Thread: No till organic
View Single Post
  #10   Report Post  
Old 06-03-2021, 01:18 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Frank Miles[_2_] Frank Miles[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2020
Posts: 4
Default No till organic

On Thu, 04 Mar 2021 22:39:04 -0600, Snag wrote:

On 3/4/2021 9:45 PM, Frank Miles wrote:
What's the magic trick to dealing with weeds if you want to garden
'organically' _and_ are trying to go 'no-till' ? That is, without
spending all your time manually pulling them? And with limited
space I can't solarize without losing a year.

Thanks for any tips!
-F


The secret is MULCH . Cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper will
stop the weeds from reaching the sunlight . Heavy layers of straw will
do the same , plus will enrich and lighten your soil as it decomposes .
See if you can buy or borrow (your library may have it) a copy of the
Ruth Stout gardening book . Here's a link :
https://www.motherearthnews.com/orga...m-zmaz04fmzsel
You can also use a barrier fabric or plastic sheeting, but that
contributes nothing to your soil . You might also want to check out
non-chemical pest controls - bacillus thurigensis , diatomaceous earth
, and beneficial nematodes will all be a part of my arsenal this year .
FWIW , I use only heirloom varieties of seed and that makes
pest and weed control more work . But worth it IMO in the end for stuff
that breeds true and can be relied on to produce the same results year
after year . The only seeds I've bought this year was a package of
yellow squash , and only because my saved seed didn't germinate . It was
old ...


We have her book. It's great! Our copy was printed 1971 (paper is yellowing).
We mulch as we can, limited by [a] the slugs and snails that *love* the
mild damp environment mulch fosters (diatomaceous earth only being
partly useful in the Pacific NW due to rain); and [b] our limited supply of
mulch material.

It's especially a problem with overwintering crops, with lots of rain.
There's a difficult transition as the last of the real crops are removed,
and the overwintering seed is put in the ground. This fall/winter has
been even more challenging as we've had wild rabbits going after the vetch,
small-seed favas, and some other overwintering plants (they love the
fresh new greens!). This leaves the ground more exposed than usual.
The weeds I'm getting are small but so numerous!

Once the edibles are established in the spring - and especially after
the rains fade into the usual dry summer, weeds are not such a problem.

We save seed for corn, peas, edamame(soy), beans, scallions, one of our
tomato varieties, and intermittently some others. It all depends on
how long it takes to produce viable seed, and whether the varieties
exist that we like. For example - do you grow carrots? As a biennial
that's gotta take a lot of extra space, right? We've lately given up
on buying corn seed in part because we like the old style non-sugary
corn, and can't find the really early varieties we've enjoyed in the past.
Our short growing season limits our choices...

Thanks for the ideas!
-F