Market Farming

[Lee Lawton <llami AT teleport.com>]

In my no-till garden, I use straw on the beds and sawdust on the paths. I
apply both about 6 inches thick, the straw goes on when I put the beds to
sleep for the winter, the sawdust goes on and lasts at least two years,
maybe more--I'll have to see. I've never found anything that holds down
weeds like the sawdust. And it makes a nice carpet to walk or kneel on, too.

The straw breaks down quite a bit during the winter (Zone 8). In spring,
I'll pull it back a bit for the sun to warm the soil, and I always find so
many worms I couldn't dig up a teaspoon of soil without cutting one. The
soil is friable, sweet smelling, and just about the prettiest sight I'll see
until that empty lawn chair at quitting time during the summer!

When I plant the seedlings (I plant everything from seedlngs so I know just
where everything will be placed), I pull the straw up close to the plant
(not touching), and I rarely have to weed anything out of the garden except
thistles.

Now, these are beds which were never tilled. They were created out of
pasture area, first mowed and laid out. Then, in fall, a layer of newspaper,
about 3 or 4 pages thick, was laid on the beds with a thick layer of horse
manure on top of that and then about 6 inches of straw, still in its "tiles"
on top of that. By spring, the worms had done all my tilling. I could reach
into the soil, hard pasture 4-5 months prior, and pick up a nice handful of
lovely soil. Granted, I'm farming creek-bottom land, although it doesn't
flood over it regularly.

If I have time to prepare ahead, I'll leave the tiller in the shed, and put
the worms to work!

Lee Lawton
Over the Rainbow Farm
Junction City, Oregon


> I'm a big fan of deep mulching.  Straw and hay not being an option where
> I live now (it's quite expensive) I'm going to move to using plain
> sawdust this year, a substance I have heretofore used only when mixed
> with grass clippings.  I'll happily serve as a test case, since I could
> tell you from now to kingdom come that someone I know has used sawdust
> and had no problem and none of us would be the wiser.  I'm a little too
> rushed for time to to a direct half 'n half split, but I'll tell you
> what, I'll set aside at least a small section that I'll leave unmulched
> and we'll compare the results between the sawdusted sections and the
> unmulched.  Probably not as scientific as it ought to be, but that's the
> best I can do.  I'll be lucky if I can manage that much, given that I'm
> currently building a house, but hopefully I can at LEAST do that much.
> If I manage to get any garden in at all, I'll give it my best shot.