Something out of nothing

Hi folks, I’m looking for thoughts/advice on a project. I live in zone 8B, about 30 minutes south of Alexandria, Louisiana. I want to start a garden for the first time in years. I have lived in the city for years, and read every book I could get my hands on about homesteading and gardening. Now that I live in the country, and work full-time, I don’t have time to do things the way I imagined. Not only that, I will only be on this property for two years.
So: First, I don’t have compost or soil for gardening. It’s expensive, and too far to truck. I don’t have time to make it either. My brother-in-law can till for me, and that’s about it. I’m wondering: if I till, can I get enough (or decent) organic matter for a fall garden if I plant cow peas as green manure and till them under? I’m open to other ideas too. I would give more details, but I have to go to clock back in to work.

What are your thoughts on lasagna gardening? Seems like the inputs for that would be easier to source, cheaper, and wouldn't be as labor intensive as other methods. Also, in your climate, I would think they would break down pretty fast into compost and would be immediately plantable without disrupting your topsoil.

Here is an article with more details on the method: https://getbusygardening.com/lasagna-gardening/

My initial plan was to do no till gardening, or something like the lasagna method, but I don’t know that I can source enough materials easily. My husband isn’t much into gardening and the property I live on is primarily grass with trees that won’t drop leaves for months. We don’t have animals right now, ( he’s not much into that either, lol) so aside from a small kitchen compost bin and some cardboard, there isn’t much to layer. Maybe I’m overlooking something though, -What are your thoughts? Will read your article tonight.

Millie, welcome to the forum!

There are a lot of ways to make something out of nothing.

A lot of restaurants will give away their used coffee ground and maybe even veggie scraps.

If you have read about green manure that is easy to source from your grass clipping and even your neighbors' clipping.

Have you heard about chip drop?

https://permies.com/t/39157/ChipDrop-site-sign-delivery-free

https://permies.com/t/22404/Wood-Chip-Gardening

In the fall people collect bags of leaves from all over town.

Happy gardening!

Hi Millie, Welcome to Permies!
I'm not familiar with your growing zones - since I'm UK based the US climate zones don't match ours - My winter temperatures are similar to yours perhaps, or even milder, but I expect your growing season is much longer and hotter than mine too! So I'll just chip in with some logistical suggestions based on my experiences when I first moved to our property. I suspect that you may find you are going to find yourself doing too much and maybe struggle with things failing because of it. It may be better to make a smaller growing area - smaller areas take much less work and you can give the plants more attention. You'll need less materials, so can give the plants a better start.
This next might be something you have already done but think about what you like to eat and whether it will grow in your area. Look at your growing area - the sun it gets, any exposure from wind, what animals are in the vicinity that may be friends or foes. Dig several holes to 18 inch deep and assess the soil you have - does it look nice and dark with lots of small roots, is it sandy or clayey? What plants are growing there at the moment, is there a good diversity of weeds, or has the lawn been managed to death? This will give you some indication as to what improvements might be appropriate.
Plants don't read books and generally want to grow. Think about maybe growing pioneer plants that will be happy in less fertile soil - legumes are the obvious ones, but brassica are relatively happy in poor soil too. If you want to grow something like tomatoes or squash that prefer more fertile soil, improve the soil where they are to grow and don't try and do the whole area. Look upon the time you have there as a learning experience, and  set your beds up where they will be easy to see and tend to.
I hope this helps, and look forwards to hearing how you get on.

I have used paper grocery bags or newspapers, cardboard from recycling bins, egg cartons, paper from packing (like the kind used to wrap breakables). If you have a freecycle group or buy nothing facebook, you can request things like that. Shredded paper from an office can be used.

Lawn clippings are another great source. If you can get a lawn service that just mows locally (especially if they don't spray), you could ask them to dump a load of their clippings at the end of the day. That adds up quickly.

Chip drops are great and my parents get those- they live in a southern city and signed up for that- you get a big load of wood chips dumped when wood work has been done and you are on the list. You can also ask around for arborists that work locally to do the same on a more casual basis. My dad goes around when he hears wood work done in their area and ask if he can have the chip and waste from those jobs.

The coffee grounds idea is great and most coffee shops are happy to fill a 5 gallon bucket especially if you ask ahead. I have heard of people getting stuff from salad or smoothie restaurants, like fruit pulp or peelings or veggie scraps as well

I think as with most things, there is either a time/labor input or a money input, so getting some of these for no cost will take asking around and legwork, but it does pile up surprisingly fast, and since you are essentially helping people deal with a "waste" product, they are often very happy to give you what you want. If you get a good start with free stuff, you can pitch in a much smaller amount of purchased compost or manure as a "starter" to help with the process, although in your climate you will probably do fine letting nature run its course.

Wow, these are all great ideas. I drive through a small town everyday for work and I never thought about asking for stuff. I’ve heard of doing that before, but for some reason it hadn’t occurred to me here. We don’t have many restaurants but probably enough between the one grocery store and coffee shop. The mulch dumping idea is great too, though I live very out-of-the-way for most landscapers. I did find a guy who does tree cutting about 5 min. away, -as long as the excess carbon won’t kill my plants that’s great. It’ll probably decompose quick here in this climate. Can’t hurt to try it!!

Thanks so much everybody; my biggest fault is not asking around (city slicker that I am, lol) but I think that’ll solve a lot!

I just thought of another possible source for "biomass" with the consideration of smaller town limitations in mind: I was seeing corn starting to come into some markets here and I know that in the grocery stores and markets where I shop, the unshucked corn has a bin next to it so that people can shuck it before taking it home. Maybe asking the market manager if you can grab the corn husks and silk bins to use for your garden would give you some mass inputs.