With spring just around the corner, I've been thinking a lot about gardening and how I'm going to set mine up this year. I'll be honest, I'm not the best gardener around, but my husband really wanted to do one when we first got married and, minus last year, we've always tried to grow something.
I recently came upon this article from the LA Times about a man who retired from economics and turned farmer. He's traveled all over the world and picked up this "no-dig" technique while in Australia, and has since started using it in California.
Because the steps for this no dig method were in another article following, I decided to post them here where I could more easily reference it.
Supplies:
Newspaper, alfalfa, straw, compost, blood meal and bone meal**
Process:
- Lay 10 to 20 sheets of newspaper on the ground (soil, grass or concrete.) This stops weeds and attracts worms. Saturate with water and dust with blood meal and bone meal.
- Add a pad of alfalfa and dust with blood and bone meal. Bales of hay and straw come apart in 2 to 3 inch thick pads.
- Layer 8 inches of straw and again, dust with blood meal and bone meal. Marfisi suggests not skimping on the alfalfa and straw because "this stuff really compresses in the first few weeks and then you lose the benefits of low water need and thriving plants."
- Wet all this down.
- Top off with 3 to 4 inches of compost, which will also compress.
- Plant seeds or seedlings.
When Marfisi started his garden (300 square feet,) he used about 5 bales of alfalfa and 6-7 bales of straw. After the initial setup, he has used much less material after each crop.
**Bone meal and blood meal are two fertilizer options that come from natural sources, enriching soil with nitrogen and phosphorous.
Sources:
http://www.latimes.com/features/la-hm-nodig12-2008jun12,0,3964199.story#axzz2vcY4WaEk
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