Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

You asked "How do you break up the mulch with no-till? Does no-till also mean 
no-hoe?"

Well, I just pull back the mulch enough to transplant or seed, and replace it 
as seedlings get big enough to rise above it. Remember Ruth Stout? At this 
point in my own growing I can't quite picture needing to use a hoe anymore on 
established beds. It's a lot of work. Really no-till isn't some rigid 
ideology but a practical approach to easier growing.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is from:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-189,00.html

Ruth Stout was all about mulch. Layers, piles, heaps, mounds, and more. She 
captured Organic Gardening readers' attention with her passion for no-work 
gardening. In this vintage entry from How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by 
the Organic Method, Stout addressed readers' FAQs about her approach to 
gardening.

People are always asking Ruth Stout a great many questions about the 
year-round mulch method: what kind of mulch to use; how much; when to apply 
it. Here are some of her answers.

Kind: Hay, leaves, straw, seaweed, pine needles, sawdust, weeds, garbage—any 
vegetable matter which rots. Some people write me and complain the bales of 
"hay" they bought were all coarse stalks, weeds, etc. That is all good mulch.

All kinds of leaves? Yes.

Aren't oak leaves too sour? People say so. Put on a little more lime if your 
soil is acid.

Don't some leaves decay too slowly? Then they remain mulch just that much 
longer.

Don't leaves mat down? Somewhat but that makes no difference, since they are 
between the rows of growing things, not on top of them.

Can you use leaves without hay? Yes, but I prefer a combination of the two, 
if you can get it.

How much mulch do you need? The answer to that is: more than you would think. 
You should start with a good 8 inches of it.

How can tiny plants survive between 8-inch walls? And the answer to that is: 
the mulch is trampled on, rained on, and packed down by the time you are 
ready to plant; it doesn't stay 8 inches high.

How often do you put it on? Whenever you see a spot that needs it. If weeds 
begin to peep through, don't bother to pull them; just toss an armful of hay 
on them.

What time of year do you start to mulch? NOW, whatever the date may be.

Would it be better to wait until the crop is up? No, for by that time the sun 
will have had a chance to bake the soil, and the weeds will be making 
progress.

Now, the million-dollar question: Where do you get your mulch? That is 
difficult to answer but I can say this: if enough people in any community 
demand it, I believe that someone will be eager to supply it.

Also, use all your leaves. Clip your cornstalks into foot-length pieces and 
use them. Utilize your garbage, tops of perennials, everything. In many 
localities the utility companies chop up branches which they cut when they 
clear their wires; you can probably get these for nothing if you can haul 
them away.

Now for the drawbacks. People have complained to me that mulching does not 
kill everything. I just got a letter from someone saying that it won't kill 
cockleburs, morning glories, Johnson grass, nut grass. She left out witch 
grass. I know it won't kill that and neither will it pick your peas or plant 
your seeds. I am just saying (in a friendly, sarcastic way) that just because 
it does 100 things for you, should it be expected to do 101?

Excerpted from How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method Edited 
by J.I. Rodale and Staff. Copyright 1961, by J.I. Rodale. Renewed 1999, 
Rodale Inc.


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

On 11/30/2010 at 5:25 PM Barbara Money wrote:

>This past spring, I hand-forked new sections to enlarge the one-year-old
>existing wide-row. I removed clumps of stuff, mostly weeds and some
>grass. Before that it had been a horse paddock, with some sand/small
>gravel added to keep it from being too muddy for the horse. We shoveled
>aged manure onto the bed areas, and most of them got tilled in. The
>turnips and beans were the only direct seeded crop in this area, and the
>turnips did poorly (lots of leaves but wormy, and the few turnip roots
>were very late--a 50-day crop took 3 months). The other stuff did well,
>tilled or not. I don't think I could have direct seeded the turnips
>unless the seedbed was fine enough. How do you break up the mulch with
>no-till? Does no-till also mean no-hoe? I use a hand cultivator or small
>hoe, doesn't go real deep. Not saying I'll till again, I really would
>rather not, knowing the need to keep soil layers.
>
>Oh, and tilled or not, I had few weeds, just a few perennials that came
>up here and there.
>
>Barbara M
>Foster, RI
>
>--
>"Animals Are A Gift"
>
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