permaculture

[Loren Davidson <listmail@lorendavidson.com>]

At 9:50 PM -0400 5/30/06, Keith Johnson wrote:
> Jeavon's book entered my gardening library 31 years ago. Ruth 
> Stout's mulch books were my first. I did them both....a lot.... and 
> now for the last 20 years I don't double dig, or even dig, if I can 
> avoid it.

I'm with Keith on this.

I've done my share of double-digging in the past. Somewhere along the 
line, I think I figured out why the Brits call this "bastard 
trenching." :)

These days, unless I'm planting something like a tree or shrub, I 
don't dig. I try to follow the Pc principle of "letting Nature do the 
work.) For a quickie garden bed, I'll put down a layer of cardboard 
or newspaper, cover with several inches of compost, and just plant my 
seeds or transplants into the compost. I'll usually make a cut in the 
paper/cardboard below each plant. When I have time to plan ahead, 
I'll build a sheet mulch bed, let it rot for 3-6 months, and then 
plant into that. I like Toby's sheet mulch recipe from _Gaia's 
Garden_; it really *is* bulletproof.

If I'm planting into heavy clay, I usually fork into the soil before 
layering stuff on top of it, just to provide some starter holes for 
roots. I don't dig, I don't turn or lift the soil with the spading 
fork; I just wiggle it into the ground with my weight on it and pull 
it out again. Once I've done this, I let the plant roots and the 
worms and other detritivores start mixing my layers of stuff with the 
underlying soil.

Now if only I had a no-dig solution for my shrubs and trees...

Loren
--
Loren Davidson          listmail@lorendavidson.com
Music with tropical attitude - http://www.lorendavidson.com
"There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know
that I can't go wrong" - J. Buffett