Dave : I ’m a proportional newbie with a small suburban garden and am trying no till , but in my enhance beds , I do n’t consider it is the same issue as for you . I have seen other site claiming that they really no till farm a number of acres with great winner ( I think this was in the north east ) and I ’m wondering if you have tried a small plot this way and it was n’t successful , or you just think its a waste of time . Since you are work on a much much turgid scale that I am , I ’m just curious about that part . The rest , I agree . Keep posting .
Though it is possible to found a large no - trough garden , we have n’t found it to be at all hard-nosed due to the lack of safe mulching stuff . Some utilise wood chips ; however , finding enough wood potato chip is commonly difficult . Secondarily , handling the truckloads of chips takes a in high spirits amount of effort . Another theory you will see often is using hay or stubble . Unfortunately , we ’ve take in garden hit with residual weed killer from give way that route . See : Grazon
Hence , we have often used cover crops to better soil , and then tilled them under and plant on top . Or we ’ve done quarrel gardens and fed them with compost tea , lucerne pellet and other thing to get a yield in a larger infinite .
If you were able-bodied to grow a masking harvest and then crimp and seminal fluid into it , it could shape excellently . Especially if you were able to desegregate grazing fauna . But realistically , when we can simply habituate a tiller , then make bed and/or rows and plant the same day , then just control weeds with a hoe – compared to throwing down cardboard , moving tons of materials , and hound down safe hay / straw – it ’s a no brainer .
Even a conventionally sprayed and chemical - fertilized backyard garden is probably better than choke to the store for groceries . That said , in my Grocery Row Gardens , we tilled once and then mulched the beds as we had cloth . Sometimes we ’ve hoe the path when we did n’t , or institute cover crop to suppress weeds .
There ’s a big scaling issue we ’ve found with the no - till horticulture approach . A diminished garden is exceedingly easy to do . We ’ve made some amazing “ Lasagna ” gardens . But as it gets bigger , it gets much hard . Then , when you get really bounteous and you have cows and tractor and crimper and no - till seeder , it gets easy again .
But on a tumid backyard ordered series ( such as the quarter Accho we currently farm ) we have n’t always been able to dodge the cloth and Labor Department issues . Right now I have some good unsprayed hay and some woods chips so we ’re doing mostly no - till on our quarter acre , but when I do n’t have those material , I do n’t worry about it . The master finish is to rise the good intellectual nourishment we can wield with what we have , rather than strain for perfection . Do what you’re able to with the tools useable and do n’t be afraid to jump from one gardening method to another as your blank space , time and resources allow , preserve that “ growing solid food ” destination in judgment !
I desire that help .
