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Roots in Raised Bed
In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote: Jeff Thies wrote: Billy wrote: In article , "Thos" wrote: Why don't you just pull them out? Aren't you amending the beds each new year with compost, new organic matter and amendments? I would think you would need to dig the new amendments in and the old roots would be in the way. Yeah, well, that may be what you think, but some of us think that you destroy soil structure and reduce humus in the soil when you dig or rototill. That is a completely new concept for me. But I have soil that is less than nutritious and I work in amendments just to loosen it up. My best soil last year gave me 2" carrots. Carrots are not a good starting point for hard or compacted soil. Leaving that aside, is there some layering in biological activity that gets disturbed by digging? I'm just trying to wrap my mind around that. Jeff There are a number of things going on and that includes changes to biological activity and physical changes to the soil.. Broadly, too frequent working of the soil tends to destroy the structure of it. Frequently tilled soils lose water and organic matter more quickly, in large part due to exposure to the atmosphere. See "no dig", "no till", "zero till" etc for details. Using power equipment is more likely to do damage than hand tilling. Here is one ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-till_farming The purists never till but this can take a long time to develop deep soil with good tilth particularly on compacted or degraded soils. Some compromises that work quicker are to only till when establishing the bed or to only till at major renovations, eg annually or less often. It follows from trying to get and maintain good tilth that you do not compact the soil, so you make your beds such that you never need to walk on them or wheel the loaded barrow over them. David I concur with all David said. I'd just like to add that the nurturing depth of the garden beds will increase with time, but this can be accelerated in the first season with double digging. It will be your first and last time to dig. This step isn't necessary to reap the rewards of "lasagna gardening/sheet mulching". http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s-5-19-934,00.html http://www.wikihow.com/Double-Dig-a-Garden -- - Billy "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html |
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