Kristin Johnson

I just love Ashmead’s Kernal. I did an apple tasting at Scott Farm Orchard in Vermont, which has over 100 heirloom varieties. It’s such an investment to plant a tree and wait to taste the fruit, so I wanted to try the broadest selection I could before picking. You can read my tasting notes here if you’re interested: https://thisinspired.life/best-heirloom-apples-small-home-orchard/

Btw, there are so many options for cooler zones (I'm zone 4) and St. Lawrence Nursery near Canada has a lot of great options for cooler climates.

I have an order in this spring for an Ashmead’s Kernal, Reine des Reinettes, Bramley’s Seedling, Northern Spy, Chestnut Crab, and Liberty (my safety net I’m super excited to start my heirloom orchard!

Hi! New here and newly acquired our homestead. I'd like to start a no-till vegetable garden, and I plan on reclaiming a small part of our field that a neighbor has been using to grow alfalfa the last 5 years. I've read alfalfa can be a good cover crop, so I'm thinking my garden may benefit from this history (as well as the sunny location and decent drainage.)

I'd like to start preparing the soil in advance of starting the garden next year. I've read all about putting down the layers (cardboard, compost, etc.) but I'm wondering if the standard approach to starting the no-till garden will work on a field with established alfalfa. (I plan on waiting until the farmer has taken his final harvest for the year to do anything.)

Another kind neighboring farmer (all conventional farmers) offered to plow up my garden patch for me because he knows we don't have the standard farm equipment. I told him I was planning on doing no-till and he pointed out that the alfalfa roots can be as deep as 30 feet and I'd never be able to get my garden going if I didn't do some serious upheaval. He recommended plowing just this one time and then doing no-till after that.

I'm a little concerned about damaging the microbiome, but I can see his point. I've been looking and looking for anyone who's posted on this topic but can't seem to find any info on this specific topic.

I also just sent in some soil samples to Logan Labs (planning on doing Steve Solomon analysis and amendments for growing nutrient dense food.) So I'm thinking the plowing might be a good opportunity to get some amendments deeper in the soil, since I'm not quite sure how some of the amendments work with no-till gardening.

Does anyone have any advice for me? My plan was to put down cardboard, wood chip compost, some horse manure this fall and let it all sit over the winter. Now I'm wondering if I should just let the kind neighbor plow it up this fall, then add some compost/horse manure on top. (skip the cardboard.)

Thanks in advance!

Btw, I am in Zone 4b, Minnesota