Got an idea i just cant shake

[flowerbug]

what did you end up doing?

to me i will mix things in if i am redoing a garden, but otherwise i only disturb a garden area on the surface to clear weeds if i need to do that and where i am planting i may put down worm compost/worms as my fertilizer. otherwise the garden and soil are left alone.

when thinking of longer term nutrition in a garden you do not want to use nitrogen to increase the decay rate of organic material if there are no plants actively growing in that area because then if there are any free nutrients and no plants to soak it up or other ways of locking up those free nutrients then they may leach away.

tilling also increases the rate of decomposition and disturbs the fungal network in an area (it also moves weed seeds around).

i keep after a lot of gardens and tilling would take a lot longer than if i can skim with the stirrup hoe.

when i do need to go to more extreme measures the method i use to clear weeds or topgrowth or a weedy area that has dropped seeds is to dig a fairly deep hole (about a foot and a half is usually good enough here in this clay) then i will skim the surface layer of weeds and soil into this hole and if there are weeds in there that may come back up from the roots i'll cover it with newspapers/cardboard and bury it again. this isolates the weeds and weed seeds from the surface and will be much easier to take care of than if you were trying to keep up with a lot of newly sprouting weeds. i can scrape a fairly large area with the stirrup hoe in an hour or two.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Novel approach. BUT... Down side to that is that you are feeding that seed bank for eons to come. Better to go over the area repeatedly, every few days, and get those surface weed sprouts while they are at the thread stage.

I'm toying with the idea of using a flame weeder to see how effective that is. Would require a side by side plot for control comparison. Then, there's the consideration: how much would the flame weeder disrupt soil organisms. Again... side by side comparison with identical sowings of follow up crops would tell the tale.

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug I had to go look up "stirrup hoe". I've never used one, or even seen one used. That seems to be exactly what I need around here as I have been trying to reclaim a garden area that has been part of a lawn for several years. I'm told that it was a prolific garden YEARS ago. There was no evidence of a garden when we got here 3 years ago.

@Chic Rustler you've done amazing things in your garden these last 3 years. I doubt tilling (or not tilling) will really harm your garden in the long run. Why don't you try tilling half of it, and then compare results next year?

to reclaim any kind of lawn area i would strip the sod and compost that or bury it deeply enough. it's excellent material for either purpose. i've done it here in various spaces as needed.

getting this:

turned back into this:

took a lot of work and i moved a lot of bulbs so it is much easier to care for now. i can stirrup hoe that whole thing in a few hours. the close weeding around the edges in the thyme will take me several more hours.

i'm interested to see how it goes next year with all the things i moved and work to open up the central area so i can plant it again with garden vegetables. likely the deer will be visiting so i can't really put a ton of hope on it being super productive, but i can get crops from there anyways. it's got some of the best soil on the lot since it was brought in topsoil.

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't use a stirrup hoe. Use a rogue hoe instead. It has a 4" triangular blade that is razor sharp on all sides of the triangle so that you can cut the weeds in a forward, back, motion or side to side. @Beekissed introduced me to the design, and I love it.

I love my Rogue hoe also, I have two sizes, the really small head (which I thought would be good for close work) and the 6" blade which I use almost daily at work. They are really well crafted tools. My son is a wildland firefighter and they use a lot of the Rogue tools, which I think is a good testament to their quality.
I have good stirrup hoes also, but between the two styles I'll use the Rogue every time.
I also found them through Bee, over on The Easy Garden.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Every time I see a stirrup hoe, I think, "that looks like the most unwieldly, awkward tool I've ever seen." Even the looks of the Rogue make sense to me. And, it handles very well.

 

[Chic Rustler]

what did you end up doing?

nothing. planted as usual. used alot less manure. had a decent year

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm sure no expert on this subject but could you just plant clover on top it? Doesn't clover fix nitrogen in the soil? Or would it take hold in the chips? I dunno...just a thought.

 

[Chic Rustler]

Idk. I really just want that rich black stuff deeper and to speed up the process of decomposition. I figure cover crops are good too.

 

[BarredBuff]

Urea is a great source of nitrogen. However, nitrogen is one of the first macronutrients to leach out of soils. You can have a soil test done, and most places will not check for nitrogen because it leaches so easily. You're best bet is to continue to apply any and all "organic" matter to the soil. (Organic being any dead, dying, or decaying plant matter or manure) You'll get nitrogen from there, and some cover crops will fixate nitrogen from the air in the soil.

 

[CrealCritter]

I'm probably not the one to comment on this tread because I'm pro-tiller and apply lime and ammonia nitrate when my garden plants need it.