Old organic farmer here. You might want to try covering the grass with heaps of autumn leaves or a thick layer of spoiled hay in the autumn. By the spring, the grass will all be dead and the roots composted and the bed full of happy soil life. So much easier than rototilling and it does not disturb the soil texture.
What I have previously done was to smother a bed with black plastic sheet for a few months, then broadfork, then roto-till, often adding in compost, and then to maintain the beds no-till after that.
The vegetable garden pictures you see here are from that management technique.
This time I did not get the idea as this specific plan until quite recently, when I saw this very instructive video about traditional (since 1570) Westphalian whole-grain pumpernickel bread that keeps easily for 6 months or more, and which I had enjoyed when bike touring Germany in 1981. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R561wArN_84
Gardening is common in this community, and most people maintain beds by tilling, so I thought to just push the timeline and get in my first summer crop of black-eyed peas and solve problems as they arose, from which minimally-planned process I will continue to learn intimately.
A problem I look forward to is seeding into the established rye root system, which will be right after I harvest the heads and cut the stalks down. I might or might not be able to use a mulching mower on them, but that will not address the roots.
I will have to see how the 12 Amp electric tiller-cultivator I have been using fares with that similar, but not identical task, and how I might seed into the bed, which i hope is not identical to the techniques that evolved yesterday evening, but who knows?
Congrats on trying to learn entirely new subject matter! Wish there were experienced organic farmers nearby able to advise and actually. help! The Amish community life seems ideal in the countryside. In rural Navasota we have lots of California dairy and farming escapees so I learn a lot!! So envy you no HOA so you can do what is truly best for all living creatures! Growing up we had a farm in the countryside and the German Catholic farmers all worked together ala the Amish to help and support all. My fondest memory. All the best to you two!
Well Texas is outside my experience but I recommend Ruth Stout even more highly as your main problem will be retaining water in the soil. You are lucky to have rich, alkaline soil. Here it is spring and has been warm but yesterday, I was picking strawberries while wearing a wool toque. The roses are all out and peonies too. The vegetable and fruit garden are looking pretty rampant.
Our soil was very nutrient-depleted stony clay but after grazing sheep on it for a decade, it is much richer in carbon now.
The NE US and Canada are supposed to have a record cool summer this year, which will warm the Arctic, I presume... El Nino is bringing us lots of rain, which should likely persist through summer.
I always seek to retain water in the soil, and clay does that well. Our Yoakum property is mailny a large, very shallow, bowl, so no berm/swale needed, though I have done that elsewhere for family members.
We recently installed an 1100 gallon rain tank, collecting off the white metal roof which is pretty clear, as we prune trees most winters.
If I transition to succession-rotation gardening rows, I am likely to feed a brown-hose drip system from that. The main row garden gets dripped off city water with a timer.
The soil in Yoakum is pretty ideal on testing. Everything could use a little more organic matter.
I just looked up Ruth Stout's soil management recommendations and realize that I did read some of her work a decade or more ago.
I employthose practices to a degree, but our grasses are very invasive here, as are weeds, and I have not been able to use thick straw or newspaper mulch.
I do use organic cotton burr compost as a top dressing, usually an inch or more every winter on every bed, and I leave the roots in the soil after an initial deep bed-prep, sometimes with compost or mineral amendment, depending on soil testing and tilth.
I garden in Austin zone 8A and Yoakum, zone 9A, both with fairly clay soil, but Yoakum doesn't have rocks in the silty-clay, "Blackland Prairie" soil, which is very rich. In Austin I spent a couple of months removing 3 pick-up beds of rocks from the garden with a broadfork, shovels and hands.
According to the NWS, by 10 pm Austin received ~1.25” over 3-hrs. That could make a lot of muds. Your foot stomping of surface seeds could be thought of as traditional wine making. Any fermentation plans?
John - if you want to restrict weeds/grass regrowing, it's arguable that you want to lay cardboard over your bed and then put 5-10cm of compost on top. Obviously, that is a significant expense, but it does tend to guarantee that you get healthy growth in year 1 without having significant weed overgrowth.
Thanks Rhys. Time is what I don't have, and that technique has not worked for mein the past. I used the black plastic for a few months to sterilize the soil in previous garden set-ups, as I described in other comments here.
In a way I am approaching this as a "regenerative farming" type project, though on a small scale, with small machines, not big diesel machines.
"Regenerative farming", as I have looked into it, is just one full step back from standard "green revolution" farming, as practiced before RoundUp and GMO seeds.
Regenerative farming is not even necessarily organic, though this project will be.
Anyway, I have dived into it and there is no turning back now. ;-)
I used cardboard for years, the worms liked it, cause I always thought it was just wood cellulose. But nowadays, cardboard is pretty toxic. Added to the mix are PFAS (forever chemicals), latex and biopolymers like PLA, synthetic adhesives and pigments and any printing on it will usually use ink containing lead. Darn.
I have never liked black plastic because it prevents rain entering the soil and worms cannot eat it. There are so many ways to garden. They all work but some are more work than others. Have you read Ruth Stout?
I have read a lot of things, but some very small fraction of what is written. I have not read Ruth Stout.
This is a new endeavor. I did not smother over summer with black plastic, but I am already missing the benefits of it killing all the roots, but then I will have live roots going forward, won't I?
I am thinking that something like a little ditch-witch might make a furrow in which I could plant, and I'll investigate that a bit. I need to disturb at least that much to plant black-eyed peas.
I am not sure what might work to plant the cereal rye in the fall.
Dr. John, I see you are multi-tasking there. Cultivating and grounding yourself at the same time!
I am a fan of black plastic pseudo-mulch because it's convenient and effective. ou can even cut holes into it when it's time to plant. But I don't like the fact that I contribute to the landfill problem by using it.
Organic mulches such as straw and dead leaves are better for the soil, but they don't stop the weeds quite as effectively. That's a minus point for lazy gardeners like me, who ignore their plots for weeks at a time.
If you want to sterilize the soil of weeds and roots and you can afford to leave the covering in place for a year or two, a thick tarpaulin or canvas sheet will do the trick, Also, corrugated iron sheets will do a grand job. I have even used corrugate iron sheets covered by a tarpaulin as a nuclear option. Of course, you have to put heavy weights on top of such coverings to prevent high winds from blowing them away.
Another advantage of this method is that you can use the same materials and move them around from one place to another in the veggie garden as needed. So you can start sterilizing one place as you start growing in another.
You have to be careful when removing tarps and corrugated sheets from a patch of soil because snakes tend to colonize the covered area and they can get quite irate if disturbed suddenly. It's not a job for barefooted gardeners.
Thanks Tim. The project is in progress. The garden has gotten 2" of rain since I trod the seeds into the mud with my feet,
I have 4 mil black plastic in a 20' X 100' roll, and ground staples, which I have used before, but this idea came late to me, so I just dug in and saw how it went... which is that I did not eliminate all the grass roots, and 95% is not enough in the longer term, so I expect that I will need to work the rows with a pointy hoe this summer and bend and pull.
I ordered a corded electric edger/trencher to put in 4.5" plastic roll edging as a grass-root barrier around the periphery, and I'll put in a single electric fence wire about 20" up to keep the deer out, as with the other, similarly sized vegetable bed.
I'm not certain how long this 2 crop rotation format will persist in this spot, but a year or 2 would teach me a lot and probably help stabilize the bed and soil in it. I can convert it into a row rotation if that makes more long-term sense.
Hi,
Old organic farmer here. You might want to try covering the grass with heaps of autumn leaves or a thick layer of spoiled hay in the autumn. By the spring, the grass will all be dead and the roots composted and the bed full of happy soil life. So much easier than rototilling and it does not disturb the soil texture.
Thank You, Maxine.
What I have previously done was to smother a bed with black plastic sheet for a few months, then broadfork, then roto-till, often adding in compost, and then to maintain the beds no-till after that.
The vegetable garden pictures you see here are from that management technique.
This time I did not get the idea as this specific plan until quite recently, when I saw this very instructive video about traditional (since 1570) Westphalian whole-grain pumpernickel bread that keeps easily for 6 months or more, and which I had enjoyed when bike touring Germany in 1981. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R561wArN_84
Gardening is common in this community, and most people maintain beds by tilling, so I thought to just push the timeline and get in my first summer crop of black-eyed peas and solve problems as they arose, from which minimally-planned process I will continue to learn intimately.
A problem I look forward to is seeding into the established rye root system, which will be right after I harvest the heads and cut the stalks down. I might or might not be able to use a mulching mower on them, but that will not address the roots.
I will have to see how the 12 Amp electric tiller-cultivator I have been using fares with that similar, but not identical task, and how I might seed into the bed, which i hope is not identical to the techniques that evolved yesterday evening, but who knows?
Congrats on trying to learn entirely new subject matter! Wish there were experienced organic farmers nearby able to advise and actually. help! The Amish community life seems ideal in the countryside. In rural Navasota we have lots of California dairy and farming escapees so I learn a lot!! So envy you no HOA so you can do what is truly best for all living creatures! Growing up we had a farm in the countryside and the German Catholic farmers all worked together ala the Amish to help and support all. My fondest memory. All the best to you two!
I would never have a place where there was an HOA.
I'll occasionally give updates when I learn more new things in this ongoing project.
Thanks for the kind words and nice associations.
Hi Dr. John,
Well Texas is outside my experience but I recommend Ruth Stout even more highly as your main problem will be retaining water in the soil. You are lucky to have rich, alkaline soil. Here it is spring and has been warm but yesterday, I was picking strawberries while wearing a wool toque. The roses are all out and peonies too. The vegetable and fruit garden are looking pretty rampant.
Our soil was very nutrient-depleted stony clay but after grazing sheep on it for a decade, it is much richer in carbon now.
The NE US and Canada are supposed to have a record cool summer this year, which will warm the Arctic, I presume... El Nino is bringing us lots of rain, which should likely persist through summer.
I always seek to retain water in the soil, and clay does that well. Our Yoakum property is mailny a large, very shallow, bowl, so no berm/swale needed, though I have done that elsewhere for family members.
We recently installed an 1100 gallon rain tank, collecting off the white metal roof which is pretty clear, as we prune trees most winters.
If I transition to succession-rotation gardening rows, I am likely to feed a brown-hose drip system from that. The main row garden gets dripped off city water with a timer.
The soil in Yoakum is pretty ideal on testing. Everything could use a little more organic matter.
I just looked up Ruth Stout's soil management recommendations and realize that I did read some of her work a decade or more ago.
I employthose practices to a degree, but our grasses are very invasive here, as are weeds, and I have not been able to use thick straw or newspaper mulch.
I do use organic cotton burr compost as a top dressing, usually an inch or more every winter on every bed, and I leave the roots in the soil after an initial deep bed-prep, sometimes with compost or mineral amendment, depending on soil testing and tilth.
I don't have a lot of time to read as the spring is so very busy here. Could you tell me where you are gardening?
I garden in Austin zone 8A and Yoakum, zone 9A, both with fairly clay soil, but Yoakum doesn't have rocks in the silty-clay, "Blackland Prairie" soil, which is very rich. In Austin I spent a couple of months removing 3 pick-up beds of rocks from the garden with a broadfork, shovels and hands.
It is "spring" where you are? ;-o
Great advances in Soviet agriculture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G2-RnH_RkM
I'm sending that to a Russian friend who grew up in the USSR. It might irritate her a little, but not much, I hope.
She might like this one as well. Leyna from Tatarstan sings "I am not a collective farm girl."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iGQ4lbyz_Y
She did like that, said it was funny in Russian, but I don't think I should send her another. She lost her mom recently.
Sorry to hear that. If you feel like sending her more later on these are hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY0C6A3t3RTUN3BB65rWAgQ
a couple of my favourites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1J5lUKnD4I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8qU0GdW88Q
According to the NWS, by 10 pm Austin received ~1.25” over 3-hrs. That could make a lot of muds. Your foot stomping of surface seeds could be thought of as traditional wine making. Any fermentation plans?
My feet were fantasizing being in a Vietnamese rice paddy.
I have not ever decided to undertake intentional fermentation, but I'm likely to try sourdough rye.
John - if you want to restrict weeds/grass regrowing, it's arguable that you want to lay cardboard over your bed and then put 5-10cm of compost on top. Obviously, that is a significant expense, but it does tend to guarantee that you get healthy growth in year 1 without having significant weed overgrowth.
Thanks Rhys. Time is what I don't have, and that technique has not worked for mein the past. I used the black plastic for a few months to sterilize the soil in previous garden set-ups, as I described in other comments here.
In a way I am approaching this as a "regenerative farming" type project, though on a small scale, with small machines, not big diesel machines.
"Regenerative farming", as I have looked into it, is just one full step back from standard "green revolution" farming, as practiced before RoundUp and GMO seeds.
Regenerative farming is not even necessarily organic, though this project will be.
Anyway, I have dived into it and there is no turning back now. ;-)
I used cardboard for years, the worms liked it, cause I always thought it was just wood cellulose. But nowadays, cardboard is pretty toxic. Added to the mix are PFAS (forever chemicals), latex and biopolymers like PLA, synthetic adhesives and pigments and any printing on it will usually use ink containing lead. Darn.
Hi Dr. John,
I have never liked black plastic because it prevents rain entering the soil and worms cannot eat it. There are so many ways to garden. They all work but some are more work than others. Have you read Ruth Stout?
I have read a lot of things, but some very small fraction of what is written. I have not read Ruth Stout.
This is a new endeavor. I did not smother over summer with black plastic, but I am already missing the benefits of it killing all the roots, but then I will have live roots going forward, won't I?
I am thinking that something like a little ditch-witch might make a furrow in which I could plant, and I'll investigate that a bit. I need to disturb at least that much to plant black-eyed peas.
I am not sure what might work to plant the cereal rye in the fall.
Feel free to call me "John".
Dr. John, I see you are multi-tasking there. Cultivating and grounding yourself at the same time!
I am a fan of black plastic pseudo-mulch because it's convenient and effective. ou can even cut holes into it when it's time to plant. But I don't like the fact that I contribute to the landfill problem by using it.
Organic mulches such as straw and dead leaves are better for the soil, but they don't stop the weeds quite as effectively. That's a minus point for lazy gardeners like me, who ignore their plots for weeks at a time.
If you want to sterilize the soil of weeds and roots and you can afford to leave the covering in place for a year or two, a thick tarpaulin or canvas sheet will do the trick, Also, corrugated iron sheets will do a grand job. I have even used corrugate iron sheets covered by a tarpaulin as a nuclear option. Of course, you have to put heavy weights on top of such coverings to prevent high winds from blowing them away.
Another advantage of this method is that you can use the same materials and move them around from one place to another in the veggie garden as needed. So you can start sterilizing one place as you start growing in another.
You have to be careful when removing tarps and corrugated sheets from a patch of soil because snakes tend to colonize the covered area and they can get quite irate if disturbed suddenly. It's not a job for barefooted gardeners.
Good luck with your new project!
Thanks Tim. The project is in progress. The garden has gotten 2" of rain since I trod the seeds into the mud with my feet,
I have 4 mil black plastic in a 20' X 100' roll, and ground staples, which I have used before, but this idea came late to me, so I just dug in and saw how it went... which is that I did not eliminate all the grass roots, and 95% is not enough in the longer term, so I expect that I will need to work the rows with a pointy hoe this summer and bend and pull.
I ordered a corded electric edger/trencher to put in 4.5" plastic roll edging as a grass-root barrier around the periphery, and I'll put in a single electric fence wire about 20" up to keep the deer out, as with the other, similarly sized vegetable bed.
I'm not certain how long this 2 crop rotation format will persist in this spot, but a year or 2 would teach me a lot and probably help stabilize the bed and soil in it. I can convert it into a row rotation if that makes more long-term sense.