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WalkingDead posted an update 6 years, 11 months ago
For those who garden and are aging, busy, or a bit lazy. I’ve used this method for several years; it works quite well and yields improve the longer you do it. No tilling, no weeding, no work (well almost), organic, can be done anywhere on any type of soil.
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Ticks all my boxes 😉
I wonder whether her technique is compatible with Steiner biodynamics?
FWIW, get 1 bad batch of hay/straw/alfalfa w/Johnson grass seed in it & that’s it for your garden. That stuff will germinate at 20yrs old. It destroyed mine…roots go to China. Break them while digging & it turns into Medusa. Don’t think agent orange would kill that stuff.
I’m doing container gardening this year in 4gal buckets that wick water. Got 3 green tomatoes already. No weeding & less costly on the organic feeding.
I have to do container gardening. This year I grew 3 kinds of lettuce and spinach. I got maybe 10 stwaberries. My Savoy cabbage didn’t do well. Now I refreshed soil 50/50 new, limped around for 3-4 days and then planted melons, egg plant, squash and blueberries. Picture me hauling water- no water source at hand. Advice welcome.
Bless your heart…I’m hauling rainwater by choice over conductive well water till the rain stops or drowns everything.
Don’t know how far into the weeds you want to go as it’s far more than NPK.
You can probably find this book online since he’s long dead. It’s a primer on both food/body nutritional needs. “Choose Life or Death” by Carey Reams. RBTI- Reams Biological Theory of Ionization. 2 biz were spawned from this. AgLabs & Daily mfg. First & foremost is a soil test but that’s long b4 planting season. The test you’ll get from your county extension is nowhere near the breakdown from AgLabs. PH is very important. Plants are divided into 2 groups…vegetative/reproductive. Use the wrong nutrients & you get all plant & no fruit or your vegetative goes to seed.
If you want to private message me w/your email, I’d be glad to show you the results from my soil test & the recommendations. This is dynamic. Besides Johnson grass devouring my garden the mix needed gets very expensive. Another reason I went to containers…far less cost for the healthiest food you can grow.
Since you’re hauling water, I’d string up some rain barrels you can find on CraigsList for about $20-25. Then have a gander @ this YT channel. A farmer from my defunct coop turned me onto it. She uses it & her production is thru the roof. This would solve water hauling & in combination w/custom soil recommendations, you should be off to the races. You’ll have to weed thru the vids…hee hee.
youtube.com/watch?v=SAxmxE-zrbE
Yesssssssss, you can grow w/o weeding, all the back breaking work & spend your time picking/preserving.
Note: Due to time factors I used a double bucket wicking system this year.
I just found this Bryce. Thanks.
Speaking as a professional gardener at one time (greenhouse grower, landscape architect, master gardener, instructor), there really is NO such thing as a work-free garden. You have to have decent soil to begin with, test it for any pH adjustment and fertilizer requirements (NPK) and then, given all those factors, and after you have double dug your plot, the use of heavy mulch like straw (NEVER HAY) does make a big difference. It also helps to know companion plants, rotational requirements from year to year, etc. It also helps to have a high fence if you have deer, tight fence for rabbits, and a gun if you have feral hogs… AND a decent climate that does not flood in spring and turn everything to dried stems in the 110F heat a month later. If you have all that, then, yes, easy gardening. Heh.
So far, it has worked as advertised and my soil has improved with time. While not exactly “work free” it has been the best “no till” method I have tried. Yields have steadily improved, I have no problem with weeds, and no need of commercial fertilizers. My soil is somewhat sandy and drains well, I have neighbors who raise chickens commercially, so I have access to all the “organic” nitrogen I require. I did have the area tilled with a rotary hoe prior to beginning the plot to aerate the soil and may have it done again in the future. It has been the least work of any method I have tried, to date. I have other neighbors who raise hay, so straw is easily acquired, the older the better. I do not garden commercially, just for me and my neighbors benefit. The area is fenced against smaller critters, I have had no problems with deer or feral hogs, but am equipped to handle such problems should they arise. Where I live there are plenty of deer and feral hogs to hunt, and I take enough during the year to keep us in meat. I prefer the wild game over the commercially raised varieties.
You are lucky that your neighbor’s hay do not have seeds. Hay is grass cut for livestock. Straw is the stems, ie what is left after harvesting oats and wheat. No seeds. Your “sandy” soil is improved by the addition of organics, aka composting “hay”, so you can “get away with it”. Here in Texas, we really don’t have much soil for starters and virtually no sand component (ie poor drainage). Tilling, or double digging (using a shovel to turn the dirt over twice) is necessary here if we have suitably amended the soil to produce a “loam” as we need to improve the air spaces in the soil and allow adequate drainage. Organics ALWAYS improve the soil but you somehow are lucking out with the composted manure, etc. that your N-P-K is suitable for what you are growing. N= nitrogen, green leaves; P=Phosphorous, strong stems; K= potash or potassium for strong roots. If the balance is off, you can produce yellow lettuce or plants with stems too weak to support fruit, like tomatoes (which rob just about everything out of the soil which is why they need to be rotated through the garden year to year). I won’t even get into the benefits of companion plants to reduce insects… I grew tomatoes on my porch two years ago and in one night, the tomato hornworms cleaned me out…. My plants were likely stressed so they put out a hormone that literally calls insects to come devour them. https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/scientists-map-underground-wood-wide-web-tree-connection-network We detected years ago that bark beetles were drawn from miles away as pheromones from stressed trees were released into the air.
This wish to get something without work reflects the urge to return to a “Garden of Eden” state (though in the Mesopotamian texts the “gods” had to work rather hard on their Eden). And then every year is different: one year might be good for beans but poor for spinach. With all the water this year, a lot of us are probably sorry we didn’t try rice. 🙂
I mist with a Hydrogen Peroxide/soap solution, seems to help with the bugs a bit, though I really don’t have that many. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. I’ve actually been surprised how little effort I’ve had to put into it compared to the way I used to do it. The soil stays moist pretty much year round, though I do water some during the hottest months; but then I live in a swamp with a high water table in a tropical rain forest region. The hay is and manure is free, helps with the cost. Everyone around here farms and gardens, so we all help each other in various ways.