who digs who does not dig and who uses mixed methods?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by hedwig, Jun 13, 2007.

  1. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    Many interesting responses!
    After reading everything I still find the method very good but I know better what problems I do have with the method:
    I still don't really know how to sow carrots in raised beds (you must make lots of pockets) or radishes. I relly love sowing direct because it is lesser work.
    The other problem I have with the no dig bed is that I often crownd my beds considerably. I.e I plant tomatos. Around them there are garlics (to keep the bugs away). While the tomatos are young I plant ruccola or other salads in between.
    And I always sow a border: Something I can get the seeds very cheap and it will grow very fast to have an instantt result (cress, buckwheat salad, coriander, mustard.. most bought in the grocer store).

    In raised beds you sow or plant always in pockets (coorrect me if I am wrong) and between the pockets there are a gaps. If you don't leave gaps you have no space to put the mulch. Or does anyone cove the whole area with whatever fine material to sow directly in?
    the no-dig method lives with seedlings.
    this does not mean that the method is bad, perhaps it is good having some beds in the old fasiioned manner for carrots and other in the sheet composting manner.
    My following new beds I inittially will stil dig initially- dig out the concrete, big stones, or old water pipes - which can never be turned into organic matter.
    The other big problem is getting enough organic material if you don't want to spent heaps of money (a baleof lucerne $16 sugar cane mulch 9-12 and all this is shurely not grown nearby - lots of CO2 to transposrt)
    Getting straw is really difficult if the city is surrounded by mansions with horses!
    Intensive gardener: why do you prefer digging to hoeing?
    Most of the vegetables are annuals - so you do most of the garden beds in a more conventional way. Do you sow very thickly?
    Do you use guilds?
    which plants do you plant to provide the mulch? Do you think that one can grow his own mulch on a suburban block of land? (400 sqm incl. house).

    I realy cannot imagine letting the chicken roaming into the veggie garden! They escaped this mornig and the damage was considerable!

    we have now a waste water diverter and use the shower water for the compost heap, which didn't work very well - too dry. I hope it does not alterate too much the soil ph p or disturb the worms.

    We are making an experiment: we have a wormfarm directly on a bed using a wooden frame. The worm farm is full of hosre poo. In one or two weeks we will remove the frame and i'll try to plant directly in.

    However I think about incoorporating more perennial plants and these are really good for the no dig method!

    Does the raised bed system or sheet composting has any more ancient roots in traditional agriculture?
     
  2. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    I still dig ( a bit)

    Many interesting responses!
    After reading everything I still find the method very good but I know better what problems I do have with the method:
    I still don't really know how to sow carrots in raised beds (you must make lots of pockets) or radishes. I relly love sowing direct because it is lesser work.
    The other problem I have with the no dig bed is that I often crownd my beds considerably. I.e I plant tomatos. Around them there are garlics (to keep the bugs away). While the tomatos are young I plant ruccola or other salads in between.
    And I always sow a border: Something I can get the seeds very cheap and it will grow very fast to have an instantt result (cress, buckwheat salad, coriander, mustard.. most bought in the grocer store).

    In raised beds you sow or plant always in pockets (coorrect me if I am wrong) and between the pockets there are a gaps. If you don't leave gaps you have no space to put the mulch. Or does anyone cove the whole area with whatever fine material to sow directly in?
    the no-dig method lives with seedlings.
    this does not mean that the method is bad, perhaps it is good having some beds in the old fasiioned manner for carrots and other in the sheet composting manner.
    My following new beds I inittially will stil dig initially- dig out the concrete, big stones, or old water pipes - which can never be turned into organic matter.
    The other big problem is getting enough organic material if you don't want to spent heaps of money (a baleof lucerne $16 sugar cane mulch 9-12 and all this is shurely not grown nearby - lots of CO2 to transposrt)
    Getting straw is really difficult if the city is surrounded by mansions with horses!
    Intensive gardener: why do you prefer digging to hoeing?
    Most of the vegetables are annuals - so you do most of the garden beds in a more conventional way. Do you sow very thickly?
    Do you use guilds?
    which plants do you plant to provide the mulch? Do you think that one can grow his own mulch on a suburban block of land? (400 sqm incl. house).

    I realy cannot imagine letting the chicken roaming into the veggie garden! They escaped this mornig and the damage was considerable!

    we have now a waste water diverter and use the shower water for the compost heap, which didn't work very well - too dry. I hope it does not alterate too much the soil ph p or disturb the worms.

    We are making an experiment: we have a wormfarm directly on a bed using a wooden frame. The worm farm is full of hosre poo. In one or two weeks we will remove the frame and i'll try to plant directly in.

    However I think about incoorporating more perennial plants and these are really good for the no dig method!

    Does the raised bed system or sheet composting has any more ancient roots in traditional agriculture?
     
  3. IntensiveGardener

    IntensiveGardener Junior Member

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    raised beds

    Hedwig,
    Most of my anual beds are not heavily mulched,lots of compost incorporated though. The idea is to plant the plants rather close together in an offset or hexagonal spacing (not traditional rows). They grow quickly due to the compost and form a living mulch over the surface. i plant at 3/4 the recomended spacing. I grow carrots this way too gradually thinning out a thickly planted patch, no mulch. I also canot understant how carrots are gown using permanent mulch.
    I use seedlings for the same reason as you direct sow. its less work. By adding a small amount of labour to raise seedlings i save a huge amount of labour weeding or hoeing because the plants have a head start.
    I usually use thin mulch between slow growing plants to stop weeds until the plants leaves are touching. i don't leave gaps.
    Plants can be grown as companions provided they still cover the soil sufficiently. Good examples are corn with an understory of lettuce, beans or spinach. These create a beautiful, multi story mini forest :)
    I do not hoe because i have largely eliminated the need to and can't because i don't plant in rows. Hoeing is fine, i'v nothing against it provided its not too deep.
    I do beleive that you can grow all your own materials. approximately 50% of the area should be grown with catch crops of straw, legumes etc...
    It should be composted rather than mulched, don't dig it in.
    A book called "How do grow more vegetables on less land than you ever thought possible" details this method and favours a "closed" system within the garden. Very little is brought in.
    Using this method you turn your garden into a super efficient means of taking carbon from the air. Cured compost is spread on the garden about 2cm thick and the garden will produce enough biomass to make that much compost again. The soil gradually improves.

    Raised bed agriculture has many traditional sources. The ancient greeks used to simulate a landslide by trencing their raised beds. Chinese, indian and some north american tribes also used them. Some used systems similar to permaculture; the chinese simply piled materials onto their beds. While the indians used a simple composting method and applied compost to their beds.


    I.G
     
  4. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    hi Intensive gardener, if I would use only 50% of the land to plant my veggies...
    we've got 400 sqm. The house with an old shed (to be removed) covers 90sqm. Then there is the driveway, beked earth, I will eventually plant (however my husband says that you can never sell a house in australia without something to park the bloddy car).
    there is the frontyard some trees the chicken run pathways water tanks the compost heaps etc. I think Ihaven't got more than 60 sqm for the vegetable garden. If I would take 50% out to grow mulch I had left ony 30sqm that#s not enough.Howeer we disclosed the chicken of half of their big run in order that the vegetaion can grow - perhaps I should actively incoorporate some seeds here or hoe around a big comfrey plant which grows quite nice but never bothered to divide.
    One problem of the mulching is that you need machinery, which is expensive (we cannot afford to buy cheap crab)

    Are there books or good linkd to traditional raised beds/no dig systems?
     
  5. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    hedwig, you need a machine for mulching? The only thing I use is a $100 lawn mower, and several tarps to drag it around on :)
     
  6. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    until now we use the secateur, but perhaps I'l get the old lawn mower repaired. does it really cut twigs? To what size?
    I would really prefer having a push mower and a hand -mulch-machine.
    The motor things needs maintainace, stinks and the are loud.
     
  7. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    hedwig, horses nearby? Then there should be places to buy a bale of oats or alfalfa, which works wonderfully. Alfalfa has a growth hormone in it that is great for plants.

    When I lived in the suburbs I had two elaeagnus bushes that grew to be as tall as a tall man and just about as wide that provided trimmings and leaf droppings. So it's bushes that work in a small yard, rather than grasses.

    You can sow directly by pulling the leafy mulch back, putting down a couple inches of dark compost and sowing into the compost. As the plants get taller, push the leaves back under the plants. The taller they are, the thicker the mulch.

    I avoid sticks because they take for-freakin-ever to break down. So I trim my bushes often to get finger-length trimmings. I try to look at it a little differently, I "harvest" leaves off the shrubs, rather than trim off "unwanted" growth. The more often I do it, the fewer sticks and twigs I get. But I compost sticks that I do get before putting them into the garden. Sticks need extra nitrogen to break down, too.

    Another really great amendment for your compost pile and soil is coffee grounds, a lot of them. They help to hold nutrients and water when not exposed to the sun. Try to get an extra garbage bag of free ones from a local coffee shop.

    You only need the mower if you are cutting grasses or make a long, narrow pile of leaves and mow over it to break them down. If you have big cuttings of branches and leaves, you can let them dry out in the sun, and squish them into a big bucket with your foot and they will break down really easily. I turned a large pile of dead leaves into two buckets of leaf chips just with my foot, really quickly. Little dry twigs will break down this way as well.
     
  8. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    I often grow potatos in my sheet mulch/no dig beds the first season. It is just great to see the massive form activity and beautiful soild that has resulted by the time the harvest takes place. Pretty much anything can then be put in as the next crop and will flourish. Makes me want to run out and setup a potato garden now - but it would be bound to fail without being able to give it any water at all. Gotta get those tanks in.
     
  9. Plumtree

    Plumtree Junior Member

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    I 'dig' because that is the only way to create a garden that will thrive. Our land is old sheep paddock in NSW. It is considerably different to land and soil in the northern hemisphere. When I initially turn over a 'sod' there will never, ever be any life of any kind deeper than an inch or so....no worms, no grubs and no roots. Water does not seem capable of penetrating the soil under the thin line of topsoil.

    My job is to turn this lifeless mass into humus filled, porous and fertile soil.
    The sheep eat the grass and they 'crap'. The sheep 'poo' is my catalyst for improving the soil. I also have ducks who also 'crap' on the straw in their shed at night. the soiled straw is put in a pile with other rubbish, household scraps, weeds that have been pulled and I mulch, with a mulcher, every bit of scrap wood I find. When this breaks down it is added to the garden. (Our grey water from the shower and laundry sink goes to this compost heap otherwise the compost would just dry up.)

    Hedwig, in your little garden you have to do the same but, I guess you have to buy some stuff. You may have to buy some sheep manure. It changes it's name from 'poo' to manure when it goes in a bag! It is hard work but very worthwhile. Like you, I like to grow in furrows which would be impossible in a no dig garden. I also believe that you can grow more plants in an area if you are able to develop a deep root system.

    Once you have the soil fixed up you will soon be eating nutritious veggies.
     
  10. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Plumtree,

    Heard of the Gundaroo Tiller?.... it is one of those heavy duty garden forks with adjustable tines. Brilliant for your soil types, you dont have to turn the soil over just push this in and lift/crack the soil.

    It lets water, nutrients, air and worms penetrate.

    floot
     
  11. Plumtree

    Plumtree Junior Member

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    Thanks for the heads-up about the Gunderoo Tiller, Floot. It could be used as a part of the process but after breaking the soil up we have to infuse it with humus to make it 'accept' water. I am considering buying one of those walking tractors to help churn the soil and for a million other things.

    Once we have dug things over and added manure, wood chips and compost, things start to work again. Around here it is a process that requres a bit more than breaking the soil.
     
  12. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    sweatpea, you mean that we ask the horse owners if they sell us some of their foodstuff they bought for the horses? Good idea.
    Bagged manure is pretty expensive however the horse manure is only $2,5 each,.
     
  13. stuartgrant

    stuartgrant Junior Member

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    Hi all,

    I've had similar questions about no-dig methods to Hedwig over the years. Here's my 2c worth.

    I don't dig, except when starting a garden on virgin soil.

    I don't mulch, either. See below.

    Firstly, there are a multitude of different no-dig methods and not all of them are suitable to all climates/vegetables:

    No-dig method #1: Straw bale gardens (as described on Len's website). This involves creating a deep, raised bed entirely out of compostible materials and planting into the layers of mulch/compost. Great method, doesn't work in cool climates.

    No-dig method #2: Sheet-mulching. Where the entire garden/bed is covered by a layer of mulch (which becomes compost) that is only thick enough to supress weeds. Great method, CAN work in all climates. I have catastrophic slug problems in winter with this method so I tried...

    No-dig method #3: No-mulch method. Mulching and composting keep the soil soft and workable by encouraging soil microbes and worms. This can be achieved by adding finished compost (as IntensiveGardener said) or COMPLETE organic fertiliser ( blood and bone, for example, lacks potassium and many trace elements). Mulching is also said to keep moisture in, but this is possibly only true in wet weather. Some people have actually claimed that mulching causes MORE evaporation in hot, dry conditions because the mulch wicks moisture up from the soil. By comparison, bare soil allegedly doesn't allow much evaporation once the surface has dried out.


    The problem with this method is that mulching (in my opinion) is important in winter because the heavy winter rains can cause soil compaction and erosion without mulch. I'm still struggling with this question and, in the mean time, not mulching. Any suggestions for a compromise?

    As for digging, I agree totally with IntensiveGardener that digging essentially constitutes worm and microbe genocide! But let's be honest, so does walking on grass (repeatedly, at least). My view is that digging is essential on degraded or clayey soil. But only ONCE! And ONLY for vegie/other intensive gardens. After you've incorporated minerals and organic matter into the soil, you shouldn't need to dig again and the rest of your soil-improvement can be no-dig. Of course, you can try sprinkling gypsum on the surface of clay soil but it'll take a LONG time to do its job.

    I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions!
     
  14. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    G'day Stuart,

    How's the community garden coming along?

    Any chance of introducing a few baby ducks to your garden? They'll make short work of the slugs (dissected young ducks have been found to have over 1000 pests and insects in their crop {gullet})! Other than that, have you tried any of the various liquid traps or edge barriers yet? Whichever method you use (IMO ducks are preferable because you're converting slugs to duck meat and eggs), keeping at it long enough to break the breeding cycle a few times is crucial, then you'll have a much more easily manageable problem.

    I couldn't have ducks where I was a long time back when I gardened in Launceston, but a combination of edge barriers, traps and very occasional hand picking soon had them well under control.


    Nah mate, check out Geoff Lawton's 'Greening The Desert' and other projects in Jordan and similar areas - you can't get much hotter and drier than there! :lol:

    You just have to mulch deeper the drier it gets, then water under the mulch. For crops close to the surface which you can't mulch REALLY deeply (unlike many perennials, shrubs and trees), the mulch will soak up water from the soil, in which case you just treat it as the first couple of inches of soil and keep it moist in dry weather when evaporation is high. But even then, only really when crops are establishing, after that (if you've encouraged deep rooting by not overwatering) the roots are well below the surface and not affected by moisture exchange between the surface mulch and the first inch or so of soil.

    I sheet mulched parts of our new property about 3 months ago, wet each layer down thoroughly, then had temps above 30C (and up to high 30's) until we got some rain and cooler weather about 10 days ago, and a couple of weeks before then when I checked to the bottom layer, half the depth of it was still moist and the soil underneath was coming to life and beautifully moist. The parts which were (and still are for the time being) grassed were basically dead from lack of any moisture and the soil is in poor condition (even after quite considerable rain in recent days).




    When this happens, you can get serious compaction problems (particularly without raised beds), erosion problems, and you aren't providing good habitat for worms and micro-organisms - especially when you don't have a lot of depth in your topsoil for them to retreat into. Also, soil is evaporated much faster by wind movement than it is by the sun...when you fully expose soil it's going to dry out much faster than it will when it is mulched.
     
  15. IntensiveGardener

    IntensiveGardener Junior Member

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    mulch materials/digging/slugs

    Stuart,
    I have had the same problems with slugs on mulched beds in winter. Whatever edge barriers i tryed seemed only to harbour slugs rather than prevent them. Also ducks have absolutely destroyed my veg garden when i tryed them so i won't be doing that again.
    I have about 200 caulis in the ground and i mulched about 10 of them as an experiment. I used sugar cane mulch to about an inch deep. The ones growing on bare soil are 30cm leafspan while the mulched ones are barely 15cm and have holes in the leaves. Also, native birds regularly dig through my mulch covering my little plants and creating more work for me.

    i agree that digging is necessary at least once (depending on compaction), and particularly on heavy, clay soils like mine. I'v tryed Gypsum with little effect and prefer lime. Clays are usually acidic and adding calcium sulphate (Gypsum) makes that worse. Dolomite or lime (calcium carbonate) seems to work a little but is hardly the magic solution to a impervious clay pan that some claim. A combination of initial digging and this kind of re-mineralisation works quite well.

    Jez,
    I disagree about the erosion and compaction of bare soil provided that it is given enough compost and is growing plants.

    "real soil doesn't erode" -Faulkner, Ploughman's Folly

    I have raised beds of humus rich soil some of which (unfortunately) haven't yet got their next crop in and are bare. We just got about 4" of rain here and no soil has washed anywhere! The soil has enough structure to prevent this due to the compost and the previous crop's roots.
    If i'd rotaty hoed it erosion would have occured though.

    As far as compaction goes the structure prevents this too to an extent. The best prevention against compaction is plants, they airate the soil with their root mass and protect it with their leaves. Observe the way Brassicas catch the rain in their leaves, it beads then slowly drops down through the cannopy to the soil.

    hedwig,
    I always advise people to grow their own organic matter because if it is brought in from elsewhere the gardener loses track of the energy going into the garden. Consider how much fossil fuel was actually used growing your vegetables. If you grow your own mulches and compost then it can be virtually none. If however you bring in manure, lucern, straw etc.... for compost or mulch then for every kg of produce you grow you are using not only fuel to transport the materials but also probably deisel for the tractor which grew them, or grew the food for the horses. Furthermore, although the soil in your garden will improve greatly the chances are that soil in another location is being depleted by chem agriculture in order to grow your organic matter.
    If you have trees, chicken runs etc.. there is nothing wrong with using the chicken run to grow straw if you can alternate the chooks between areas. Use the leaves from the trees also. Of course we must be pragmatic and i import materials occasionally but its a good idea to keep the energy use in mind.

    cheers,
    I.G
     
  16. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    Re: mulch materials/digging/slugs

    With ducks IG, the younger the better (they're most after protein as the major part of their diet when they're young) and it's good to not give them full access all the time - i.e. restrict them when you're starting off smaller stuff. That might mean you have to alternate between ducks and other control methods the first few seasons when you're starting stuff off, but eventually you'll eliminate the breeding cycles and be on your way.


    Sugar cane is not a feeder mulch - it adds nothing beyond organic matter and takes nitrogen out of the soil in the process of breaking itself down. So if that's your best option for a mulch, then you need to be putting back some of that nitrogen you're losing. Another probable factor is that you've used non-organic sugar cane. That's typically riddled with pesticides and herbicides, so that could well be having a negative impact.


    Compost IS a mulch mate...so is 'top dressing' with manure ala Peter Cundall. Many people seem to somehow have picked up that 'mulch' can only be straw or leaf matter (perhaps because often it is), but by definition it's whatever you put on top of the soil.

    Bare soil to me is quite literally bare soil. Soil with compost added on top is mulched soil - mulched with compost.


    Agreed, hence the use of the word "can" in the comment I made. Not many people start out with beautifully structured soil, and I doubt Stuart's is because he's reclaiming a suburban block which was covered in grass. A relatively high silt and/or clay content is pretty common in Australian soils.

    Rasied beds help a lot too - both in developing a more ideal soil structure and also with holding your soil in one place.

    Then there's rain and RAIN. I've grown in some of the wettest parts of Australia where regular heavy downpours (especially when followed by blazing sun shortly afterwards) can push almost any soil to the point where compaction is beginning to show without a good mulch or living mulch layer to intercept it.



    Again, I agree structure does help with compaction, but only once you've got that nice structure. In the meantime, annuals spend a lot of time reaching the point of growth where they minimise rain impact on most of the soil which surrounds them.

    Raised beds also help a lot, because most of the worst compaction comes from human foot traffic through ground level beds. Mulches help a lot in this area - particularly in typical Zone 3 crops which need wider growing areas for pollination and spreading.
     
  17. IntensiveGardener

    IntensiveGardener Junior Member

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    Mulch and Compost

    Jez,
    I used sugar cane mulch not as a feeder mulch but to supress the weeds. I also added a good dose of dynamic lifter under the mulch at the time to prevent nitrogen deficiency, perhaps not enough.

    I made the distinction between mulch and compost because i usually sift the compost into the top few inches rather than just placing it on top like a mulch. I would do the same with manure in the preparation stage but not as a top dressing, that is a manure mulch.
    Thanks for the info on the ducks, must try to get some young ones.

    cheers, IG
     
  18. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    you lost me on this one stuart,

    that's akin to saying no gardening will work in cold climates!! all any raised no-dig gardening does is take the back breaking tilling work out of the venture. all gardens need organic mater or fertiliser added continually and all gardens need a good mulch layer, for many reasons ie.,. to keep the soil moisture in, to keep weeds in control, the stabalise soils temp's as in cooler in summer warmer in winter, and green type mulches feed the soil.

    all of the raised bed methods you mentioned all help improve the sub soil bt attracting all the necessary micozoria you speek of so it just doesn't fir to say other than that, soil can be improved without the somewhat dominating human practise of physically digging it. to whip it into shape.

    sheet mulching likewise is just another slant on raised bed gardening as is square-foot gardening, doesn't matter what you call it anyone who slects a spot to garden on is agrdening. there are many more gardeners across the pacific who gardens in areas that have more winter than summer and lots of them use the raised beds method and it works for them i see pic's of their results almost daily. they are more heavily into composting and mulching than i would see the average aussie gardener, even more so than me, i would hate to suggest they are wasting their time.

    all tilling does is damage the soils structure and allow for the loss of sloil moisture as well as aids errosions wind/water.

    now if you have a slug/snail problems that problem exists due to lack of management of the problem not due to any sort of raised bed gardening and not using mulch because it seems that it attracts the critter just doesn't wash, i ahve lived in older suburbs where the snails are rampant, but i manage them so they don't prolificate in my garden.

    there simply is no compromise to mulching, it is exactly how nature does it continual recycling process.

    it has been shown over and over again "there is no need to dig ever" let the worms do the digging they're adet to do so naturally.

    len
     
  19. kikosisko

    kikosisko Junior Member

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    this is my first year at gardening. Have a 8' by 10' foot plot in front of the house in inner city area. the area had some weeds and a few ornamental bushes and a large rose shrub in the back. i chopped everything down except the rose bush and covered everything with some compost and grass clippings on top. In the beginning i planted cowpeas here and there , sunflowers in the back. squashes, melon, i trasplanted egg plant and tomatoes , i also broadcast white clover seed. i continually add mulch from the black locust street trees around here and also i use weeds growing around and nieghbors grass clippings. so now a thick mulch of about 15 cm is now everywhere. Everything looking great. Will post a picture later. my question is. What to do once the season is over. This is New york City and even though last year winter only really started in january usually its pretty severe cold here. once everything is harvest should i broadcast winter rye and hairy vetch or should i pull back the mulch to do so? or should i just chop and drop all crop residues and let the mulch work into the soil over the winter? Will rye and hairy vetch be able to germinate from broadcasting over that thick of a mulch?
     
  20. stuartgrant

    stuartgrant Junior Member

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    No, I was referring only to the original "no-dig" method coined by Ruth Stout in 1961. Her method of permanent mulching works perfectly in her climate (Connecticut) where summers are fairly hot (meaning that the mulch rots down very quickly, feeding the soil) and where winters are freezing (meaning that slug and snail populations are largely killed off each winter). Average temps in Connecticut are pretty extreme: -3ºC in winter and 24ºC in summer.

    If you're mulching heavily you need SOME way of breaking the breeding cycle of slugs etc. In Connecticut, this happens every winter because of the climate. In Brissy, maybe slugs aren't as much of a problem because of the (relatively) constant warmth?? In Launceston, I break the breeding cycle by mulching periodically (ie. only in summer) if at all.

    Can you explain how you managed them? Like IG, I've had no luck with any kind of barrier method and the slugs were too numerous for hand-removing them to be effective.

    I think it's worth debating. I agree that digging is harmful to soil life, but so is heavily compacted or clayey soil - if the soil structure is abysmal, worms and soil microbes are not going to penetrate it. That why I would recommend digging for people with very heavy soils. But only once! It's short term pain for long term gain.
     

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