THE SIX KEY TENETS TO NO-TILL MARKET GARDENING.

VIDEO HERE.

When Rough Draft Farmstead first started out, we wanted it to be an entirely “no-till” farm which we theretofore defined rather simply as mulching the garden with hay or straw and not tilling it. Period. So several years ago, that is what we attempted to do. We bought or traded for hay from a neighbor—usually impossibly giant, rotten round bales—and spread it over our gardens laboriously. Every fall it was battle to get it spread then in the Spring we would transplant or sow crops into it. This of course worked fine... to an extent.The soil did become more pliable and healthier below the mulch, but it also resulted in a lot of added weed seed (ergo a lot of added hand-weeding); in soil that was too cool for early tomatoes; in a lot of difficulty direct seeding; and in whole days or even weeks spent simply adding mulch. It was, in short, not sustainable on a market scale. Now, however, we have come to see the folly in our thinking. The mulch was fine, and certainly a bonafide no-till practice. Where we failed was in our own myopathy—that we saw no-till as a single thing (mulch) and not a nuanced set of principles that could be easily be adapted to any situation and many materials. So in today’s video I have laid out these new set of principles we are following to get our current minimal tillage farm turned entirely into a no-tillage farm. Oh and while you’re watching, don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube, especially if you’re interested in no-till gardening but even if not! I mean, who doesn’t love watching nerdy farm videos? Lots of content to come all year long (because fortuitously, growing year-round has an important place in no-till farming), so stay tuned. -Jesse

GOING (BACK TO) NO TILL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qMpP0MiZLgWhen Hannah and I first started farming, we wanted to be no till farmers, because who doesn’t? Tillage increases erosion, kills soil biology. It decreases microbial diversity, releases carbon, breaks up fungal chains. It’s not good. But our skill level as farmers all those years ago was not quite adequate enough to know how to manage a professional garden space under a no till system.Why? Well, the way we chose to go about it was a lot of work. We had to push giant round bales over our garden every year (which required the garden to be empty of plants—not great for business or photosynthesis). That would usually take several back breaking hours as those things were massively heavy, often rotten, and filled with briars. Then, we would rake the hay out evenly. The next spring, we would pull that hay back and plant into it.However, what would happen is that weeds would inevitably come up through. And not from the soil—they would germinate and grow ON THE MULCH. The hay, in this sense, was both a soil cover and growing medium, which was confounding and difficult to manage. Weeds proliferated and we could not keep up with it. The soil was happy—the farmers? We were beat. It was a lot of work, plus I quickly learned that you really have to have a strong sensitivity to the needs of plants to be able to make a living farming on a no till system, and successfully keeping any garden, let alone one covered in weeds and hay.So we went to a light tillage system a la JM Fortier and have slowly been trying to figure out ways of getting back to a no till farm without killing ourselves. We describe our plans and ideas for transitioning into a no-till system in the above video, but don’t hesitate to pick it apart (especially the science stuff—I really try to be accurate, but I chose to cook and drink heavily instead of going to college, so...).Essentially, starting this summer (but really being in full swing by the Spring), we will start putting down heavier layers of compost over broadforked beds. Then we will always keep something growing in every bed—though at first some of that will simply be cover crops. We will seek out wood chips and leaf mold for the paths, though we may still have to manage those paths with hoes until we can find enough mulch to cover over 80 paths!I explain more about how and why in the video, but that’s the gist (not to be confused with The Gist, which is a great podcast that has nothing to do with farming. Usually).Anyway, let us know what you think and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you can follow our journey back to no tillage, no digging, happy soil, guilt-free farmers! - Jesse