Advice on preparing a new garden plot... in the spring

You folks work way tooo hard for your food.

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I'm with Martin. i think that would turn over easily. it would be something like a cover crop that we put on for the winter. i have to do the same thing but i have raised beds so i will have to use a shovel for turning over. i plan to put spoiled hay over that. i mean really rotten stuff.(black) it's messy to put on but i do get a really good crop of pot and such.~Georgia.

I went to the seed and feed store yesterday and they told me that since I'm using new ground I need to till it all up and sow oats. When they start flowering, till it all under to build the nitrogen up and then I can start planting my new garden. So I bought 4 bushels of oat seeds to use on my new ground.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

If you want to do a 100x100 garden, let me know how you get all that cardboard and stuff to do the layering with. I love the concept and have used it in the past, but it depends on how large of a garden you are talking about the size of the garden and what materials are available for it to work for someone. I just moved and I don't think even all those boxes will cover a 100x100 garden. I don't favor lasagna-ing over hardpacked clay. I think you will have more success if you till first, then lasagna in that situation.

I like to remove the sod, let it compost and till the undersoil. I think this is the best option when time is short. Add the composted sod back into the garden later as mulch.
If not, then try to till as many times as possible before you plant and use as much mulch as you can get your hands on.

I have used the newspapers as mulch with good results but I no longer have enough newspapers sooooooo it finally dawned on me to use the empty feed sacks from the horse, chicken and goat feed instead. I plan to open the bottoms and slit them up the side to lay out flat and overlap them some.

I use the feed sacks for trash instead of plastic trash bags also. Saves a few dollars there.

That's right, NOTHING -- NO till, then:

From another post of mine,

• Cut the grass,
• Put down 3" or 4" of compost or well-rotted manure,
• Put down four layers of newspaper,
• Wet them down,
• Put on 8" of straw, moldy hay, leaves, etc for mulch,
• Dig hole just for the seeds and plants you will plant this year,
• Add more mulch as needed,
• If up north like we are, start garden a little later, or remove the mulch at the planting area one or two weeks before planting, to let soil warm up,
• The soil gets worked up well and there is no disruption to the rich upper layer, worms do a lot of the work, I think, and the newspaper adds to the soil, and helps keep out the weeds -- still a few -- but the newspaper blocks them -- mostly.

That's it, it works, we use drip irrigation with that system, less weeds, and if put drip, or the pump, on a timer, then you don't have to be there to water.


No-till start, weeds cut, manure down, cardboard down. Those black plastic pipes on the fence are our interconnected (with valves at each branch) DRIP IRRIGATION pipes. We put those down later.


Ready and waiting for plants, seeds, and the magic of no-till. Drip pipes still on fence. Our fence is 4' of stock wire at the bottom, and 3' barbed wire, this keeps the deer out. The yellow horizontal thing on the fence is a wind-shield trap rolled up, which we don't use -- thought we needed it.


Our Garden August, those are the flowering potatoes in front and lush peas five feet tall to the left, they went to seven feet and gave peas for months. That's Hops starting to over-run the gate, a month later it was all over the place.

We have lots of worms as mentioned, and the knotted-old hay field is loose and rich looking soil.

Good Luck with NO Till,

Alex

P.S. We ONLY put shavings on the Blueberries, and things that like acid soil. We don't use it on our garden, it would stunt our plants: guess that's based on your own soil's needs

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