No-till/No-dig Gardening

I agree. Especially of you are using wood chips or manure without pulverizing it into tiny pieces.

Is it okay to add pine needles to this mix or would they be too acidic?

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1Cor 15:1-4 ...I declare unto you the gospel... how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The chicken manure (straw) blows right off the compost heaps! The wind fencing sounds a workable solution, but not unfortunatly where our plot is, it's close to the edge of our land and I don't think the railway would apreciate us putting a fence on the line!
It's amazing what we find in our wind breaks, ever piece of rubbish from miles around stopps when it hits them. have a good collection of roofing sheets, what might be tomato cages (rolled chicken wire) and of course plenty of rubbish.

I suspect I will not be converting to mulch.. one becasue if it causes issues with soil warmth.. this far north that's really not going to help (57 north) two becasue I do not have access to any, there's no free compost from the state here, and hay/staw comes in the huge round bales that I have no way of getting here, even if I did find some going cheap.

Also I wonder what it would do to the water.. all I hear is how it helps conserve it, well I have the oposite problem, I want to get rid of as much as possible as fast as possible!

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I never thought of Denmark as windy or at least had never really read about it being so. THAT sounds WINDY!!!

One thing about mulch and water: We also are cold and damp in our area. But longer term, as the soil is left in its natural state, it heals, and soaks up moisture much more efficiently. As the soil life returns, the soil structure heals, OM goes up, and the soil life channels and rotting root channels actually improve infiltration. that is one of the amazing things about no tillage practices. In wet areas it allows better drainage and infiltration. In dry zones, it conserves more water for plant use. Best of both worlds.

I must say though, I do try to push the snow off our garden about this time of year, to allow the space to be exposed so that at least there is a chance of it drying enough to seed. It is not very windy here, and we also have our garden in a very sheltered area surrounded by trees.

Sadly, so far, I have not been able to clear the garden of snow: It is still simply too deep.

Did I mention, that sounds WINDY!!! lol. Good luck.

Many of my plants have a 2 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out surrounding the plant. When i water i use only rain water and put it directly into the buckets. That way the space in between of the plants stays very dry. When i cultivate i do so with a hoop hoe i ma myself that cuts the seed stems off just below ground level and pretty much leaves the surface ground as it was. That way no new weed seeds are brought to the surface to germinate.

The dry ground becomes like a crust that preserves the moisture beneath it and doesn't support weed growth at all. For my row crops i hoe weeds as they merge just a little each day until the corn is knee high and then the shade keeps most weeds at bay. Simple matter to hoe one here or there as needed. For my beans and peas, I side dress with mushroom compost mixed with chicken manure. I do plant closer than recommended and that alone keeps the mulch in place and protects from the wind.

I have a wind farm surrounding me so i have wind too, straight line stormy winds up to 60 mph regularly (not as much as in Denmark it sounds). I plant the popcorn to shelter the garden from the winds a little. Sweet corn takes a beating from the wind but its tough and matures early. I have an evergreen wind break on my west side, my home on the north side, east and south are exposed. I'm pretty exposed here, I'm the only home on a one square mile corn field.

I have tried it some , I like wood chips over card board or whatever I can get for free ,I had a neighbor bagging his lawn every week and he would just stop next to my fence and empty the bags over the fence , that worked nice I would just move it to the garden a few feet away with a fork but need to work harder at collecting and moving mulch to the garden If I remove one bush I can drive the trailer right up to the garden that is on my to-do list for this year as I hate many trips with a wheel barrow

it is very cool to dig a small hole plant a tomato plant then pull up the mulch around it again

40% of all electricity last year in denmark came from wind, on good days the turbines produce over 100% of usage. Up here the main crop is turbines!
We are standing up trees that have blown over atm, several fruit trees, that were here when we bought it, putting in bigger stakes so they can get re-established, getting the drainage better will also help there.
I think I'm going to be trying a unconventional way of using half my patch.
cardboard covered by small branches, more twigs really, we have about 1/2 acre of snowberry bushes that I want to remove, so I will try cutting their twigs down and covering cardboard with that, a few pegs/stones on the windwardside will hopefully stop the wind getting under it and flipping it all over.
I may not be able to plant much through it, but I hope it'll kill some of the weeds underneath.

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This is a great video about no-till and cover crops. South Dakota farm manager. About 15 minutes.

This sounds great. Do you only do the beds or do the pathways between beds and all? Do you (all of you that do this) rotate where the beds are in your garden (used to be path last year, is bed this year)? Thanks for the great information!

This is what I was planning for my garlic patch.Other beds are totally mulch add more mulch every year.

Glacialtill, thank you for taking the time to post the video about no till, most excellent info. and spot on with this thread! Again Thank you!!

There is movie called Back to Eden that is about no till garden and mulching.It has some very good points.The first year I had a lot of slug and pill bug problems.my chickens seem to be correcting that problem.

All gardening is local. I think your soil critters won't mind if you till it in and get it a little closer to their mouths.

geo

Haven't tilled here for years. We have the best soil ever. The first few years I was short on mulch and material for the compost. I drove to town each week and loaded up my van throughout the year with compost material from folks raking leaves or cutting grass. I built a huge compost pile that year and it got me started. Now I have more compost than I can use (almost). When I finish the fall harvest I put down compost on the bed and then add leaves or wasted hay. In the spring, I plant and put down some more wasted hay on top. Garden paths are mulched with pine straw and bark from the wood we cut in the fall. I use wide beds in an intensive method. I do have one very large hugulkulter bed under a pine tree that has flowers and herbs in it also. My garden is gorgeous and produces plenty of food for us and enough to give away to other folks as well. When I was converting to no till I used the lasagna method to extend my planting area in a hurry. It worked very well. Blessings, Kat

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Pine needles? Okay to use?

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1Cor 15:1-4 ...I declare unto you the gospel... how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Pine needles are acidic. You'd want to keep an eye on your ph for sure.

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Vicker
If you're born to hang, you'll never drown.

Wood chips are also acidic. They work well, but you'll need to lime more often if you use them a lot.

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Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change ready!

Raeven, I read a good article from a university a few years ago on the net, while I was still working at the sawmill. They found that hardwood chips would lower the ph initially, but the ph would soon return to normal. They said that, in their opinion, the overall result was beneficial. I've seen the tanic water that leaches from piles of wood chips and wonder myself. I wonder about pin straw as well. I know pine straw does not seem to affect begonias and most other ornamentals negatively. However, never having seen anyone in the pine belt of SC using pine straw as mulch in their garden, I remain suspect.

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Vicker
If you're born to hang, you'll never drown.

Only use the pine needles for mulching the pathways, not the beds.

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I think this guy has the proper take on the acidity of pine straw(needles). He actually did some tests to find out. https://www.pinestrawdirect.com/Pine...calTesting.pdf

Take a look at his summary of the results.

My opinion is : yes, you can use all the pine straw mulch you can get, IF you let it stay under the tree for a couple of rain cycles...... As a mulch it will be better to lay it on the top so it will interlock and not blow away. Pine needles have little nutrients other than carbon when decomposition is complete, so they will need to be used along with high nitrogen mulches, if mulch is all you rely on for getting nutrients for your garden vegetables.

Like coffee grounds, any acid(and there isn't very much to begin with) will get washed away pretty fast with water, pine needles into the soil, and coffee in your cup.... Besides, you can always correct with lime...

geo