Is This the Best Version of No-Till Gardening?

[@gardeningsimplified]

I remember when you first started your no-till plot, and you weren't too positive on the outcome that first year. Now that you've been doing it for a few years, you have seen the results. There is a little more work initially, but it really pays off.

[@trollhunter4510]

My strategy: lay anything you can possibly get on top. Leaves, spent pine shavings with chicken manure, old bedding and terminated cover crops. Pretty easy to follow!

[@marksexton1340]

We have 8 horses, I keep a large pile of manure, and let it compost. It's really helped our soil here in the desert, keeps it from getting rock hard. I add it in the fall, on top, then mulch. When I plant, I pull the mulch and add more, soil looks much better these days. I can't do cover crops, so I keep soil mulched, I also use the mulch after plants are established, to hold the moisture.... Ps... I got some tomatoe seeds from you, and they ALL germinated, looking forward to planting.

[@robclower9606]

You're very fortunate to have a source of such well aged wood chips like that. I'm sure the NPK isn't very high, but I bet the biology is through the roof. Your worms would probably love a layer of that in the big bin.

[@julieclark1331]

I have spent several years trying to find a good multiplyer onion. I tried your Louisiana multiplyer onions last fall and set them side by side against white and yellow potato onions. They did great in my hot semi arid climate. They made more onions in six months than the others did in three years. I highly recommend them.

[@Detour4it]

And I thought I was the only one who couldn't figure out where all my mulch went after tilling it in... 😅.. man, my little garden literally ate 3 yards of mulch. Like I'm gardening in a quicksand pit. Like I'm tending a portal to some other dimension, and if I could see through, there I'll find my 6 yards over the past two years. Just last week, I had another three yards delivered, and I did just as you explained. I'm hoping to get some improved abundance, and to tell ya the truth.. I'm really thinking of building some raised beds with a sliding sun shade. Cheers. 🎉

[@travisevans7502]

I do pretty much the same thing but use my own compost I make. The results are great I don't really have to spray any pesticides, not sure what really helps with the pests I am also intercroping Basil, Marigolds, dill and onions which may also help. I have never really had a really bad pest issue to begin with mainly cabbage moths and aphid.

[@priayief]

I'm a "no-till" gardener because I'm cheap and lazy. At the end of each season, I lay about 2 or 3 inches of compost (homemade and bulk) on top of my raised beds. Then I lay a bunch of leaves on top for the winter. Other than a little bit of fish fertilizer late in the season, I add nothing else. My harvests are reasonable and I doubt that doing anything more than I currently do would add a great deal of value. Gardening is fun and simple, if you take the cheap and lazy approach.

[@kelliwebb2870]

I always use the lasagne method... first I lay old leaves, then I put a layer of chicken poop, then I mix compost, peat moss and soil together and put that on top. It works great. After I plant I put another layer of leaves to keep the soil from drying out. I’m in zone 10a Southwest Florida. Oh btw my carrots finally germinated after three times planting them. That will teach me to be in a hurry. They look awesome right now. I’ve been doing a lot of harvesting. My tomatoes and peppers are doing great too. I’m on my second succession planting. Same with green beans. I think we are about done with cold weather!

[@charliehargrave7458]

If you have sandy soil you might have to add red lime to keep your PH at 6 to 7, also and to add magnesium. Your a fantastic gardner.

[@joycee5493]

Good info. Thank you!

[@debramccarthy2182]

We have used the cotton compost and totally agree that you cannot water it enough!! Same with mixing compost with our sand base garden!! This year trying 2 & 3 year old horse manure compost, which included shavings and hay which has all broken down. Love your videos as they include so much useful information!! THANK YOU!! ☺️☺️☺️

[@MynewTennesseeHome]

What I do is talk the road crews trimming trees into dumping the chips here. After 3-4 years underneath looks and acts a lot like what you have. Been using it for years.

[@backwoodscountryboy1600]

If you could get some wine cap mushroom spores spread out of that sawdust compost they make a lot of mushrooms and they love that wood chips stuff. And then type of mushrooms would grow really good in your neck of the woods.

[@marysurbanchickengarden]

Wish I could find compost like that where I live. Having to top up my raised beds with bags of compost gets pretty expensive. The thing that matters most is I know what's in the food I'm eating from that garden.

[@buckWildest]

NATURES CHOICE in glenville ga sells this in bulk if you have a trailer it is great stuff they have other locations i believe

[@FlomatonFamous]

Enjoyed the video,

[@davidward1259]

Travis, I should be setting up my Ollie 17" beds soon. My existing soil from the old raised beds will give me a 4 to 6" base, and I'm thinking of using a 40/40/20 blend of Soil3 Compost (I have a cu yard already), compressed peat, and vermiculite, to fill the balance of the bed space. I will be mixing in dolimitic lime to counter the acidity of the peat. Basically it's a variation on the mix used by Mel Bartholomew in his "Mel's Mix", but the upper soil should be nice and healthy and fluffy.

[@debmattosky3021]

I LOVE your chicken tractor!! Where did you get it or did you build it?!

[@that9blife465]

Even without that compost ( that is very good ) you have closed the loop my brotha. By closing the loop and having the fad system your doing good.

[@duncand5148]

Hey Travis. Are you going to plant your potatoes this year the way Mr. Garrison talked about last year where you plant the potatoes on top of the ground and cover with a foot of straw? Your compost might support that method better than the straw and without creating a “mouse habitat.

[@LazyDogFarm]

I tried that a couple years ago and wasn't very happy with the results. My belief is that my soil has more nutrients than straw, so I'll continue to hill my plants with soil vs straw.

[@duncand5148]

That’s my thought process as well. Besides, I didn’t like the idea of creating a home for field mice either.

[@rubyslippers9611]

Best stuff

[@charlesbruce4982]

what do you think about following with corn behind where okra was last summer?

[@LazyDogFarm]

I don't see any issues with that.

[@AnenLaylle7023]

I'm around the same age as Travis and have farmed conventionally since my early twenties. I wrote off a lot of the organic stuff as just hippy BS, but I have to admit that I like low tillage approach with compost more and more. I used to farm a few acres, but now I'm farming like a half an acre of permanent raised beds. I stopped growing all the cheap stuff like yellow squash, corn, and okra, and started growing expensive produce for people that want to pay for quality. I make more money farming less land and I couldn't be happier, as farming is a side hustle for me. I'll still grow an acre of okra from time to time, but we usually pick it a few times and just cannot keep up with it. Picking okra is not fun in the southern heat. You itch near to death from the okra leaves rubbing on you, which is inevitable in a huge field. I'll never grow big watermelons bush beans ever again. The age is catching up with me. Pocket melons up a trellis with pole beans for me these days. Organic is the way to go. I till the compost into my soil lightly, but I add like 4 inches on top of the beds, so it does not burn up like Travis is talking about. You just have to add ALOT more if you want to till it in. As for numbers, I spend about $10000 a year on compost for 30 50ft raised beds. That's roughly 30 dollars a bed, which I make back off about 10 ft of the bed the first harvest.

[@flatsville9343]

Please share some of the varieties you grow for higher $$$ sale.

[@AnenLaylle7023]

@@flatsville9343 For brassicas: (1). cabbage - Tiara. It's a dwarf cabbage that heads much quicker than traditional cabbage. Heads are smaller but the leaves are savoyed, so very pretty. (2). broccoli - You don't make money off heading broccoli, it takes too long. Sprouting broccoli is higher yielding, tastes better, and is half the days to maturity. I grow Burgundy and BC1611. I mix the purple and green in bunches. I do this with a lot of my produce. Purple and green are a money machine. (3). Cauliflower - Purple cauliflower sells itself. Purple Moon is a new variety I tried last year. It came out too pink for me, but it's half the days to maturity of any other cauliflower. It is super fast. Song TJS 65 is a green stemmed cauliflower that my customers also love. Didn't grow any this season, I am doing Lavender this year, another purple. I liked Purple Moon, but it is pink, not purple! (4). Bok choy sells itself. Try Mei Qing and Win-Win Choy. For lettuce: Romaine: I only grow romaine that makes mini heads. I bunch different colors up to sell. I grow Xalbadora and Pomegranate Crunch . For lettuce mix go with Eazy Leaf or Salanova. Nothing else compares to those. I think this is getting long. That's all for now!

[@mutantryeff]

I heard rumors that wood chips that are not decomposed sucks the nitrogen out of the soil, but that is from something I heard decades ago.

[@bpfsu]

More specifically, wood chips that are mixed into the soil do. They don’t typically have the same effect when on the surface as a mulch.

[@brucemills6755]

Sand has much more air than clay. Aerobic bacteria have a hay day breaking down organic matter. I have the same problem

[@Mrbfgray]

Can't believe that's 15 yrs!? Wood chips to fine black compost takes several (IDK--maybe 6, NOT yrs) months in commercial scale outfit here in N Commifornia. But they have big screen machines and specialized 'furrow' (say 10ft tall rows) turning rigs along with moister control.

[@LazyDogFarm]

This stuff was just piled and allowed to sit. It wasn't turned. But yes, turning and frequent watering can cause it to break down much faster.

[@billybass6419]

I tried no till, and would like it, but big oaks all around my yard send their roots and fill up my garden till nothing will grow in it.

[@kansasgardener5844]

I built my raised beds by Chinese elm trees and fight the roots every year. I have to till my beds just to get as many roots out as I can before I plant.

[@nolawarren3560]

Exactly my problem

[@travisevans7502]

Yes it works fantastic more work initially, but much easier when established. It can’t be used in every situation we gotta do what works best for our situation, and it won’t be the same for everyone. Main thing is just grow your own food.

[@markbedard6238]

Are you using your compost bins?

[@LazyDogFarm]

I haven't put anything in them in a while. I've mostly been using the compost bins as a holding spot for what I end up putting in the worm farm.

[@craigstephens9075]

I would not follow Okra with Tomatoes or any crops susceptible to Nematodes. Okra is a host for Nematodes and it would be a shame to lose any Tomatoes to them. Maybe a Mustard cover crop between would be a safer bet. I lost my entire Carrot crop a few years back following Okra.

[@danielmansour7230]

I'm going to bet that tilling the compost into the soil was killing a lot of the microbial life in the compost. This might be why you didn't see a difference in the soil. I'll bet that by leaving it on top of the soil you're doing so much better because much of the life is retained and thus can work it's way down into the soil.

[@Northstar7733]

No till, ha ha. I just wonder how any times that compost was tilled before you got it.