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Post by steev on Apr 18, 2017 0:14:42 GMT -5
Field peas for tilling in is less trouble; grazing critters on that forage is more profitable; clean meat is a good thing, no need to go to heavy metal, fun though it may look to be; you'd also need a mower attachment, if you wanted to go all mechanical.
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Post by prairiegardens on Apr 22, 2017 9:10:51 GMT -5
Ruth Stout used large quantities of hay, not straw, in her gardens so as to minimize work. She piled it on the garden as a really thick mulch and pretty much planted into it or pulled it slightly apart to plant on the soil and used the hay to cover the seed. Some people have issues with slugs and or voles doing this but she was the first I know of to take a leaf so to speak on how soil is generally made in nature and just let it get on with it in her garden using alfalfa hay instead of dropped leaves. She never tilled. I think from limited experience that if you have decent soil to start out with this works like a damn, if you don't you may have a struggle, but certainly eventually your soil will benefit from the rich organic matter. I use alfalfa hay when I can afford it, never grass hays which will tend to gift a garden with a lot of unplanned grasses etc. That's likely why Coleman composted it first.
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Post by SteveB on Apr 22, 2017 10:10:58 GMT -5
Prior to my move the end of 2015 I had a nice highly productive garden. I had decent soil to start with, but after the first few years of the load was showing and my production was reduced. I did not use any store bought additives of any kind. And I had no tiller. So within a few years it transformed into basically permanent beds with minimal pathways. For the most part I would mulch as needed to keep the soil covered. And in the fall all yard waste of any kind I had went on the garden. I would add hay, straw or whatever inexpensive brown I could get cheaply or free. Occasionally I'd get some manure to throw around as well. I even would haul in wood chips from the local trimmers at times.(my favorite). And quickly I had soil to brag about. The worm population was almost unbelievable. Sadly I had to leave it behind, and starting over on a new and much bigger plot. So my .02 is that OM Composted or not I is more than welcome to take up space on my soil.
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Post by steev on Apr 27, 2017 3:15:54 GMT -5
One can't get past the fact that plants love to grow on the remains of their kin (often worm-assisted); this world really is a closed system (aside from solar input and meteorites, our little space-going colony); the sooner we get with that construct, the sooner we might stop ripping off the ecosystem and start recognizing the needs of our kith and kin, on whom we depend for our survival.
OM is the cure for every soil condition: that's what conserves moisture; mediates drainage. and improves fertility.
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Post by cynic on Apr 27, 2017 14:34:20 GMT -5
Has anyone tried Elliot's idea straight from hay to compost? Will Bonsall, in his book " Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening: Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables, Pulses, Grains, and Perennial Food Without the Use of Fossil Fuels and Animal Inputs" discusses that very idea at length. He does not keep animals - reckons they are too much trouble - and hays straight to compost. He is also a big fan of ramial wood chips (ramial == bushes which evolved to grow at the forest edge) A very good book IMHO and you might find it useful to you for what you are doing. |
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Post by SteveB on Apr 27, 2017 15:46:23 GMT -5
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Post by walt on May 5, 2017 20:37:16 GMT -5
This is not exactly on topic, but related.
i mow some yards that I know are never treated with insecticides or herbicides or anything else. So rather than composting the clipping or using them for mulch, I'm thinking of spreading them on unplanted parts of my garden and tilling them in like green manure. Is there any limit on how much green manure is good, and how long it should be allowed to rot before planting the area? I've never heard of too much green manure, but I've never heard of using green mature from 5 times the area of a garden.
I've tried using fresh grass clippings as mulch. It clumps into moldy solid masses, unless it is dried first. if dried first, it still does the same thing if a rainy spell comes. As compost, I never have enough brown to keep up.
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Post by steev on May 6, 2017 1:03:41 GMT -5
This year, the lawns I care for are very productive; I spread it and till it in; the only downside to green manure that I'm aware of is concerning its ratio to browns in compost (too little greens to deal with the browns).
I consider lawn clippings excellent mulch.
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Post by SteveB on May 6, 2017 8:26:11 GMT -5
I always have used grass clippings for mulch, compost, and to till in. I've never had issue with the mold. If you put too much down I could see issues with heat/rot. But clippings have always been a blessing in my garden.
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Post by prairiegardens on May 7, 2017 4:27:34 GMT -5
If you pile them too thickly then they will heat and form fungal mats, I break these up with a pitchfork when they are still forming and are grey, before they go black and slimy, but this tends to be a bit dusty and possibly not super healthy for your lungs. I wish I could get tons of them, I'd put on a mask and gleefully play with them, they make terrific soil.Tilling it in means that it's dispersed enough it won't do the matting thing, but I don't have a tiller. I end up mixing in some soil or compost because of volume, they tend to shrink to nothing. The main disadvantages I see are the shrinkage and how hard it is to access any significant amount of unchemicalized clippings.
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