Beautiful and so simple. Very simple for me, as I am an urban back yard gardener. I use no till, lasagne bed composting in place with straw, kitchen scraps, leaf mold, etc.. Am 80+ and so pleased to find such an effective way to grow healthy food.
Midwest Gardener imho you will never be sorry. The first year or so are a little intense, as you build your beds, but if you are just going to do no till over an existing garden, it take only a little energy. I suggest you use cardboard, wet it down, and throw some compost, and other materials on to it, add wood chips JUST to the top of everything including any paths. Of course some prefer to add straw. I use straw, but the. to keep weeds down there’s nothing like cardboard cutout breed with a few inches of wood chips. I highly suggest Googling “Deep Green Permaculture, No Dig Gardening”....scroll down to the material layer graphs for the clearest directions I have seen anywhere. Best Wishes.
we have been using this method in my garden for two years. I had a problem with hornets! I was stung four times in a couple of seconds. That was a very traumatic experience. We washed the nests out with dish liquid. I will mulch soon when I do my fall cleanup. I also have a keyhole garden in the center of my garden. We will use mulch for that garden and cover the fruit garden again with mulch. Thus is the first year renewal of that garden. Thanks for the video!
I spent months admiring expensive LED indoor farming, greenhouses, vertical farming, etc. Costing $$$. The no-dig, no-till is the lowest cost, more manual approach. Great for Rwanda where the gardeners and farmers are too poor to afford those expensive solutions. God bless the No-Dig, No-till, Lasagna, sheet composting practitioners.
wow that was great, so much little things to be mindful of....i live on an eco village in british columbia, it's 2600 ft above sea level so the growing zone is zone 3 . Thanks for the education, will start no/ till cultivation this season.
I only have hay that contains headed out grasses and even thistle seeds. While it isn't the best mulch, I found that covering it with last year's composted horse manure works great as the thick layer of manure soon starts to rot the hay and it smothers the young weed and grass seeds. If any survive, I just throw on more manure.
Do almost the same thing. I find I have no worry about weed seeds because there's never any light and even if they germinate they die because again no light. Great video.
That is certainly a lovely garden. The video well documented the use of hay mulch. From a practical perspective I would like to know if this approach would work for folks who have to buy baled mulch. Where I live hay is at least $4 a bale and at 6 inch deep you may get 6-8 feet of mulching. It would be interesting to see the economics worked out with regards to whether this is economically practical if a gardener is trying to make money. Regardless it was an interesting video! Thanks to all involved!
good stuff! you could hugely increase traffic back to your website if you put your link in the description above in addition to mentioning in the video
Hello Theresa. Your garden looks so tidy and organised. Covering so much of the soil between rows with a deep hay mulch, dose that not prevent a lot of rain getting to the soil ie the hay gets wet but the soil stays dry?
+Home Grown Veg Incompetechnicalities has the right idea. The hay holds in any moisture by covering the black ground. We RARELY have to water the garden. Only in circumstances of longstanding drought-- about a month without rain is usually the trigger point.
Ive had a disaster by mulching for the 1st time in my vegetable garden over winter, the purpose of mulching was to prevent weeds from growing and improving soil fertility. This year was an unusual year of high rainfall in Sept [1st month of spring],the mulch was a haven for inoculating early blight, especially hard hit were my tomato,potato plants and slight leaf curl in the grapes vines. The tomatoes were replaced with new plants and sprayed with copper based fungicide.
Thanks for the inspiring video. We have just bought land which has compacted clay soil. We want to plant a mixed cover crop to start building the soil. Would you recommend tilling just once to loosen the soil and make it receptive enough for seeds to grow. OR, would you recommend leaving the soil compacted and layering hay each season.....will the soil underneath the hay become less compacted? The real difficulty is really to get those first seeds in the ground and to make sure that they are able to take root and grow.
what about using pine needles? over here on the east cost people use it as decoration to keep weeds and grass out. the only hay I can get around me is wheat straw or long leaf pine needles. I'm wanting to do this to make my life easier next year.
What's the purple growing in the background? Whew, and I thought I was a hard-working mulcher. You have a nice system, and making your own hay seems excellent. Thanks.
+alan30189 Those are grain bins! We also raise a variety of certified organic small grains, like millet, buckwheat, oats, and triticale. Those are hopper bottom bins to facilitate auguring the grains for shipment!
If I tried that the voles would breed like crazy in that stuff and eat everything in the garden. Looks pretty though at least on the day the pictures were taken. I'd be interested in seeing what it looks like through the rest of the year and how you deal with the garden plants and mulch at the end of the grow season.
I have a question and need lots of help with our weed problem! We are new to the farming game in Portugal (it's our first year), and we have an absolutely huge field that is nothing but weeds. We have already cleared and created a small garden, but we need to de-weed our land permanently so we can plant when it's ready. We already tilled, and two months later the weeds are as tall as my waist! Would you recommend laying hay on the plot to start to prevent weed growth underneath? What is the organic alternative to stop weed growth for the far future?
It can be tough to control weeds at first. It would certainly help to mulch with a THICK layer after you have tilled. The key is not to let weeds go to seed. A second key to weed control is to get them when they are little! So much easier to control than when they get that big!
The rows are 3 feet center to center. When the plants grow large, mid-late season, the 'row' space is much reduced. Still allows good access for harvesting etc. It is amazing how those roots will reach in under the mulch, accessing the fertility there. Also allows for good airflow throughout the garden, reducing disease pressures, which can be brought on or made worse by overcrowding. One never knows how dry or wet the season may be but either way, plants benefit from having adequate space. We have the space, so there is no benefit for us to crowd. But that is definitely a luxury; not all gardeners have that space.
i have unlimited amount of grass/hay and i would like to use it on 10 times smaller area as hay mulch. as per your opinion - what is better to be used : 1. dried grass=hay, or 2. grass cutted late in summer (grass cut for first time in late august) and immediately collected and spread as mulch, in bulk ?
Option 1-- cut the grass before it goes to seed! If you cut grass in late summer, you will get grass seed mixed in the hay. Then you will be 'seeding' grass in your garden.
I was curious what type of grass you are baling to get an early cut? I am in the same growing zone and was thinking winter wheat would allow me a spring cut in time for mulching.
+Alexis Lazaros Arzuaga One garden is ~6075 sq ft. The other is ~3600 sq ft. The area we hay is ~ 2 acres. That gives us more hay than we need in one year.
Have you ever added any fertilizer or lime to your garden. Do you have it tested for pH level and what was the result? What about using straw vs hay? Thank You.
I've been gardening for 30+ years & I've found that vegetables eventually balance the ph out by themselves if you mulch heavily. It takes at least 3 years to condition your garden to grow veggies no matter what you do to it. My dad went to a seminar that guaranteed a perfect garden the first year using a special formula. I told my dad that it wouldn't work & sure enough he had gorgeous plants but no veggies. And the more you garden on that plot the better it will produce, mulching heavily of course. The hay has more micro nutrients then the straw, you can mulch with straw but you have to add compost around your plants for the nutrient value.
@Thelondonbadger Unfortunately I don't have a garden this year, but I first learned about heavy mulching from a book written by a lady who was 80 some years old. The book was simply called "The No Work Garden" by Ruth Stout. Don't know if the book is still in print but you can find used copies of it in varied conditions. The whole premise is to mimic the forest floor. Many people think the more mulch you add the more fertile it will be, this is incorrect. Although mulching is important the real thing that adds nutrients to the soil is the plants themselves. This is why farmers plant cover crops in between their main crops & why it's a good idea to rotate crops.They will turn those crops under & use them as a "green" fertilizer in early spring before the cover crop goes to seed. But really there is no such thing as a no work garden, it's just that heavy mulching makes it a lot easier. Very interestingly God has another fertilizer program that happens when there is lightning. When lightning strikes it changes the nitrogen's polarity in the air & makes it stick to rain drops which falls to earth & fertilizes the ground. It's natures water soluble fertilizer. Ever wonder why things green up after a lightning storm? That is why, it's amazing.....
Hi, thanks for sharing. Do you imagine this could be easily scaled up to a 1-2 ac garden (or more)? What other fertility do you use in the garden? How do you manage fertility in your hay field to keep that part of your system sustainable? Thanks again.
What type of hay do you use? I mulch with straw every year. We moved to a new acreage last fall. This year we had squash bugs so badly. Should we keep this straw over the winter or will it just shelter the squash bugs?
We grow our squash on black ground in more of a field situation rather than in the mulched garden. If you do grow your squash in a mulch situation, take a garden fork and lift/breakup the ground and mulch where your squash was grown and where squash bugs are likely to be trying to hibernate through the winter. That will allow the cold to penetrate and may kill them off, depending on where you're at and how cold it gets during the winter!
how does this compare to back to eden style I wonder? it seems very effective. 37 years is a massive advantage either way so its probably hard to compare. 37 years of any organic based method is basically a guarantee of excellent soil. much love for any method that works and makes amazing black gold soil such as this. I achieved much smaller scale of black gold soil but it cost me...I am fascinated by the methods that cost very little, recycle goods, require very little outside input and adhere to organic and permaculture style methods. It's the way of the future ...it is our only choice...unless we can get our households to commit to a fourth bin. by this I mean we have recycling bins, normal waste bins and green waste bins (domestic). What if we had a fourth domestic bin that was "kitchen scraps, green leaf waste from hedging etc, weeds weeded before seeding, woodchips etc". just imagine the possibility. it would take people being honest about what they put in it but the same could be said about early recycling efforts....i.e education. peace
+Chris Prospero Straw could work but again the critical factor is the avoidance of introducing any weed seeds. If the grain crop had any weeds you run the risk of those seeds being in the straw. That is why we use hay and we control the harvest. I realize that is not possible for everyone. So just be careful to know the source of your mulch.
That can be difficult. See if you can locate a nonprofit educational organic farming group in your area. They could likely steer you to some possible sources.
I must be missing something. Isn't it a waste of a lot of growing space, considering the beds seem to be just one plant deep. Plus there is no mention if the (much wider) paths will be rotated and planted in the future (rather illogical). I can see how the paths have great soil but they are just paths, so what is the purpose?
It is much easier to access the plants with wide paths, and the paths can be rotated each year. So, next year, you can plant things on the soil that rested and composted as a path the year before.
Except that when you walk on the paths the soil becomes compacted. It would also be easy to access them if you had them in two or three rows instead of one. I'm 5 feet tall and have no problem reaching two feet in each side of my 4 foot beds. My paths are 2 1/2 feet wide. But if it works for you, good for you.
Carmen Ortiz Oh, it's not my video or my garden, and I don't make my rows that wide either. :) Though, deep mulch (like 8-12") does keep the soil from becoming packed down much, plus there is less traffic since there are less weeds to pull.
+Carmen Ortiz Good points and ones we have pondered. There are benefits to wider spacing between rows. Maximizing the nutritional quality of the food produced is one benefit. We can plant thicker in row with the plants having so much space next to the row. In times of low rainfall, our plants are not stressed because the roots can reach under the mulch for the moisture they need. We have talked about moving the rows just because the soil has built up so much between the rows! The rows themselves are lower than the pathways, which can be a problem in heavy rain periods. Compaction does not seem to be an issues with all the organic matter and biological activity.
I guess you have plenty of land so wide paths and narrow planting area is not an issue. My paths are the width necessary for my cart to fit when moving compost up a not too steep incline. I'm surprised that your paths are not compacted. We get a lot of rain here, so I plant the larger of the plants (by plant families so I can rotate them all together) on the higher elevation and they slow down the rain when it's pouring so I get a rather good distribution of water in my beds. Your beds do look nicer than mine but my production is good, which my main concern.
+macyllehub Straw is the stalk of small grain plant that has gone to seed. A plant puts much of its nutrients into the seed head. The plant has dried down and the grain was harvested, leaving the straw. Straw would have less nutritive content than grass hay, harvested when it is lush and green, long before it sets a seed head! The key is to harvest the hay long before any seed is set.
Hay can be the bye product of other crops. Wheat, oats, barley. Some hays are used as animal feed. We use a four way to feed the goats. what ever is left is now being used in the garden. I doubt there is many seeds left in the product. We compost it to reduce any unwanted growth.
I want to mulch heavily after watching ur's & other vids but on one site it warned of attracting slugs & rats building nests....that is a really disgusting thought! Have u encountered any problems with pests & varmints? Thank you.
Good question. I use a method very much like this, and am curious how you control slugs. Usually, if slugs are a problem, I pull the mulch away from the base of the plant, so the greenery is less tempting, then sprinkle some wood ashes around the base, but not touching the stem. That seems to help a lot, though it needs to be reapplied after a rain.
DE is a great idea! Growing up using this method the mice were only attracted when we laid down carpet or boards to kill weeds. They would make tunnels under them. I don't recall them burrowing in the mulch.
+Danetta Cates Last year (2014) we had our first ever issues with slugs! We had a very wet season through June. Happy to report that this season (2015) we have not seen any slugs. Pest (mice, crickets, and slugs) can be an issue whether you mulch or not. We have never seen mice nests in the mulch.
Actually the mulch covers the black dirt and protects the soil from heating up. The gardens are much cooler in a mulch system than black dirt. A drawback of that is you do not have the warmth of black soil to thwart the first mild frosts; tomatoes will succumb to frost more quickly in a mulched garden unless you cover them.
You should never use coastal bermuda hay to mulch with! All others are good and straw too. But that coastal will come up so thick that you will never get it out of your garden. I have been mulching like this you 30+ years and one year I got some free square bales that turned out to be coastal and I had to give up that garden and start all over in a different area because of the coastal bermuda. Dreadful stuff. I love the fall as everytime we go to town we get leaves and grass clippings and boards, fencing material and all kinds of free stuff that is out by the road on trash day. The last time a guy was moving and putting all his dog kennel fencing out. We scored big on that one. Used it for my chickens. You can shove your hand down at least a foot into my soil without much effort. I never have to weed and it always looks good.
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does someone know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..? I stupidly forgot my password. I would love any tips you can offer me
@Rocky Samir thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and Im in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
@@TheresaAtPrairieRoad I wonder if he is referring to the issue of herbicides being present in hay from certain sources? If one doesn't grow their own, yes they should get it from trusted sources. The aminopyralid based herbicides once in the soil last for years and stunt several different types of vegetables. People must also be careful about their sources of horse manure for the same reason.
Yes, straw has very few seeds. You can use hay though if the mulch is deep enough. The roots will only be in mulch and easy to pull up, or simply flip over the sections of hay or masses of hay with a pitch fork so the greenery is underneath. That usually kills most of the weeds without much effort.
+James Tyree II Be careful of the source of your straw. If the grain field was weedy, you could introduce weed seeds. Again, we cut our hay very early (1st week of June) before any grass seed is present.
I don't underatand...you only have 1 row of plants for every 24 to 30" of garden area that is mulched? is that not grossly inefficient use of your planting area given up to mulch? you could plant so much more on that space. im confused on why u do it this way.
This is similar to a "market rows" format (actually looks more tightly spaced). It is indeed a highly efficient way to grow for the "market garden" scale of production in terms of planting, pruning, trellising, harvesting, etc. If one is doing smaller scale and their priority is absolute greatest number of plants per square inch, something like "square foot" gardening or another method may work better. But when growing this many plants, easy access and functionality akin to assembly line format are required in order to work efficiently.
+Joseph Lynn That could be a problem. We have a number of cats roaming the farm as well as lots of garter snakes. We have more issues with crickets than mice. We have never had a rat in the garden.
Stop the paranoia with weed seeds. seeds are enormously nutrient rich. WEEDS are priceless. when used as green sewage mulch pulled in june immediately surrounding plant and added to water to rot.
YES, you have to be very CAREFUL about where you source your hay! We hay our own hayland-- so we KNOW it is clean. Bringing tainted hay into your gardens can be devastating. Thank you for bringing that up! SO IMPORTANT!
Here in ND we have a lot of garder snakes that love rodents. We also have farm cats that patrol the gardens quite regularly. But you are right, it can be an issue!
We can't find weed free hay either and the hay we harvested from our farm grew quack grass all over the newly mulched area.... So what we have done is spread a large sheet of plastic to kill the grass and are hoping to plant some of that area next spring. As for the rest of the new area, the plastic will have to be moved this spring and we hope to plant that in 2018. Ruth used to turn over a weedy square bale hay patch or throw a flake of the bale on weeds to keep them down and that has worked for us for a couple years now. Anyhow, that is how we are dealing with weeds in our hay as there is no way to avoid them but learn how to deal with it. This video is on an ideal self sustaining farm that the majority of us don't have access to. So when I saw an older neighbour covering black plastic over an area to kill all the weeds, that is how I will be dealing with those more problematic areas. Just use round rocks etc to hold down the plastic and next year will be mulched and ready to plant apparently, we will see, lol. This is a great video and a bit too idealistic but other than that it is a great way to garden as it feeds the soil with natures bounty and is far less expensive for gardeners. A round bale of hay every year for ~$40 helps the soil immensley for sure. We hope to cut and harvest some seedless hay next year thanks to this amazing video. ATB
You can supply your own carbon source by way of covercrops to mulch your beds. Covercrops are plants that are grown for similar reasons as mulching, but they add to the system in a more dynamic way, all you need is seed.
+ScientificExplorer Girl Good point! Introducing grass seed into your garden would be a disaster! We do use hay; we hay the grass at the beginning of June before it goes to seed. This is critical! Make sure you know the source of your mulch and that you are not introducing grass or weed seeds!
This is not the way to do it PRAIRIE ROAD! You need gas engine powered square bale shredder that is used for chopping up hay as feed, by chopping it up it makes it easy to spread with a pitchfork as it's not held together and the hay doesn't remain with long strands, it gets nice, loose and slippery, smaller bits of hay, just what you want for spreading ease! Also easy to load into garden wagons with a pitchfork. It's a lot easier than unpacking square bales by hand trust me.
crawling around on your hands and knees ??/ Bailing hay ??? I think it is easier to till the soil. I am 70 years old and I look for the easiest way !!1 I do apply some mulch...but never get down on my hands and knees !!
Tilling the soil destroys the soil food web and breaks down soil structure leading to soil erosion, nutrient pollution(when using synthetics), carbon release and so on. It is not logical nor effective in producing a garden that requires less work and less input in the long term from the gardener. Organic/low-input, no-till gardening/farming is the only way forward if we are to manage our lands and waters sustainably. Such practices lead to increased soil food web diversity and better tilth, producing healthier crops. Also, a recent report by the Rodale Institute rodaleinstitute.org/assets/WhitePaper.pdf shows we can reverse anthropogenic climate change with these organic/low-input, no-till practices.
+Wise Student Crawling through to spread the mulch is a small price to pay for increased soil fertility and decreased weed pressure! I don't work out at a gym; farming keeps me fit! Even at 70 I think I would prefer this method to tilling!
We do have the luxury of a lot of space. Now that we have spent years building the soil between the rows, we have been moving the rows to the middle of the mulch areas to take advantage of the higher ground and move the soil building process into what used to be the rows. And when the ground is as friable as this it is AMAZING how far the roots travel under the mulched areas to feed.
Time is a game of patience. Thats why patient gardeners do the best! 🏁😏🏁
Glad you found it useful! Thanks for watching AND for the feedback!
Beautiful and so simple. Very simple for me, as I am an urban back yard gardener. I use no till, lasagne bed composting in place with straw, kitchen scraps, leaf mold, etc.. Am 80+ and so pleased to find such an effective way to grow healthy food.
I've been muclching with grass clippings for many years. This year, I plan to go to no-till. I found this information to be useful....thanks.
Midwest Gardener imho you will never be sorry. The first year or so are a little intense, as you build your beds, but if you are just going to do no till over an existing garden, it take only a little energy. I suggest you use cardboard, wet it down, and throw some compost, and other materials on to it, add wood chips JUST to the top of everything including any paths. Of course some prefer to add straw. I use straw, but the. to keep weeds down there’s nothing like cardboard cutout breed with a few inches of wood chips.
I highly suggest Googling “Deep Green Permaculture, No Dig Gardening”....scroll down to the material layer graphs for the clearest directions I have seen anywhere. Best Wishes.
Just watching you talk and work, is making this sixty year old man want to take a nap. That looks like a lot of work.
I am certainly not opposed to naps on an AS NEEDED basis! 😅
we have been using this method in my garden for two years. I had a problem with hornets! I was stung four times in a couple of seconds. That was a very traumatic experience. We washed the nests out with dish liquid. I will mulch soon when I do my fall cleanup. I also have a keyhole garden in the center of my garden. We will use mulch for that garden and cover the fruit garden again with mulch. Thus is the first year renewal of that garden. Thanks for the video!
I spent months admiring expensive LED indoor farming, greenhouses, vertical farming, etc. Costing $$$. The no-dig, no-till is the lowest cost, more manual approach. Great for Rwanda where the gardeners and farmers are too poor to afford those expensive solutions. God bless the No-Dig, No-till, Lasagna, sheet composting practitioners.
Fantastic strategies here. Great tip on the early cut for hay mulch to keep seed out.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Well done lady, You have a clean garden. I now see you spend more time in harvesting than weeding. Thank you
Love organic gardening, and love your channel, thank you so much, wishing you a blessed day, Annie
Very much how I do it. Very affirming!! Thanks, Prairie Road!
You are so welcome! And THANK YOU for the affirmation!! 💗
Thanks for posting a great video!
wow that was great, so much little things to be mindful of....i live on an eco village in british columbia, it's 2600 ft above sea level so the growing zone is zone 3 . Thanks for the education, will start no/ till cultivation this season.
Im so tired weeding and turning my soil..this year will try your method....thank you so much for informative videos....cheers from Ukraine
Good luck with all your gardening efforts! So needed at this point in time. Stay safe!!
Absolutely beautiful soil!!
Thank you! Just helping nature do its thing!
I only have hay that contains headed out grasses and even thistle seeds. While it isn't the best mulch, I found that covering it with last year's composted horse manure works great as the thick layer of manure soon starts to rot the hay and it smothers the young weed and grass seeds. If any survive, I just throw on more manure.
Do almost the same thing. I find I have no worry about weed seeds because there's never any light and even if they germinate they die because again no light. Great video.
It's amazing how much the mulch reduces the weed pressure! Thanks for your comments!!
That is certainly a lovely garden. The video well documented the use of hay mulch. From a practical perspective I would like to know if this approach would work for folks who have to buy baled mulch. Where I live hay is at least $4 a bale and at 6 inch deep you may get 6-8 feet of mulching. It would be interesting to see the economics worked out with regards to whether this is economically practical if a gardener is trying to make money. Regardless it was an interesting video! Thanks to all involved!
good stuff!
you could hugely increase traffic back to your website if you put your link in the description above in addition to mentioning in the video
Hello Theresa. Your garden looks so tidy and organised. Covering so much of the soil between rows with a deep hay mulch, dose that not prevent a lot of rain getting to the soil ie the hay gets wet but the soil stays dry?
From what I understand the mulch actually allows the ground to hold water longer by protecting the soil from the sun.
+Home Grown Veg Incompetechnicalities has the right idea. The hay holds in any moisture by covering the black ground. We RARELY have to water the garden. Only in circumstances of longstanding drought-- about a month without rain is usually the trigger point.
Ive had a disaster by mulching for the 1st time in my vegetable garden over winter, the purpose of mulching was to prevent weeds from growing and improving soil fertility. This year was an unusual year of high rainfall in Sept [1st month of spring],the mulch was a haven for inoculating early blight, especially hard hit were my tomato,potato plants and slight leaf curl in the grapes vines. The tomatoes were replaced with new plants and sprayed with copper based fungicide.
Thanks for the inspiring video. We have just bought land which has compacted clay soil. We want to plant a mixed cover crop to start building the soil. Would you recommend tilling just once to loosen the soil and make it receptive enough for seeds to grow. OR, would you recommend leaving the soil compacted and layering hay each season.....will the soil underneath the hay become less compacted? The real difficulty is really to get those first seeds in the ground and to make sure that they are able to take root and grow.
Allison A Clark clay maybe best to mulch over and till it in clay is like concrete
I agree, Allison. With clay especially you will likely have to help it by getting some cover established and roots penetrating and breaking things up!
Thanks for the helpful video!
what about using pine needles? over here on the east cost people use it as decoration to keep weeds and grass out. the only hay I can get around me is wheat straw or long leaf pine needles. I'm wanting to do this to make my life easier next year.
Ive heard of pine needles working. Straw, hay, woodchips, pine needles, leaves. They all work similarly
What's the purple growing in the background?
Whew, and I thought I was a hard-working mulcher. You have a nice system, and making your own hay seems excellent. Thanks.
What in the world is that behind your garden at 1:22, a Monsanto plant? LOL
Good video! Thanks for sharing.
+alan30189 Those are grain bins! We also raise a variety of certified organic small grains, like millet, buckwheat, oats, and triticale. Those are hopper bottom bins to facilitate auguring the grains for shipment!
Great video !
Thank you, Steve!
If I tried that the voles would breed like crazy in that stuff and eat everything in the garden. Looks pretty though at least on the day the pictures were taken. I'd be interested in seeing what it looks like through the rest of the year and how you deal with the garden plants and mulch at the end of the grow season.
Thank you for sharing this amaging video.
Thanks for the tips and info. Trying to save some soil in Thailand.
I have a question and need lots of help with our weed problem! We are new to the farming game in Portugal (it's our first year), and we have an absolutely huge field that is nothing but weeds. We have already cleared and created a small garden, but we need to de-weed our land permanently so we can plant when it's ready. We already tilled, and two months later the weeds are as tall as my waist! Would you recommend laying hay on the plot to start to prevent weed growth underneath? What is the organic alternative to stop weed growth for the far future?
It can be tough to control weeds at first. It would certainly help to mulch with a THICK layer after you have tilled. The key is not to let weeds go to seed. A second key to weed control is to get them when they are little! So much easier to control than when they get that big!
Thanks for the informative video. May I ask why you leave so much space between your rows?
The plantings shown are very young and small yet....the space won't be that much when the plants are mature.
Row width appears to be chosen because of the size of the bales...
Is there a reason why the rows are 3 feet apart? Thank you?
The rows are 3 feet center to center. When the plants grow large, mid-late season, the 'row' space is much reduced. Still allows good access for harvesting etc. It is amazing how those roots will reach in under the mulch, accessing the fertility there. Also allows for good airflow throughout the garden, reducing disease pressures, which can be brought on or made worse by overcrowding. One never knows how dry or wet the season may be but either way, plants benefit from having adequate space. We have the space, so there is no benefit for us to crowd. But that is definitely a luxury; not all gardeners have that space.
Thank you for the very impressive video..
You're welcome, Virginia! Appreciate the feedback and glad you found it worth your time! Thank you for watching!
i have unlimited amount of grass/hay and i would like to use it on 10 times smaller area as hay mulch. as per your opinion - what is better to be used : 1. dried grass=hay, or 2. grass cutted late in summer (grass cut for first time in late august) and immediately collected and spread as mulch, in bulk ?
Option 1-- cut the grass before it goes to seed! If you cut grass in late summer, you will get grass seed mixed in the hay. Then you will be 'seeding' grass in your garden.
I was curious what type of grass you are baling to get an early cut? I am in the same growing zone and was thinking winter wheat would allow me a spring cut in time for mulching.
Beautiful garden! Thanks for the clarification :-)
Very helpful! How much area do you mulch? How much area do you utilize to grow the hay you use to much? Thank you again!
+Alexis Lazaros Arzuaga One garden is ~6075 sq ft. The other is ~3600 sq ft. The area we hay is ~ 2 acres. That gives us more hay than we need in one year.
+PrairieRoadOrganic And I guess the hay is grown organically? But if you took the hay from there, is it bare ground?
Have you ever added any fertilizer or lime to your garden. Do you have it tested for pH level and what was the result? What about using straw vs hay? Thank You.
I've been gardening for 30+ years & I've found that vegetables eventually balance the ph out by themselves if you mulch heavily. It takes at least 3 years to condition your garden to grow veggies no matter what you do to it. My dad went to a seminar that guaranteed a perfect garden the first year using a special formula. I told my dad that it wouldn't work & sure enough he had gorgeous plants but no veggies. And the more you garden on that plot the better it will produce, mulching heavily of course. The hay has more micro nutrients then the straw, you can mulch with straw but you have to add compost around your plants for the nutrient value.
@Thelondonbadger Unfortunately I don't have a garden this year, but I first learned about heavy mulching from a book written by a lady who was 80 some years old. The book was simply called "The No Work Garden" by Ruth Stout. Don't know if the book is still in print but you can find used copies of it in varied conditions. The whole premise is to mimic the forest floor. Many people think the more mulch you add the more fertile it will be, this is incorrect. Although mulching is important the real thing that adds nutrients to the soil is the plants themselves. This is why farmers plant cover crops in between their main crops & why it's a good idea to rotate crops.They will turn those crops under & use them as a "green" fertilizer in early spring before the cover crop goes to seed. But really there is no such thing as a no work garden, it's just that heavy mulching makes it a lot easier. Very interestingly God has another fertilizer program that happens when there is lightning. When lightning strikes it changes the nitrogen's polarity in the air & makes it stick to rain drops which falls to earth & fertilizes the ground. It's natures water soluble fertilizer. Ever wonder why things green up after a lightning storm? That is why, it's amazing.....
2:10 "reducing what sorry, and erosion"?
Kitchissime I believe it said runoff
Sorry for the delayed response-- yes, "Erosion".
what about BEFORE you plant?
Hi, thanks for sharing. Do you imagine this could be easily scaled up to a 1-2 ac garden (or more)? What other fertility do you use in the garden? How do you manage fertility in your hay field to keep that part of your system sustainable? Thanks again.
Good going !
Would this system work in Minnesota? I am afraid it would keep the soil to cold to plant in the spring.
Ive read that planting may need to be delayed by a week or 2, but it also extends the growing season by keeping the soil warmer in fall
What type of hay do you use? I mulch with straw every year. We moved to a new acreage last fall. This year we had squash bugs so badly. Should we keep this straw over the winter or will it just shelter the squash bugs?
We grow our squash on black ground in more of a field situation rather than in the mulched garden. If you do grow your squash in a mulch situation, take a garden fork and lift/breakup the ground and mulch where your squash was grown and where squash bugs are likely to be trying to hibernate through the winter. That will allow the cold to penetrate and may kill them off, depending on where you're at and how cold it gets during the winter!
how does this compare to back to eden style I wonder? it seems very effective. 37 years is a massive advantage either way so its probably hard to compare. 37 years of any organic based method is basically a guarantee of excellent soil. much love for any method that works and makes amazing black gold soil such as this. I achieved much smaller scale of black gold soil but it cost me...I am fascinated by the methods that cost very little, recycle goods, require very little outside input and adhere to organic and permaculture style methods. It's the way of the future
...it is our only choice...unless we can get our households to commit to a fourth bin. by this I mean we have recycling bins, normal waste bins and green waste bins (domestic). What if we had a fourth domestic bin that was "kitchen scraps, green leaf waste from hedging etc, weeds weeded before seeding, woodchips etc". just imagine the possibility. it would take people being honest about what they put in it but the same could be said about early recycling efforts....i.e education. peace
Would straw work too?
+Chris Prospero Straw could work but again the critical factor is the avoidance of introducing any weed seeds. If the grain crop had any weeds you run the risk of those seeds being in the straw. That is why we use hay and we control the harvest. I realize that is not possible for everyone. So just be careful to know the source of your mulch.
Do you use organic mulch? I can't find any that isn't sprayed
That can be difficult. See if you can locate a nonprofit educational organic farming group in your area. They could likely steer you to some possible sources.
What kind of Hay do you use? We grow mostly alfalfa in Utah. Is this Timothy grass?
Mostly brome grass with some alfalfa. Alfalfa has wonderful fertility!
Nice job
Thank you! Even though I sound like a school teacher! LOL
I must be missing something. Isn't it a waste of a lot of growing space, considering the beds seem to be just one plant deep. Plus there is no mention if the (much wider) paths will be rotated and planted in the future (rather illogical). I can see how the paths have great soil but they are just paths, so what is the purpose?
It is much easier to access the plants with wide paths, and the paths can be rotated each year. So, next year, you can plant things on the soil that rested and composted as a path the year before.
Except that when you walk on the paths the soil becomes compacted. It would also be easy to access them if you had them in two or three rows instead of one. I'm 5 feet tall and have no problem reaching two feet in each side of my 4 foot beds. My paths are 2 1/2 feet wide. But if it works for you, good for you.
Carmen Ortiz Oh, it's not my video or my garden, and I don't make my rows that wide either. :) Though, deep mulch (like 8-12") does keep the soil from becoming packed down much, plus there is less traffic since there are less weeds to pull.
+Carmen Ortiz Good points and ones we have pondered. There are benefits to wider spacing between rows. Maximizing the nutritional quality of the food produced is one benefit. We can plant thicker in row with the plants having so much space next to the row. In times of low rainfall, our plants are not stressed because the roots can reach under the mulch for the moisture they need. We have talked about moving the rows just because the soil has built up so much between the rows! The rows themselves are lower than the pathways, which can be a problem in heavy rain periods. Compaction does not seem to be an issues with all the organic matter and biological activity.
I guess you have plenty of land so wide paths and narrow planting area is not an issue. My paths are the width necessary for my cart to fit when moving compost up a not too steep incline. I'm surprised that your paths are not compacted. We get a lot of rain here, so I plant the larger of the plants (by plant families so I can rotate them all together) on the higher elevation and they slow down the rain when it's pouring so I get a rather good distribution of water in my beds. Your beds do look nicer than mine but my production is good, which my main concern.
Using free wood chips hay is so expensive in my area
Yes, another good strategy!
Can I ask why you use hay over straw? Hay in our area seems to be full of seeds and I can't imagine using alfalfa in our garden to reduce weeds.
+macyllehub Straw is the stalk of small grain plant that has gone to seed. A plant puts much of its nutrients into the seed head. The plant has dried down and the grain was harvested, leaving the straw. Straw would have less nutritive content than grass hay, harvested when it is lush and green, long before it sets a seed head! The key is to harvest the hay long before any seed is set.
Depending on your area check to make sure that the grass hay wasn't sprayed with Milestone, if it gets into your garden it can harm some plants.
Hay can be the bye product of other crops. Wheat, oats, barley. Some hays are used as animal feed. We use a four way to feed the goats. what ever is left is now being used in the garden. I doubt there is many seeds left in the product. We compost it to reduce any unwanted growth.
Doesn't this mulch suck up the nitrogen in the soil.
that seems to be a wives tale. people say high carbon material will lock up all the nitrogen to decompose but it just never happens.
NOPE!
It adds nitrogen.
Yup ...I used barley straw once ...came up thicker than fleas on a stray dawg ...
Yes, that is a great word of caution! Make sure you know your mulch to ensure you do not cause more problems than you solve.
I want to mulch heavily after watching ur's & other vids but on one site it warned of attracting slugs & rats building nests....that is a really disgusting thought! Have u encountered any problems with pests & varmints? Thank you.
Good question. I use a method very much like this, and am curious how you control slugs. Usually, if slugs are a problem, I pull the mulch away from the base of the plant, so the greenery is less tempting, then sprinkle some wood ashes around the base, but not touching the stem. That seems to help a lot, though it needs to be reapplied after a rain.
Johannah West I know powdering with diatomaceous earth will prevent the slugs/snails, but the mice/rats issue is a concern for me as well.
DE is a great idea! Growing up using this method the mice were only attracted when we laid down carpet or boards to kill weeds. They would make tunnels under them. I don't recall them burrowing in the mulch.
+Danetta Cates Last year (2014) we had our first ever issues with slugs! We had a very wet season through June. Happy to report that this season (2015) we have not seen any slugs. Pest (mice, crickets, and slugs) can be an issue whether you mulch or not. We have never seen mice nests in the mulch.
+Johannah West Thanks for these tips. We had slugs in the garden for the first time in 2014. We appreciate knowing what works!
Please if possible italian subtitles
So sorry for the language barrier!
Won't this create alot of heat for the plants and cause them to burn in the sun?
Actually the mulch covers the black dirt and protects the soil from heating up. The gardens are much cooler in a mulch system than black dirt. A drawback of that is you do not have the warmth of black soil to thwart the first mild frosts; tomatoes will succumb to frost more quickly in a mulched garden unless you cover them.
this chick has a very cute SD accent! nice vid
+dummkompf Why thank you! We are in ND but just 30 miles from the SD border!
Great vid! And DAMN sunburn much!?! ;)
IMPRESSIVE!!!
Thank you for your feedback!
You should never use coastal bermuda hay to mulch with! All others are good and straw too. But that coastal will come up so thick that you will never get it out of your garden. I have been mulching like this you 30+ years and one year I got some free square bales that turned out to be coastal and I had to give up that garden and start all over in a different area because of the coastal bermuda. Dreadful stuff. I love the fall as everytime we go to town we get leaves and grass clippings and boards, fencing material and all kinds of free stuff that is out by the road on trash day. The last time a guy was moving and putting all his dog kennel fencing out. We scored big on that one. Used it for my chickens. You can shove your hand down at least a foot into my soil without much effort. I never have to weed and it always looks good.
I dont mean to be so offtopic but does someone know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..?
I stupidly forgot my password. I would love any tips you can offer me
@Angel Dominik instablaster =)
@Rocky Samir thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and Im in the hacking process now.
Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.
@Rocky Samir it did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy!
Thanks so much, you really help me out!
@Angel Dominik you are welcome xD
Mice?
Occasionally we will discover a mouse in the garden but have had very little trouble. We do have cats that regularly check out the gardens.
you probably need to redo the video concerning the usage of hay... or make a disclaimer
Not sure what you mean. The hay works very well for us. It might not work as well in other areas.
@@TheresaAtPrairieRoad I wonder if he is referring to the issue of herbicides being present in hay from certain sources? If one doesn't grow their own, yes they should get it from trusted sources. The aminopyralid based herbicides once in the soil last for years and stunt several different types of vegetables. People must also be careful about their sources of horse manure for the same reason.
better to use baled straw. hay contains viable seeds whereas straw is just small grain crop stems.
Yes, straw has very few seeds. You can use hay though if the mulch is deep enough. The roots will only be in mulch and easy to pull up, or simply flip over the sections of hay or masses of hay with a pitch fork so the greenery is underneath. That usually kills most of the weeds without much effort.
+James Tyree II Be careful of the source of your straw. If the grain field was weedy, you could introduce weed seeds. Again, we cut our hay very early (1st week of June) before any grass seed is present.
I don't underatand...you only have 1 row of plants for every 24 to 30" of garden area that is mulched? is that not grossly inefficient use of your planting area given up to mulch? you could plant so much more on that space. im confused on why u do it this way.
mrpush They may not be working with as limited of space as you.
This is similar to a "market rows" format (actually looks more tightly spaced). It is indeed a highly efficient way to grow for the "market garden" scale of production in terms of planting, pruning, trellising, harvesting, etc. If one is doing smaller scale and their priority is absolute greatest number of plants per square inch, something like "square foot" gardening or another method may work better. But when growing this many plants, easy access and functionality akin to assembly line format are required in order to work efficiently.
Doesn't the hay provide a natural home for pests such as mice and rats? I know their droppings can carry disease.
+Joseph Lynn That could be a problem. We have a number of cats roaming the farm as well as lots of garter snakes. We have more issues with crickets than mice. We have never had a rat in the garden.
good
Subscribed :)
let's talk more about no fertilizers. that's where I'm gravitating2. has any1 been growing mulch only no fertilize.
We do not add any fertilizers to our gardens; the mulch provides all the fertility we need.
Stop the paranoia with weed seeds. seeds are enormously nutrient rich. WEEDS are priceless. when used as green sewage mulch pulled in june immediately surrounding plant and added to water to rot.
I agree, you can use the weeds you pull as mulch!
Beware of Grazon in the hay
YES, you have to be very CAREFUL about where you source your hay! We hay our own hayland-- so we KNOW it is clean. Bringing tainted hay into your gardens can be devastating. Thank you for bringing that up! SO IMPORTANT!
So, what about providing a nice warm home for rodents?
Here in ND we have a lot of garder snakes that love rodents. We also have farm cats that patrol the gardens quite regularly. But you are right, it can be an issue!
I can't win, I can't find woodchips, nor can I find a weed free hay!
We can't find weed free hay either and the hay we harvested from our farm grew quack grass all over the newly mulched area.... So what we have done is spread a large sheet of plastic to kill the grass and are hoping to plant some of that area next spring. As for the rest of the new area, the plastic will have to be moved this spring and we hope to plant that in 2018.
Ruth used to turn over a weedy square bale hay patch or throw a flake of the bale on weeds to keep them down and that has worked for us for a couple years now.
Anyhow, that is how we are dealing with weeds in our hay as there is no way to avoid them but learn how to deal with it. This video is on an ideal self sustaining farm that the majority of us don't have access to. So when I saw an older neighbour covering black plastic over an area to kill all the weeds, that is how I will be dealing with those more problematic areas. Just use round rocks etc to hold down the plastic and next year will be mulched and ready to plant apparently, we will see, lol.
This is a great video and a bit too idealistic but other than that it is a great way to garden as it feeds the soil with natures bounty and is far less expensive for gardeners. A round bale of hay every year for ~$40 helps the soil immensley for sure.
We hope to cut and harvest some seedless hay next year thanks to this amazing video. ATB
Thanks for the info!
Cheers and have fun experimenting with keeping those weeds at bay!
You can supply your own carbon source by way of covercrops to mulch your beds. Covercrops are plants that are grown for similar reasons as mulching, but they add to the system in a more dynamic way, all you need is seed.
I don't think you are using hay. Looks like straw. Hay would go to seed.
+ScientificExplorer Girl Good point! Introducing grass seed into your garden would be a disaster! We do use hay; we hay the grass at the beginning of June before it goes to seed. This is critical! Make sure you know the source of your mulch and that you are not introducing grass or weed seeds!
ScientificExplorer Girl it looks like hay. My cows would love it. She mentions that they cut the hay BEFORE it goes to seed.
This is not the way to do it PRAIRIE ROAD! You need gas engine powered square bale shredder that is used for chopping up hay as feed, by chopping it up it makes it easy to spread with a pitchfork as it's not held together and the hay doesn't remain with long strands, it gets nice, loose and slippery, smaller bits of hay, just what you want for spreading ease! Also easy to load into garden wagons with a pitchfork. It's a lot easier than unpacking square bales by hand trust me.
And yet, it works PERFECTLY for them!
there are a lot of ways to get things done, the easiest way that does it adequately is the best!
Good idea-- has its merits! Thanks for sharing!
crawling around on your hands and knees ??/ Bailing hay ??? I think it is easier to till the soil. I am 70 years old and I look for the easiest way !!1 I do apply some mulch...but never get down on my hands and knees !!
Whatever works for you! A pitchfork would do the job too though, I think.
Tilling the soil destroys the soil food web and breaks down soil structure leading to soil erosion, nutrient pollution(when using synthetics), carbon release and so on. It is not logical nor effective in producing a garden that requires less work and less input in the long term from the gardener.
Organic/low-input, no-till gardening/farming is the only way forward if we are to manage our lands and waters sustainably. Such practices lead to increased soil food web diversity and better tilth, producing healthier crops. Also, a recent report by the Rodale Institute rodaleinstitute.org/assets/WhitePaper.pdf shows we can reverse anthropogenic climate change with these organic/low-input, no-till practices.
+Wise Student Crawling through to spread the mulch is a small price to pay for increased soil fertility and decreased weed pressure! I don't work out at a gym; farming keeps me fit! Even at 70 I think I would prefer this method to tilling!
Wise Student I use a pitchfork.
looks like a good place for a snake though
We do have a few garder snakes but they hunt mice for us! They do startle a person once in a while! ;-)
Most farmer don't consider a snake a problem, lunch maybe!
Lot of wasted space.
We do have the luxury of a lot of space. Now that we have spent years building the soil between the rows, we have been moving the rows to the middle of the mulch areas to take advantage of the higher ground and move the soil building process into what used to be the rows. And when the ground is as friable as this it is AMAZING how far the roots travel under the mulched areas to feed.