crops.

When knocking down  wheat or oats, I use a push with a grass catcher on it. Just add it to your garden beds or compost pile. Before the grass catcher, I mowed and hand raked. I broadscatter everything from OM to seeds for the pasture, usually with my hands or with a shovel when using either the wagon, the cart or the 4x4.

I'm into the lasagna method as I also raise meat goats and poultry. The barn leavings, along with any berries I rake up, go into my raised beds first. The poultry coop leavings, I do a 1 to 3 part compost mix and it usually goes into a pasture I've taken out of rotation to rest. I have a chipper/shredder. I use this for downed trees. I toss the chips intot my beds and shredded pieces go into the compost pile. I don't plow it in, I just layer everything as I go along and let it compost on it's own.

Like Paul, I use loose hay for top dress mulching. Hay is heavy when wet, it blow away. I add my compost as the final layer and either add seeds or transplant. I also grow a living privacy fence of both Dent and Sweet corn, Maxamillian sunflowers and Amaranth etc which also helps aid as a wind breaker.

I've had to get pretty inventive when it comes to hauling because I'm wheelchair bound. For small jobs, I have both a wire mesh wagon and a bicycle cart that I use with my mobility chair. The wagon I pull using the handle and the bicycle cart gets attached to my chair using a "U" shaped bicycle lock. I also have a 21 Hp riding mower that uses a 4x4 and a 5x8 trailer. I do have a truck that I use for picking up leaves and whatever other OM I can find. I use free plastic that is used when transporting mobile homes. Keeps the OM in place and not all over the truck. Also, when the OM get low enough, I can just pull it all off the truck bed.


Elizabeth, Mid-south Texas 
Your neighbor in Aggie country