No till gardening

[FarmerKat]

I will admit that I am not familiar with this method but have just found out about and am very intrigued. Can anyone point me to a good resource (website or book) to learn more?

I have found some blog on the method but I am not quite clear on how one gets started. How do you convert grassy piece of land to a garden without plowing or tilling?

[gweny]

Are you referring to lasagna gardening?

If so...
I start with cardboard. Then I add layers of grass clippings, compost, straw/chicken manure, news paper, shredded leaves etc. in no specific order (though I try to alternate green and brown stuff) My final layer is always compost, but I'd use regular garden soil if I didn't have any.

[Belfrybat]

Look up Ruth Stout -- she was a pioneer in the field. Can't remember the name of her book, but just searching on her name will get you tons of resources.

[where I want to]

Originally Posted by Belfrybat

Look up Ruth Stout -- she was a pioneer in the field. Can't remember the name of her book, but just searching on her name will get you tons of resources.

Ruth Stout's No-work Gardening

[woodsy_gardener]

Two great replies so far. Lasagna gardening is a revision of Ruth Stout's method. The cardboard stops weeds and encourages earthworms, your best gardening assistants. I got my start with her book How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back. She wrote other books as well as many articles in OGF in the 60s and 70s. Two bits of trivia about Ruth: her brother was Rex Stout, the mystery writer and she liked to garden in the nude.

In my woodland paradise I make a new gardening area by first cutting all weeds to ground level with a grub hoe. I then cover it with several inches of leaves--free, approved by Mother Nature, and full of nutrients brought up by deep tree roots. To plant a row I pull the leaves back a bit and plant. When the plants are tall enough I push the leaves back under them.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by FarmerKat

I will admit that I am not familiar with this method but have just found out about and am very intrigued. Can anyone point me to a good resource (website or book) to learn more?

I have found some blog on the method but I am not quite clear on how one gets started. How do you convert grassy piece of land to a garden without plowing or tilling?

Usually, it's best to dig a straight-sided, pretty deep hole and take at look at what kind of soil you're dealing with. Then, do a soil test to see if it will support any garden plants, or if it is lacking in nutrients(true in most soils). Then you can make a plan before planting--and most of the time that will include some initial tillage to get biomass and maybe even some nutrients and lime down in the root zone so you won't have failure before the biomass you add on the top will do any good--probably five years or so.

At the least, most gardening books will say to skim off the grass and roots before you start--or add lots and lots of mulch, biomass, and compost, and plant in that(and keep adding more compost forever....)

Good luck,

geo

[susieneddy]

Volunteer Gardener did a show on that last yr. They have a lot of episodes on YouTube (www.youtube.com) so you may to search through them to find it or just pick some out and watch. You can also subscribe to the show on YouTube and get updates in your email