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#1
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New garden tools.
Hello,
I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. |
#2
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New garden tools.
"DogDiesel" wrote:
Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) |
#3
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New garden tools.
"Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. |
#4
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New garden tools.
"DogDiesel" wrote in
: "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz |
#5
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New garden tools.
"Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. |
#6
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New garden tools.
"DogDiesel" wrote in
: "Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. So you have clay soil? I would go for a metal shafted set of tools if they are going to last you out. You can buy them for a fiver each at discount stores in UK, such as Poundstretcher, my fork is from there and its as strong as I need it to be. Do you need to go a foot deep, all over, at once? Hard work. You could just dig that deep for root veg this year and with rotation, next year do the same and so on until the whole plot is done...... .....then start again. Baz |
#7
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New garden tools.
Baz wrote:
"DogDiesel" wrote in : "Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. So you have clay soil? I would go for a metal shafted set of tools if they are going to last you out. You can buy them for a fiver each at discount stores in UK, such as Poundstretcher, my fork is from there and its as strong as I need it to be. Do you need to go a foot deep, all over, at once? Hard work. You could just dig that deep for root veg this year and with rotation, next year do the same and so on until the whole plot is done...... ....then start again. Baz Most veggies only need six inches, like lettuces, others like carrots need at least a foot. So it depends on what you want. The deeper the soil the more crowding of the veggies you can do. Shallow soil you will need to plant them further apart. The roots will go deep if the can, if not they will spread out. Double digging. The first part you dig put in a wheel barrel. Then rotate and fill in the part that was dug... At the end fill in with the dirt from the wheel barrel. As time goes by, the soil will get looser to the point where shoveling is not needed. -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) |
#8
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New garden tools.
Nad R wrote in
: Baz wrote: "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. So you have clay soil? I would go for a metal shafted set of tools if they are going to last you out. You can buy them for a fiver each at discount stores in UK, such as Poundstretcher, my fork is from there and its as strong as I need it to be. Do you need to go a foot deep, all over, at once? Hard work. You could just dig that deep for root veg this year and with rotation, next year do the same and so on until the whole plot is done...... ....then start again. Baz Most veggies only need six inches, like lettuces, others like carrots need at least a foot. So it depends on what you want. The deeper the soil the more crowding of the veggies you can do. Shallow soil you will need to plant them further apart. The roots will go deep if the can, if not they will spread out. Double digging. The first part you dig put in a wheel barrel. Then rotate and fill in the part that was dug... At the end fill in with the dirt from the wheel barrel. As time goes by, the soil will get looser to the point where shoveling is not needed. Oh........... |
#9
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New garden tools.
In article ,
"DogDiesel" wrote: "Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. Turning soil once, when you first prepare a garden bed, is a good idea (not needed but it will speed up development of the garden soil). Subsequent turning undoes the work of your earthworms and mycorrhiza. What it does is aerate the soil, which accelerates the decomposition of the soils organic content, which releases nutrients to feed your plants, but leads to loss of organic matter in your soil, and possibly consuming the soils nitrogen, leaving none for your plants. It's much easier to work with nature using no-till approaches such as lasagna gardening, or sheet mulching. -- - Billy ³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.² -Archbishop Helder Camara http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/...acegroups.html http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...130964689.html 20111812130964689.html |
#10
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New garden tools.
In article ,
Nad R wrote: Baz wrote: "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Baz" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote in : "Nad R" wrote in message ... "DogDiesel" wrote: Hello, I've ordered a soil test kit and a Stirrup hoe. I bought a rake, I've yet to setup my compost bin. I'm trying to figure whats better for turning soil about a foot down. The top 6 inches or so have been tilled . Underneath is hard packed. Should I get a digging fork , broadfork, or a shovel. I don't want to break the tool. I saw narrow long shovels in Home Depot today. Thanks Diesel. Pointy Shovel for turning soil a foot deep. Transfer Shovel for moving soil or finished compost. Garden rake with a one side that is flat for leveling soil. Six or more prong Manure forks are best for turning a compost pile. Broad fork is a luxury item if you have lots of soil to turn that is already loose. A "half moon" edging tool is a nice tool for creating a nice sharp looking boarder. As for breaking tools I find wood is worse. I prefer fiberglass or all steel, cheap steel will bend and wood breaks to easy. Now if you have money to burn a John Deer tractor or a Bobcat.... Sweet ! -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) I appreciate the reply. A good Ole shovel is still the way. I saw two good ones at Home Depot. The broad forks look cool . With two handles, but I wasn't sure it would break or not. I bought a Wilkinsons spade a few years ago when I started gardening. It has a tubular metal shaft and have used it like a crowbar to lift large roots from trees I have felled and it is as good as new. I have put all my weight into it, bounced on it. Still as new. If you buy a spade like this, make sure it is all one piece and not joined with rivets if it is going to take the work I describe. A fork is different, as you know, because it does not matter how strong the shaft is, the tines will bend with too much pressure. Baz It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. So you have clay soil? I would go for a metal shafted set of tools if they are going to last you out. You can buy them for a fiver each at discount stores in UK, such as Poundstretcher, my fork is from there and its as strong as I need it to be. Do you need to go a foot deep, all over, at once? Hard work. You could just dig that deep for root veg this year and with rotation, next year do the same and so on until the whole plot is done...... ....then start again. Baz Most veggies only need six inches, like lettuces, others like carrots need at least a foot. So it depends on what you want. The deeper the soil the more crowding of the veggies you can do. Shallow soil you will need to plant them further apart. The roots will go deep if the can, if not they will spread out. Double digging. The first part you dig put in a wheel barrel. Then rotate and fill in the part that was dug... At the end fill in with the dirt from the wheel barrel. As time goes by, the soil will get looser to the point where shoveling is not needed. http://www.wikihow.com/Double-Dig-a-Garden -- - Billy “When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.†-Archbishop Helder Camara http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/...acegroups.html http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...130964689.html 20111812130964689.html |
#11
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New garden tools.
Billy wrote in
: It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. Turning soil once, when you first prepare a garden bed, is a good idea (not needed but it will speed up development of the garden soil). Subsequent turning undoes the work of your earthworms and mycorrhiza. What it does is aerate the soil, which accelerates the decomposition of the soils organic content, which releases nutrients to feed your plants, but leads to loss of organic matter in your soil, and possibly consuming the soils nitrogen, leaving none for your plants. It's much easier to work with nature using no-till approaches such as lasagna gardening, or sheet mulching. Can you explain a bit more of this scientific research which has occupied some vacant cells in the vast extremities within your active, if not overactive organ we laughingly call a brain? The OP asked for advice, not theory and some spooky sounding crap from some weirdo. If it is even remotely, remotely even possible what you have driveled, would you not think that the commercial growers might have listened? Please don't try to fill peoples heads with this kind of crap. As I asked earlier, please give a bit more of an explaination, if you can invent some more bullshit, er sorry, scientific research results. Baz |
#12
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New garden tools.
Baz wrote:
Billy wrote in : It looks like im going to be shoveling dirt. I want to go a foot down and turn it over. Mix in my straw and some peat and sand. Turning soil once, when you first prepare a garden bed, is a good idea (not needed but it will speed up development of the garden soil). Subsequent turning undoes the work of your earthworms and mycorrhiza. What it does is aerate the soil, which accelerates the decomposition of the soils organic content, which releases nutrients to feed your plants, but leads to loss of organic matter in your soil, and possibly consuming the soils nitrogen, leaving none for your plants. It's much easier to work with nature using no-till approaches such as lasagna gardening, or sheet mulching. Can you explain a bit more of this scientific research which has occupied some vacant cells in the vast extremities within your active, if not overactive organ we laughingly call a brain? The OP asked for advice, not theory and some spooky sounding crap from some weirdo. If it is even remotely, remotely even possible what you have driveled, would you not think that the commercial growers might have listened? Please don't try to fill peoples heads with this kind of crap. As I asked earlier, please give a bit more of an explaination, if you can invent some more bullshit, er sorry, scientific research results. Baz it is not crap. The information Billy provided is sound. It is on the scientific side. Most here are scientist, including myself. I tend to use the principle called KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, when dealing with those I do not know. On the usenet there are many different styles of explaining things. Some prefer the simple, others prefer the complex phrasing. On usenet take what you want and ignore the rest. -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) |
#13
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New garden tools.
In article
, Billy wrote: As I asked earlier, please give a bit more of an explaination, if you can invent some more bullshit, er sorry, scientific research results. Baz I doubt crainal-rectally inverted, such as yourself, would understand, but here goes. Please excuse the paucity of invectives that I know you rely on to communicate, and apologies for lack of any pictures that are probably necessary to maintain your attention. This forum is usually used by adults, but give it a go anyway. You have nothing to lose, but your profound ignorance. My bad, I forgot to mention http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm Lasagna Gardening 101 by Patricia Lanza, author of the Lasagna Gardening Series Before you buy the first plant, or lay down the first sheet of wet newspaper, take a look around your property. Check to see where you get the best light; that's where you'll put your garden. Decide on the shape and contents of your garden. The size of your plot will determine how much material you need to make your first lasagna.* Your material list will change depending on where you live. Some folks have more leaves than others, some have seaweed, others ground cornstalks or apple pulp. Some of the lucky ones have access to animal manure. There's no hard and fast rules about what to use for your layers, just so long as it's organic and doesn't contain any protein (fat, meat, or bone).* Before I go any further, let me just say that the basics of making garden lasagnas are simple: € Don't remove the sod or do any extra work, like removing weeds or rocks. € Mark the area for your garden using a water hose or a long rope to get the desired shape. € Cover the area you've marked with wet newspapers, overlapping the edges (5 or more sheets per layer). € Cover the paper with one to two inches of peat moss or other organic material.* € Layer several inches of organic material on top of the peat moss. € Continue to alternate layers of peat moss and organic material, until desired thickness is reached. € Water until the garden is the consistency of a damp sponge. € Plant, plant, plant and mulch, mulch, mulch. Start with layers of newspaper or sheets of cardboard. Then cover with mulch. You need less loose material to plant in than you might think. In the spring of '98, I layered an area where a dog pen had stood for years. The property belongs to a 79-year-old man who was upset about his inability to garden as he once had. Until recently, a 100-year-old white pine tree had occupied the center of the fenced-in area. But its roots had begun to do real damage to my friend's house and surrounding properties, and so the tree had to be taken down.* Once the tree was removed, the area was bright and sunny, but, unfortunately, the ground contained 100 years worth of layered pine needles. First, we covered the area with lime, then laid whole sections of wet newspaper on top of the pine needles and covered the paper with peat moss. We bought a small truckload of barn litter mixed with our local clay soil and covered the peat with two inches of this mix and then two more inches of peat moss. Additions of one to two inches of grass clippings, two inches of peat moss, one to two inches of compost, and more peat gave us a total of about six to eight inches to plant in. We pulled the layers apart and planted 31 tomato plants, four squash, six cucumber, four basil, two rosemary, four parsley, and twelve cosmos. It was a jungle, but with staking, pruning, and tying, the garden produced so much fruit that the entire neighborhood helped eat the harvest, and the cosmos were so beautiful they took our breath away. Once the harvest was finished, I pulled the stems and disturbed the layers for the first time. Pieces of the paper layer came up with the roots. So, too, did the biggest earthworms you can imagine. The soil was still probably a bit acidic, but it will get better in time. To prepare the new garden for another year of planting, we spread the contents of a large composter onto the space, and the garden took on several inches in height. The last mowing of grass provided enough clippings to add another few inches. When the fall came, we mowed the leaves for a top dressing of four inches of chipped leaves. I love an edged garden and so the last thing I did was cut a sharp, clean border around the sides, throwing the edging material up onto the garden, with grass side down, for another layer of more good dirt. It looked beautiful! Close planting and mulching greatly reduced the amount of weeds in the dog-pen garden, as they do in all my gardens. It also meant less watering, since the paper and mulch kept the soil around the root zone cool. Even though we pushed it a bit by planting 31 tomato plants, the staking, tying, and pruning, in addition to close planting, created a healthy growing environment, with few garden pests. It was another test, and the results have left my friend confident that, as he enters his 80th year, he will be able to continue gardening with the lasagna method. Indeed, lasagna gardening is so simple that the hardest part may be getting started. I suggest beginning with that walk around your property to determine what you can do with what you have. If you get lots of shade, plant a shade garden or cut some tree limbs. Track the light for a couple of days during the spring and summer. You probably have more light than you think--not sun, but light. Lots of rocks? Try rock gardening. You might learn to love the wonderful world of small plants that thrive in rocky terrain. Too little space? Look again. If there's a foot of space, you can plant in it. There's no such thing as work-free gardening, but the lasagna method is close. Once you train yourself to think layering, and learn to stockpile your ingredients, you will work less each year.* Following are some of my favorite vegetables, along with tips on how I grow them the lasagna way: ASPARAGUS Many gardeners shy away from this tasty crop, mainly because it's difficult to grow through traditional means. Not so with lasagna gardening. I still remember the first year I planned my asparagus patch. Turned out to be one of my best vegetable trials yet. For fun, I grew a tray of plants from seed, started indoors in February. In early spring, I added the small seedlings to the assembly of roots--one, two, and three years old--that I had accumulated to plant together. Using a mattock blade, I scraped a shallow opening in a newly made lasagna bed, an inch or two deep. I combined the roots and seedlings in the opening and covered them with a sifting of soil and peat moss. Once the roots were planted, I covered the top of the row with a mixture of manure and peat moss. As the roots sprouted and grew, I added sifted compost and grass clippings. In the fall, I added more manure and a thick layer of chipped leaves for winter mulch. During the first spring, I watched the asparagus emerge and grow. I invited inn guests into the garden to help me cut and eat the first tender stalks. Then I mulched, mulched, then mulched some more.* The second spring, I cut so much asparagus we had some to freeze. It was all so easy: plant, mulch, harvest, and enjoy. Site and soil. A heavy feeder, asparagus needs well-drained soil and at least six hours of sun. The fall before planting, build a lasagna garden on the site you've chosen for your asparagus, using a base of newspaper topped with 18 to 24 inches of layered organic material. By spring, the lasagna bed will have composted to ideal soil conditions for asparagus. Planting and harvest. The time is right when the soil is thawed and crumbles in your hand. Plant in rows two feet apart in two shallow trenches, with a rise in between. This lets the crowns sit on top of the rise, with the roots in the trenches. Plants should be 18 inches apart and covered with two to three inches of soil and compost mixture. As the plants grow during the summer, continue covering with the compost enriched mixture until crowns are four inches deep. In the fall, cover the entire bed with a blanket of eight to ten inches of chopped leaves or other organic mulch. Each spring, feed the bed compost enriched with manure. In colder regions, pull the mulch back on half the bed to get an extra early harvest, saving half the bed for later harvesting. Once the harvest is over, the remaining shoots expand into ferny top growth. When the ferns turn bronze, cut them back. BEANS I usually wind up planting many more beans than I actually need. But with so many varieties--all so much fun to grow--who can resist!* Once the last chance of frost is past, plant your favorite bean seeds. Divide your seeds into thirds and plant every two weeks for a longer harvest. Once I have a lasagna bed in place, I plant bush bean seeds along the edges. They only need a few inches, since the plants will lean out over the sides of the garden, leaving room for taller crops. I plant pole bean seeds around the base of teepees made from six-foot bamboo poles. Plant seeds around the base of each pole, and when they start to climb, give them a boost up the trailing twine you have tied from the top. Site and soil. Beans grow best in well-drained soil that's high in organic matter. A new or established lasagna bed in full sun works best for all types. Planting and harvest. Fix supports in place before planting pole bean seeds. For both types, pole and bush, just push the seeds into loose soil about two inches apart. Cover the seeds and press the soil around them for direct contact. Keep the soil evenly moist until seeds emerge, then cover the soil with a good mulch to keep the soil cool, the leaves clean, and the garden weed-free. To avoid rust, don't work beans when foliage is wet. Once beans start to appear, keep crop picked to encourage new bloom. Rotate crops every year to avoid pests and disease. CUCUMBERS Bush cucumbers can be grown in small spaces and containers. Climbing cucumbers need strong support, so plant close to a fence or trellis. I like the climbers and try to see what kind of new supports I can come up with each year to make the garden more interesting. I loved the string cradles we tied to a stockade fence one year. The vines grew up strings hanging down into the row, then up the string cradles and onto the fence. Site and soil. Cucumbers need good drainage and rich soil. Lasagna gardens are just the thing, when enriched with fresh manure. However, wait three years before planting in the same place to avoid pests and disease. Planting and harvest. Wait until the last frost is past, then plant prestarted seeds covered with floating row cover in colder regions, and seeds sown directly in the garden in milder climates. Keep mulched and don't till, as cucumbers are shallow rooted. Maintaining at least six inches of mulch at all times keeps the roots cool and moist, but they still need an inch of water each week. Pick the fruit when it's small and most flavorful. Once the harvest starts, don't miss a day, or you'll have candidates for the compost pile instead of the salad bowl. GARLIC If you've never tried growing garlic, you've missed something special. I make a rich lasagna bed, let it cook for four to six weeks under black plastic, set strings up to keep my rows straight, and push in single cloves just enough to see they are covered. When the foliage is full and seed heads form, I cut and use them just as I would cloves. When the foliage turns yellow or brown, it's time to lift the garlic. Loosen the earth and gently shake off any dirt. Let the cloves cure by hanging them in a dry place. The individual cloves will each make a head, so you will have plenty to use, as well as to save for next year's seed. Site and soil. Good drainage, full sun, and plenty of manure-rich compost are best. A well-built lasagna bed has the perfect growing conditions to start, then all you have to do is add grass clippings or chipped leaves for mulch to keep the soil evenly moist and weeds at a minimum. Planting and harvest. Gardeners in the Northeast and zone 5 and colder climates will get best results from hard-neck garlic planted in the fall and harvested the next summer. Milder climates can grow soft-neck; plant in the spring and harvest that same fall. If you haven't room for an entire bed just for garlic, plant some in groups of three to five cloves in flower or vegetable beds. Folks who have bug problems swear by the positive effect garlic has on its companions. LETTUCE Anyone can grow lettuce. The problem is most folks grow too much at one time. Use a little restraint and make successive plantings. Mix lettuce seed with sand so you will not have to do so much thinning. I broadcast a mixture of cut-and-come-again lettuce once a month for the duration of growing time for my zone. Site and soil. Lettuce likes it cool and so is ideally suited for spring and fall plantings. I use other taller plants to shade my lettuce in summer. It's best to prepare a site for lettuce in the fall, adding a high nitrogen amendment (such as fresh grass clippings) to the top two inches of soil. Planting and harvest. Lettuce is a fun crop to grow in containers, as borders, and in tiny spaces that would only go to waste otherwise. There's really no safe place to hide when I start looking for places to plant. I've planted Ruby Red and Oakleaf lettuce in my herb and edible flower containers and flower boxes. I interplant herbs and lettuce in the border gardens that surround my antique roses. The Mesculun mixes are wonderful in big terra cotta saucers that stand alone in part shade. When guests come for dinner, I give them a colander and a pair of scissors and point them toward the garden. They come back with an interesting collection of edibles and never forget the experience. Lots of good gardeners start out by getting their feet dirty in someone else's garden. POTATOES No need to dig trenches or to hill up. Build a lasagna bed to eliminate grass and weeds, don't use any lime or nitrogen-rich materials (such as grass clippings), lay down one or two sheets of wet newspaper, lay seed potatoes on top of the paper, and cover with spoiled hay or compost. You can use pretty much anything you have that is dried. Chipped leaves are great for covering the tubers. I use hay that is well-cured and lying next to my potato bed, so I don't have to carry it too far. Site and soil. Potatoes need full sun, good drainage, and can tolerate acid soil. Preparing a lasagna bed and adding bone meal or rock sulfate produces a good harvest and large tubers. Avoid planting potatoes where you have grown them or their relatives (including eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes) for the past three years. Planting and harvest. Be ready to plant in early to midspring and have enough material to cover the bed with ten inches of mulch. Be prepared to add several inches of cover to the bed as plants grow. The important thing here is to keep the tubers covered so they will not see the light of day. By the end of the growing period, the plants will be propped up with hay or other soil amendments. Slip your hand under the mulch to harvest a few small potatoes when the beans are ready to pick. Let the rest continue growing until the foliage has yellowed. Don't try to dig! Lift the mulch and pick the clean tubers up off the newspaper. Be on the watch for potato bugs. Try to catch them when they are small. Sweep across the foliage with a broom. They will fall into the mulch and, when small, not be able to find their way back up to the leaves. TOMATOES The toughest part of growing tomatoes is choosing the kinds you will grow. You'll likely want to plant several different varieties each year: there's early, midseason, and late ones; tiny pear shaped, cherry, patio, plum, slicing, and cooking varieties; plus, tomatoes for juice and for stuffing, not to mention new types and heritage. Site and soil. Tomatoes need full sun, an inch of water per week, and protection from the wind. Ideal conditions are a lasagna bed that has been around for at least a year and has not grown any of the relatives: potatoes, eggplant, or other tomatoes. I prepare my site by installing water jugs buried up to their shoulders between where every two plants will be. A pin hole in the sides facing the plants should let enough seep out to keep up consistent watering. I place a tall stick in each jug, its top colored with red paint or nail polish. This helps me find the sticks, which helps me find the openings to the jugs when all the foliage hides them from view. I fill the jugs with a funnel and the water hose. You can add liquid plant food to the water if you like. Planting and harvest. Wait until after the last frost, then plant the seedlings. Create a well of soil around the stem to help catch any rain. If you have prepared the lasagna bed in advance, all you will have to do is scrape the soil aside and lay the plant down up to the last four leaves. Press the soil around the plant to make direct contact and push out any air pockets. Once the jugs and plants are in place, make a collar of one or two sheets of wet newspaper, place it around the stem, and cover the paper with mulch. Depending on the type of tomatoes you have chosen, you will need to stake, tie, prune, and pinch. Keep the water jugs full and check plants regularly for bugs or disease. Don't get impatient; tomatoes need lots of long hot sunny days and warm nights. Again, depending on the cultivar you have chosen to grow, you can look forward to your first harvest in 55 to 100 days after you set the plants out. And, oh, what a delicious harvest! I love tomatoes warm from the garden--standing over the row, biting into one, the juice running off my chin, dripping from my elbow, the acid tingling my tongue. It just doesn't get any better than that. -- - Billy ³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.² -Archbishop Helder Camara http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/...acegroups.html http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...130964689.html 20111812130964689.html |
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New garden tools.
In article
, Billy wrote: As I asked earlier, please give a bit more of an explaination, if you can invent some more bullshit, er sorry, scientific research results. Baz I doubt crainal-rectally inverted, such as yourself, would understand, but here goes. Please excuse the paucity of invectives that I know you rely on to communicate, and apologies for lack of any pictures that are probably necessary to maintain your attention. This forum is usually used by adults, but give it a go anyway. You have nothing to lose, but your profound ignorance. As you mentioned to Dog, you are wrong again, as you often are. Your continuing education . . . http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...nic_go_organic Don't Panic, Go Organic Be not troubled by Robert Paarlberg's scaremongering. Organic practices can feed the world -- better, in fact, than wasteful industrial farming. BY ANNA LAPPÉ | APRIL 29, 2010 In May 2004, Catherine Badgley, an evolutionary biology professor at the University of Michigan, took her students on a research trip to an organic farm near their campus. Standing on the acre-and-a-half farm, Badgley asked the farmer, Rob MacKercher, how much food he produces annually. "Twenty-seven tons," he said. Badgley did the quick math: That's enough to provide 150 families one pound of produce every single day of the year. "If he can grow that quantity on this tiny parcel," Badgley wondered, "why can't organic agriculture feed the world?" That question was the genesis of a multi-year, multidisciplinary study to explore whether we could, indeed, feed the world with organic, sustainable methods of farming. The results? A resounding yes. Unfortunately, you don't hear about this study, or others with similar findings, in "Attention Whole Foods Shoppers," Robert Paarlberg's defense of industrial agriculture in the new issue of Foreign Policy. Instead, organic agriculture, according to Paarlberg, is an "elite preoccupation," a "trendy cause" for "purist circles." Sure, sidling up to a Whole Foods in your Lexus SUV and spending $24.99 on artisan fromage may be the trappings of a privileged foodie, but there's an SUV-sized difference between obsessing about the texture of your goat cheese and arguing for a more sustainable food system. Despite Paarlberg's pronouncements, Badgley's research, along with much more evidence, helps us see that what's best for the planet and for people -- especially small-scale farmers who are the hungriest among us -- is a food system based on agroecological practices. What's more, Paarlberg's impressive-sounding statistics veil the true human and ecological cost we are paying with industrial agriculture. * Since most of us aren't well-versed in the minutia of this debate, we can't be blamed for falling for Paarlberg's scaremongering, which suggests that by rejecting biotech and industrial agriculture, we are keeping developing countries underdeveloped and undernourished. Paarlberg suggests that we could eliminate starvation across the continent of Africa were it not that "efforts to deliver such essentials have been undercut by deeply misguided ... advocacy against agricultural modernization." It's a compelling argument, and one industry defenders make all the time. For who among us would want to think we're starving the poor by pushing for sustainability? (At a Biotechnology Industry Organization conference I attended in 2005, a workshop participant even suggested pro-organic advocates should be "tried for crimes against humanity.") But the argument for industrial agriculture and biotechnology is built on a misleading depiction of what organic agriculture is, bolstered with shaky statistics, and constructed by ignoring the on-the-ground lessons of success stories across the globe. For a start, Paarlberg doesn't get what it means to be organic. "Few smallholder farmers in Africa use any synthetic chemicals," he writes, "so their food is de facto organic." In contrast, industrial agriculture, as he sees it, is "science-intensive." But as Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists explains, "modern organic practices are defined by much more than just the absence of synthetic chemicals"; it's knowledge-intensive farming. Organic farmers improve output, less by applying purchased products and more by tapping a sophisticated understanding of biological systems to build soil fertility and manage pests and weeds through techniques that include double-dug beds, intercropping, composting, manures, cover crops, crop sequencing, and natural pest control. Biotech and industrial agriculture would in fact more aptly be called water, chemical, and fossil-fuel-intensive farming, requiring external inputs to boost productivity. Industrial agriculture gobbles up much of the 70 percent of the planet's freshwater resources diverted to farming, for example. It relies on petroleum-based chemicals for pest and weed control and requires massive amounts of synthetic fertilizer. In fact, in 2007, we used 13 million tons of synthetic fertilizer, five times the amount used in 1960. Crop yields, by comparison, grew only half that fast. And it's hardly a harmless increase: Nitrogen fertilizers are the single biggest cause of global-warming gases from U.S. agriculture and a major cause of air and water pollution -- including the creation of dead zones in coastal waters that are devoid of fish. And despite the massive pesticide increase, the United States loses more crops to pests today than it did before the chemical agriculture revolution six decades ago. The diminishing returns of industrial agriculture are one reason why organic agriculture comes out ahead in all the comprehensive comparative studies. In Badgley's study, for instance, data from hundreds of certified-organic, industrial, and low-input farms around the world revealed that introducing agroecological approaches in developing countries led to between two and four times the productivity as the previous practices. Estimating the impact on global food supply if we shifted the planet to organic production, the study authors found a yield increase for every single food category they investigated. In one of the largest studies to analyze how agroecological practices affect productivity in the developing world, researchers at the University of Essex in England analyzed 286 projects in 57 countries. Among the 12.6 million farmers followed, who were transitioning toward sustainable agriculture, researchers found an average yield increase of 79 percent across a wide variety of crop types. Even the United Nations backs those claims. A 2008 U.N. Conference on Trade and Development report concluded that "organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and ... is more likely to be sustainable in the long term." In the most comprehensive analysis of world agriculture to date, several U.N. agencies and the World Bank engaged more than 400 scientists and development experts from 80 countries over four years to produce the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The conclusion? Our "reliance on resource-extractive industrial agriculture is risky and unsustainable, particularly in the face of worsening climate, energy, and water crises," said Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, a lead author on the report. Too bad we don't hear these success stories from Paarlberg. Instead he claims that without industrial food systems, "food would be not only less abundant but also less safe." To build his case, he points to improvements in food safety in the United States, such as the drop in E. coli contamination in U.S. beef. He neglects to mention that the virulent form of E. coli, a pathogen that can be fatal in humans, only emerged in the gut of cattle in the 1980s as a direct consequence of industrial livestock factories -- precisely the model he would export overseas. Meanwhile, Paarlberg conveniently ignores the diet-related illnesses spawned by industrial food in the United States, where the health-care system is now crippled with these preventable diseases. Hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes have all been linked in part to diet. Paarlberg defends his case by pointing to a staggering death toll in Africa where, he claims, 700,000 people die every year from food- and water-borne diseases compared with only 5,000 in the United States. But he's deceptively comparing apples and oranges: Those U.S. figures are only for food-borne illnesses. And the lack of an industrial food system isn't responsible for most of that high death toll in Africa. The World Health Organization attributes much of this tragic toll to unsanitary drinking water contaminated with pathogens transmitted from human excreta, causing a massive spike in cholera that year. Oh, and pesticide poisoning, too. Yes, that would be pesticides from industrial chemical farming. Paarlberg's praise for industrial practices is similar to the biotech industry trumpeting its technology for saving us from famine, farmer bankruptcy, blindness, disease, poverty, even loss of biodiversity. Back in 1994, Dan Verakis, a spokesman for the industrial agricultural firm Monsanto, claimed that biotech crops would reduce herbicide and pesticide use, in effect reversing "the Silent Spring scenario." In 1999, Monsanto said it had developed genetically engineered rice to be a vital source of vitamin A, reducing blindness caused by its deficiency. That same year, then Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro boasted that GM technology would trigger an "80 percent reduction in insecticide use in cotton crops alone in the United States." Few of these promises have borne fruit. Instead, commercialized biotech crops have fostered herbicide-resistant weeds and pesticide-resistant pests, while reducing biodiversity. "In the past, farmers used a variety of chemical controls and manual labor, making it unlikely that any weed plant would evolve a resistance to all those different strategies simultaneously," explains gene ecology expert, Jack Heinemann, another IAASTD author. "But as we oversimplify -- as we industrialize -- we make agriculture more vulnerable to the next problem." Already, examples of herbicide resistance are popping up from canola fields in Canada to farms in Australia. Another cause for concern is that industrial agriculture and genetically modified crops dangerously reduce biodiversity, especially on the farm. In the United States, 90 percent of soy, 70 percent of corn, and 95 percent of sugarbeets are genetically modified. Industrial farms are by their very nature monocultures, but diverse crops on a farm, even weeds, serve multiple functions: Bees feast on their nectar and pollen, birds munch on weed seeds, worms and other soil invertebrates that help control pests live among them -- the list goes on. So are farmers in southern Africa, across India, in villages throughout the developing world really waiting for biotech and industrial agriculture to feed them, as Paarlberg suggests? "No," says Sue Edwards, a British-born botanist who works at the Institute for Sustainable Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "Farmers we work with don't hold much hope" for these technologies; they see hope in their fields. Starting in 1996, Edwards and colleagues engaged smallholder farmers in drought-prone regions in Ethiopia to investigate whether resilient food systems could be fostered by tapping ecological agriculture, building farming skills, emphasizing crops indigenous to the continent that had evolved to be drought resilient. They enlisted farmers in field trials, comparing crops grown using ecological methods like composting with those raised with chemical fertilizer or without any inputs at all. (That'd be what Paarlberg calls "de facto organic.") The results are conclusive: By 2006, they were finding significantly higher yields in the ecological test sites of every single crop compared with the chemical-fertilizer plots and even more dramatic benefits compared with the no-input plots. Among the pitfalls in Paarlberg's analysis, two stand out. First, the benefits of his approach are speculative, at best; at worst, his assertions are disengenous, based on cherry-picking evidence and misrepresenting data. We need only compare his claims with Edwards's work and similar research around the world that demonstrates that agroecological approaches can protect natural resources and increase yields. Not in five years; not in 20. But right now -- today. Second, his approach ignores power relationships that ultimately determine who will benefit from any technology. In agroecological approaches, farmers gain knowledge, including knowledge about ways to adapt to changing climate and to share their knowledge with each other. Farmers become less dependent on distant, centralized suppliers of high-priced biotech seeds and chemical inputs and therefore less vulnerable to their notoriously unstable prices. Though perhaps harder to measure, this independence may be the most critical advantages of agroecological farming. Take away Paarlberg-esque mythologizing -- along with the government handouts, international financial institutional backing, tax breaks, and externalized environmental and human costs that prop up industrial agriculture and biotechnology -- and industrial agriculture would go the way of the Hummer: an overhyped footnote in the history books. -- - 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=b_vN0--mHug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyE5wjc4XOw |
#15
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New garden tools.
Billy wrote in
: Sorry, it's pityful. Baz You need help. Urgent help. |
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