"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "George.com" contains these words:

It is actually in the process of gardening,
propogating, rearing plants using a no dig approach, no tillage of the
soil,
low input, low labour, 'do nothing' process.

"low input, low labour, "do nothing"...in your dreams :-)

comparably speaking

The way my dad and grandad used to do vege gardens of digging in compost
and
manure every year, digging over weeds, spending hours preparing beds
seemed
labour intensive. They seemed to need to constantly put back nutrients
into
the soil as the process of rearing veges stripped the nutrients out.

When you harvest crops, they were created from that soil they grew
in . Unless you replenish what was taken out, the soil fertility will
decline year on year and so will crops.

The method I described earlier in the thread, doesn't require the
labour of double digging, or digging in fertiliser, but there's a
considerable amount of labour in harvesting/collecting or fetching and
distributing the huge volumes of free mulch I use very year.

Fukuoka said
"Whatever the means employed, the natural farmer must secure a nearby
supply of humus that can serve as a source of soil fertility".

Janet.

he apparently spread chicken poop and left in on the soil to be worked in
slowly so yes, I accept the point that I will have to supplement the soil
with pooh or compost or both etc. One of the attractions however is not
turning the soil over year on year once you have gotten it functioning
correctly.

Fukuoka seemed to have a closed cycle system using only what was produced on
his farm. I don't have chickens or ducks so the poop will have to come off
site. I also can't rely on them to deal to things like slugs so that will
need some manual input although my property is low in slug/snail numbers
compaitive to others I have lived in given a zero tolerence attitude. It is
fun going out in the evenings after some rain to knock of the slugs/snails.
Give me an excuse to have a smoke.

I also reckon on some time and work to get the soil good from the start,
rich in organic matter etc but that is the preperation isn't it, not the
ongoing maintenance.

rob