permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

Plan of soil regeneration with tractor and implements:

The only reason to disturb cropland soil through various types of 
tillage, including inverting the soil or rototilling is to shape 
terrain, terraform it, create drainage systems,  channel water 
channeling and create a system of linked,integrated, diverse garden 
sites with either rows (hills and furrows), flatland gardens or raised 
beds. This, if it needs to be done at all, should only be done once, i.e 
once for all time, followed by no till or minimal till agriculture, 
managed with human powered equipment and hand tools. Land with heavy, 
compactable soil, as Mollison says, may greatly benefit from tillage. 
The very best and often the only implement needed is the Yeomans plow. 
The beauty of this tool is that it can be used repeatedly with minimal 
disruption of the life cycles of soil dwelling creatures. Bottom 
plowing, disking, rototilling and even hilling and bedding, if done with 
any regularity, can in some cases decrease soil tilth and water holding 
capacity, increase compaction and destroy soil life. If heavy tillage is 
to be done, it should be immediately followed with cover crops, mulch, 
compost and possibly mineral fertilizers and left to rest for a yer or 
two; best plan is to divide the land into sections and rotate one 
tillage and a two year fallow stage procedure through all the sections, 
one at a time, or two at a time, allowing the fully restored, 
naturalized sections to be planted with crops for harvest. For those who 
can afford to own or rent a Yeomans, annual use of this implement on 
difficult soils (see the diagram in Mollison's book - see page posted 
here) is appropriate and healthy and can produce miraculous results in 
harmony with Nature. Here are pix of the Yeomans three shank plow and a 
large hiller bedder I used to own and used exactly the way I described 
above.
https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/TractorEquipment
and doing it by hand:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/GardenTools
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq

Pix of various stages of garden bed preparation using a tractor:
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/farmpix
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/venaurafarm/

LFLondon