Derald wrote:
"Terry Coombs" wrote:

I have her book somewhere , but remember the basics . Next summer I
will be embarking on a no-till project
I am a great fan of "no-till" gardening but, unfortunately, I must
shake up my beds at least once/year and dig them every third-or-so
year due to incursion of native tree roots. I read Ms Stout's first
book in the mid-'70s and, IIRC, she minimized the fairly significant
fact that she _already_ had a thriving truck garden before she
decided to stop digging.
Unfortunately, new gardeners who see her book and/or who give
credence to the great mass of "Pollyanna" (and largely fictitious,
IMO) BS that abounds on the W3 about "no-till" and "lasagna"
gardening often conclude that all one need do is pile a bunch of crap
into a bed and wait for magic to happen. Well, the "magic" is
(almost) certain to occur, in most climates, but the expectant
gardener could be long dead. I am a strong advocate (and long-time
practitioner) of
chemical-free, wide-row gardening, especially for new installations in
areas with less than perfect soil texture-that is, most of North
America;-) Toward that end, I found early issues of "The Mother Earth
News" (first five or ten years) as well as Dick Raymond's _The Joy of
Gardening_ (1982, Garden Way Inc.) informative. Raymond's _Dick
Raymond's Gardening Year_ (1985, Linden Press) is also quite useful
but one must adjust the relevant dates to conform to ones latitude.
FWIW: Garden Way is the company that manufactured and sold the
"Troy Built" brand of gasoline powered rotary tillers and which also
sponsored Raymond's teevee "infomercials". However, regardless of
ones view of rototilling, the principles and information remain valid.
Through it all one cannot overemphsize the importance of succession
planting (so-called "relay planting") and of crop rotation. If you
don't already do so, start a garden journal that at least record
planting dates and location, 80% germination date, date of first
harvest, date of removal from the garden. After a few seasons, that
information will prove useful in planning companion and succession
planting.
The URLs following are sites that offer companion planting
guidance, much of it redundant, and all to be taken with the
proverbial GoS: One should always, always, take the evidence
perceived by ones own lying eyes over _anything_ some unknown-to-you
"expert" presents as "gospel", although it might pay to determine why
any divergence between your experience and The Truth exists. The
following are valid a/o this writing.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/companion-planting-guide-zmaz81mjzraw.aspx#axzz2nTqprCoo
http://www.burpeehomegardens.com/VegetableHerbGardening/_CompanionPlants.aspx
http://naturewiseplants.com/documents/CompanionPlants.pdf
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/compatible-plants-onions-garlic-22804.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants#Vegetables
http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/Companion_Planting/companiontables.asp
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/companion-planting/

All of the above links are from my W3 bookmarks. However, IMO,
contents should be regarded as largely anecdotal and inherently
unreliable when used in any specific application. Although it seems
obvious, that "companions" must have common nutrient and water
requirements often is overlooked. Failure of individual varieties to
thrive when interplanted in a community garden might be interpreted as
"antagonism" when the cuase really is nutritional deficiency or
imbalance or even disease. We gardeners seem to have a bit of the
gambler's fallacy about us but, then, would a pessimist be gardening
in the first place?
Finally: Nothing to offer about when to start seeds in your part of
Arkansas(?). As a rule, all I start in pots (and not indoors) are
tomatoes, peppers and eggplants and that's usually some time in
February. I do so only because the juveniles don't survive well in
the wild down here. Seedlings are extremely effective cutworm and
grasshopper bait until the stems toughen a bit and for a while
thereafter the leaves remain at risk.

Thanks Derald ! Lots of good info there . My biggest problem here is that
I've let what decent soil I have get washed downhill . Thus the terraces ,
and heavy mulch to help keep rainwater from washing what I do have left
away - and to get that organic stuff into the soil . I will till this year
to incorporate what organics I have into the soil and to be sure I start
with it loose . Also to finish defining the terraces .

--
Snag