Market Farming

[Steve Diver <steved AT ncat.org>]

Hi Judy -

That is about a quarter acre of land you are talking about.  

The tillage method is practical, reliable, and familiar. It is a 
sequence of tillage  > cover cropping > tillage + organic
amendments & mineral fertilizers > bed shaping > planting.  

You can rent a BCS-type tiller (powerful rear-tine tiller), or hire
the tillage from someone with a tractor. 

Sheet mulching really does work.  But you really need
a lot of newspaper or cardboard, and a whole lot of
compost and organic matter.  It is amazing how much
organic material that adds up to for an area that size.   

Fyi, I recently visited the Lake Oswego, Oregon
community garden, and they relied on sheet mulching
extensively.  In fact, the cost to join the garden was
intended to cover the cost of compost and soil
amendments for sheet mulch.  Fyi, they used cardboard
and wood chips for pathways in-between plots.  That
pathway system gave definition to each plot.  But the plots
themselves were sheet mulched on top of an old
pasture.  So there was a lot of investment in
organic matter to do a serious sheet mulch for
each plot and kill out the grass.  Altogether, that community
garden is dynamic and beautiful.  It is very successful.  

Geotextile weed barrier is an alternative to an
organic sheet mulch.   It is fast and it works great.  
I have worked with small farmers and gardeners
and roadside flower beds based on the geotextile
weed barrier.  We use the 15' x 300' roll.  It is
best to till first, so the soil is easy to dig into when
you transplant.  

It kindof depends on what the community garden
organizors and gardeners want.  

Using well marked and weed-free pathways between
plots really gives definition to each garden site, it provides
elbow room to push wheel barrows and work, and to walk
around and talk with neighbors, smell fragrances, and
appreciate beauty.  

I'm gardening on a quarter acre, and it is too much
to work unless you have a tiller at different times of
the year to incorporate cover crops and weeds, and to
loosen soil for planting at the right time.   But a community
garden with a series of plots and pathways has a lot
of options.   

Steve Diver
http://www.attra.ncat.org