Stealing Nature's Thunder - Soil

First in my "Stealing Nature's Thunder" blog articles. It's all about the soil.

Maybe perhaps you're as excited as I am to change your garden over to perennial vegetables, fruits and nuts. Perhaps you tear into your lot with abandon, and find yourself staring at over 2000 square feet of garden. I've planned. I've written my information down. I've used software to imagine my garden in 3D views. But when I'm staring at that expanse I understand finally what fears my husband had in letting me take on such a project.

The weeds. The garden falling to pieces as my super gung-ho attitude fades with the sweltering heat and I give the huge garden beds less attention then they need. But here is the thing, it's not a garden I'm building. Gardens take a lot of work, and if you ignore them very long the gardens suffer and ultimately unravel and die. I'm not gardening I'm creating a ecological forest, something mutually beneficial to me, birds, insects and all manner of wildlife - even low and behold my neighbors.

If you leave a forest unattended does it fall apart? Nope. The forest continues on stable while my tomatoes die because I forget to water them, and my peas get drowned out with the weeds I don't want to pull. My soil needs more amendments because of the beautifully tilled earth I used in my annual beds. I left my soil un-mulched, because isn't that expensive? Well it's a lot of work. Any effort is at this point. The nutrients dried up and blew away and weeds are starting to overtake my other vegetation. It's too much work. So I am not building a garden I am building a diverse edible food forest.

So how? Lets start with the ground and go from there. Your hands are itching to grab your own, a family members or even your neighbors tiller and turn that soil into light fluffy goodness. Oh you'll add in enough chemicals to do Chernobyl proud, and your plants will love it. Maybe your better than I am and will mulch around your plants. Your weeding is lessened. You'll smile and beam. But then your forget to have neighbors plant sit (haha) while you go on vacation. Do you have automatic sprinklers? No? Oh well there goes your entire crop. Oh you do good. You'll have a few weeds when you get back. Oh my, that's not a few weeds it's a crop of weeds.

Break they cycle. Don't till. WHAT? You heard me right, little gnomes don't have trackers or tillers ripping through the forest. They don't add pounds of chemicals to make a greener leaf. Nope the trees drop leaves, the animals leave other droppings, and that's it. The trees leaves form a mulch and as they decompose they break down and leave needed nutrients. The animals droppings leave more organic matter. This addresses the top of the soil.

What about the under soil, what about tilling? What about nitrogen, and other nutrients? Surly the plants can't get that all from leaves and waste, all from the top of the soil. Nope. They have these green things that grow, yes I mean plants. These perennial plants do the tilling with deep taproots, that pull up from the depths of the earth the nutrients that benefit all around it. Dynamic accumulators like; comfrey, geranium, stinging nettles (ouchy for kiddos though) and peppermint. Also there are nitrogen fixing plants, shrubs and trees like; Autumn Olive, goumi, birdsfoot treefoil and clovers. Some are more invasive than others.

If you've torn into your land like me, in the beginning my tiny twigs that will eventually become beautiful fruit and nut trees are exactly that tiny. The hundreds of plants I've started and will put in are still minute in my vast sea of grasslessness. 

So in breaking what surely is some rule I'm planting a annual cover crop of clover. Annual? Why not just plant perennials, I mean is that not what you're doing mostly? Yes. But not with clover, not yet. Clover can be very invasive in small places. So since my husband does not want me to tear out the last little oasis of lawn in the back and replace it with clover, my clover cover crop will be annual. I'm using crimson clover a beautiful longer flowering clover in ALL of my food forest beds. I will cut it down at the end of season (fall) and leave it as mulch. Thus adding nitrogen to the soil and organic matter. 

I can at any time sheet mulch over any one part of my crimson clover field and plant my hundreds of plants. Or new trees and shrubs that I tend to collect every time I'm near a gardening nursery. I do have annuals, tomatoes and such that are inter planted with my perennials. All the while my crimson clover field will be attracting beneficial insects, creative a ground cover, keeping moisture in the soil, adding nitrogen and other organic matter to the soil. It will also be a parent plant to my small trees and shrubs giving them a little shade in the scorching heat of summer.

Next year I will plant more plants over the top of my cut dead clover, I will never till again. That feels good to say. I how ever will be planting more cover crop until my other plants grow to take the space that I have so graciously stolen from my husbands lawn. 

Quick Summery. Don't till. Layer leaves and other organic matter over immature forest area. Sheet mulch new areas to plant. Use cover crops. Sheet mulching how-to below. 

Sheet Mulching;

use a garden fork and loosen the area
(only if going over grass or hard packed area) 

layer cut vegetation 1/8 inch
(grass clippings) 

soil amendments like minerals As desired
(azomite, dyno-mite, greensand, etc.) 

manure 1/4-1/2 inch
(non meat eating animal, steer, cow, horse, ect.) 

newspaper/cardboard 1/4 inch
(for weed suppression as well as organic matter) 

manure or other nitrogen rich material  1/4 inch
(clover, pea shrub leaves, alder leaves, locust leaves, etc.) 

bulk organic matter 8-12 inches
(hay, stable bedding) 

compost 1-2 inches
(your own or organic) 

seedless mulch 2 inches
(straw, leaves) 

Wet the area in between layers. Make sure it's completely saturated.

What compost you say, I don't have my own. Those compost piles stink. Yuk. No, no you have it all wrong, that is if you cheat. It doesn't smell so bad, (I guess it's a matter of opinion although I have it by my trash cans so perhaps I can't smell it over their odor. Anyways making your own enriched compost comes with the territory of self sufficiency. 

I do my composting in three parts;

1. Worms farm. So easy. Mine is in my basement!
2. Animals. No dogs or cats or anything that eats meat. Rabbits, chickens or ducks if you have a large enough area and no neighbor for miles man are those things loud and stinky. If you have a rabbit you can have their cage raised and catch the waste into a box for the worm farm. Super cool. Pullets (girl chickens) are quiet, eat spiders, grubs and all manner of nasty bugs. They give quite a bit of fertilizer with the added benefit of giving you fresh eggs.
3. Good old fashioned compost pile. Of course I cheat. I have a "composter" I got at costco. Less than $100. I put all my green waste I can't feed my animals or worms into this. Which of course the smell is contained since it's not completely open.

Cheers to your soil. Happy forest gardening.

What's next: Stealing Natures Thunder - 02 - plant communities, layering and patterns. Next week.