When you reach your lowest point, you are open to the greatest change.
-Avatar Aang
Sometimes the answer is nothing
If I had to establish a large garden to feed a lot of people in a hurry, and I did not have the materials available to sheet mulch the area with cardboard, then I would probably till an area to start the initial process. Tilling, if done repeatedly will require a lot more inputs in order to keep up the fertility (food for the soil community that feeds your plants), and even the initial losses should probably be amended (as Wayne mentioned with tilling in manure). Tilling will expose your weed seeds, and break up weeds; some of these that are present will be multiplied by the process. So, although it seems like a labor-saving tool, tillage can cost a lot in labor expenditures due to weeding. I'm not sure what the savings in materials are that you can see in the tillage process.If I had to grow a lot of food for myself and other people, I think I would have to till. Tilling worries me, mostly because I'm very afraid of eroding my soil. But I can see how tilling can save an enormous amount of materials and labor in its own way.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller
It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
Idle dreamer
List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller
It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
Iterations are fine, we don't have to be perfect
I'm not going to argue with Joseph's family history, or his methods, which certainly are great and to be commended; particularly in the high desert. I certainly could stand to learn immeasurably from his knowledge base. I chose this quote from his post to point out a few things. There is a big difference between running a roto-tiller and the harvesting of some carrots, potatoes, or garlic. I harvest with a spade-fork. While it certainly does disturb the soil, there are large masses of intact soil ecosystem left from which the carrots or potatoes or garlic separate, and these are likely (in my thinking) able to help re-inoculate the rest of the soil system with a balance of soil community members and provide some long-term stability to that system. Tillage, unless it is done with a single pass of a plow, does not allow such communities to be intact. Generally, these days, tillage is done with a machine which tends to not leave large masses intact in the soil. Even if tillage is done in a way that minimizes the powdering of soil, the masses are usually broken down into quite small bits in comparison to the harvesting of carrots with a spade fork. I am not a staunch advocate of zero disturbance, simply minimizing it. There is also a difference between no-till and no disturbance. No disturbance is impossible.
Long winded way of saying that I think no-till advocates may get better results if they don't try growing annual species or root crops. How could a proponent of not disturbing the soil grow something like carrots, or potatoes?
till
Hmm, is tilling sustainable? Hard to say. We've made it 10,000 years so far.
Interestingly, after visiting Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin, Eliot Coleman decided that he should start planting trees in amongst his annual market gardens.Therefore, they tend to thrive in tilled soil, and do poorly in forest type soils.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller
Idle dreamer
When you reach your lowest point, you are open to the greatest change.
-Avatar Aang
Joy to the world
But what will come?
When the lights go down on everyone
I sure don't wanna be around here when the whistle blows
Our inability to change everything should not stop us from changing what we can.
Robert Ray wrote:There is the camp that thinks tillage releases more cabon into the atmosphere. Running down that rabbit hole there is data that shows an increase in atmospheric levels during the spring tillage of farmland in the US. If "Kernza" becomes a more popular grain I'd be curious to see what atmospheric levels are in a large test plot "Kernza" v wheat.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-04/could-no-till-farming-reverse-climate-change
List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.
List of Bryant RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads We love visitors, that's why we live in a secluded cabin deep in the woods. "Buzzard's Roost (Asnikiye Heca) Farm." Promoting permaculture to save our planet.
Mary Cook wrote:Redhawk, I might try that with one bed--I do have access to a chip pile about 3 years old. i hesitate to do any more, because about 25 years ago someone offered me sawdust from an abandoned sawmill, supposedly 30 years old. I put it three inches deep on top of my bed, then tried working it in...and my garden was weak and yellow for a couple of years after that. I wondered if maybe the sawdust included black walnut...or wasn't really so well composted--but it made me very leery of using sawdust or woodchips in the vegetable garden. I do mulch my berry patches with wood chips. And put a little heap of them under each fruit tree...mostly I fertilize the trees with humanure and then mulch that with leaves, and then cover that with rocks and logs to keep the chickens from kicking everything all over.
Mary Cook wrote:I am not a patient person, but I have learned this trick--years pass all by themselves, and next thing you know ...
Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I believe that the practice in medieval Europe was to leave each field fallow and untilled one year in three.
Can you really tell me that we aren't dealing with suspicious baked goods? And then there is this tiny ad:
A cooperative way to get to our dream farm.
https://permies.com/t/218305/cooperative-dream-permaculture-farm
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