Lazy Gardening - Page 2
© Deborah Turton
Yeah, you're interested now. But does it work - you say - It sounds way too easy. Gardening should involve sweat, back pain, and grunting. No, actually gardening should involve ice tea, a hammock, and snoring. Last year I moved eight forsythia bushes. I yanked them out of the ground, plopped them on top of the ground and covered the roots with compost. I was not gentle. Seven are now alive and happy, the eighth was knocked over by an animal and died. I started a garden without tilling last year and it did just fine, thank you very much.
Ok, Ok, how do I stop tilling and let the worms live? There are three ways to start going no-till. The first works if you have a garden. Just set aside areas that will be for growing and leave paths in between. The growing areas should be narrow enough that you can easily reach half way across them - about 3-4'. The paths should be wide enough for a wheelbarrow. Now, stay off the planting areas. You can put your plants much closer together so you'll get a higher yield in a smaller space. Mulch and shading from the plants keeps most of the weeds under control.
For those of you without a garden, or who are expanding, there are two ways of starting no-till. First, you can make raised beds. I did this because I have to garden on a slope. Lay cardboard or eight sheets of newspaper down and add organic matter on top. The total depth should be at least 8", but if it's a bit short don't worry too much. For OM you can use dirt, compost, aged manure, straw, shredded leaves. If you're short on dirt and compost, pile up the shredded leaves, straw, and any other big bulky material you have, then put the compost and topsoil in piles on the top. Use these little piles to plant in. This drastically reduces the amount of expensive topsoil or precious compost you'll need. During the summer, the bulky matter will break down and compress, but you can add mulch on top to keep your plant roots covered.
If you don't want to make raised beds, you can actually dig a small hole, plant your plant, and spread newspaper around the plant, right up to the stem. Then dump mulch and compost on top of the newspaper. The grass will die underneath and provide food for worms and other friendlies. This is what I did with my forsythia, except I didn't bother with the newspaper because I didn't care if the grass grew up around the stems of the plants.
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