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Depending on where you live, you’re in the final stretch of garden preparation. So far we have covered just about everything needed to be successful in the garden. The only thing left to cover before planting is in-ground garden set up. The next few weeks should have us completely ready to plant both in ground and raised bed gardens. I hope you are as excited as I am about starting the garden!
There are two popular methods to in ground gardening and we’ll cover them now. I’ll end by showing you my “hybrid” method combining the best of both of these gardening methods I’m calling the Farmer’s Method!
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Traditional Row Style Gardening Method
Ah yes, Row Style gardening is the old tried and true type of garden your friend Farmer likes to see. The way it works is you strip away the grass and top soil with a tiller or a plow, work the soil to a nice crumbly texture, and then come back with a hoe or a row hipper and draw your rows. You plant your seeds or small plants in a row on top of the hills which are about 6-8 inches tall and 6-8 inches wide.
These small hills allow the plants to have a thick bed of soft soil to easily grow their roots into. This method also gets the plants up off the ground allowing water to wash down the bottom of the rows while preventing seeds from washing away and water logged roots. The hills also hold moisture for the plants longer than planting on a flat surface which is important in the hot summer days.
The row style method is typically used for annual type plants that die in the cold winter months because it requires tilling up the ground and drawing rows for each planting cycle. This method hinges on the concept of replenishing your soil between growing seasons. It’s important to note that you don’t want to plant perennial plants in your rows because you will have to till your garden next season and the perennials will be in the way.
How it works
Throughout the growing season we are growing as much food possible, adding compost or manure as needed for fertilizer. Weed control is usually acheived by hand pulling them, hand tools like a hoe, or even machine implements like a cultivator. After the season, we pull the dead plants and begin to restore the soil by adding materials that provide nutrients to the soil like compost, manure, lawn debris, and other additives. (We never use chemicals in the garden)
A cover crop is usually planted over winter to protect the garden soil and keep these added nutrients and soil amendments from washing away. In the spring, the process starts over using a machine or hand tools to break the ground and till the cover crop and soil amendments into the soil. Tilling the cover crops into the soil right before planting adds nitrogen to the soil which is required to grow healthy plants. Next we build rows and plant seeds.
From what I can tell, the hippies and environmentalists are trying to demonize the idea of “tilling” your garden. It seems like their angle is that it disrupts the soil and earthworms, natural organisms in the soil. OK, but then they turn around and tell you to Fork your garden which is basically a hand method of tilling. Tilling probably does disturb earthworms, but they will come back quickly. Another reason they don’t like tilling is they say it releases carbon into the air from the soil, but I’m having a hard time believing this. Maybe it’s bad in a large scale farming operation, but my small garden area isn’t making a difference in the earth’s atmosphere I promise you!
Autist Note** It’s important to wait until your soil is dry before you till it up. If you look in the picture above, I tilled this soil a little too early and it was too wet, this makes the dirt stick together and clumpy. You want it to be in a smooth crumbly texture, like this. In fact, if you want to get the low down and dirty details on soil prep for an in ground garden, I did one here.
Pros:
Easily turn ground into thick, soft soil using a tiller, disk, or plow
Rows provide elevated planting surface to prevent seeds from washing in heavy rain, provide extra moisture for your plants, prevent waterlogging
Machine implements/tools allow you to easily prepare a garden in a day or less
Weed control can be performed by machine implements like a tiller or cultivator
Rows allow you easy organizing, space to walk, and more production in my opinion
Cons:
Some people believe that tilling your soil is bad because it disturbs earthworms and other benificial organisms in your soil.
Each year you are starting over, with a fresh plot of dirt. This style is not compatible with a year round garden since you need to till up your area. Annual or permanent plants need to be planted in a different area than your row style garden for this reason
Erosion can be an issue if you plant your garden on a steep hill, however, steps can be taken to minimize erosion
Regenerative Gardening
This method is very popular among the organic food/all natural crowd because it’s thought to be more of a holistic approach to in ground gardening. An official definition is as follows:
Regenerative Gardening is a style of garden management and planting that is conscious of emissions and waste. This practice is designed to nourish the soil naturally rather than depleting it and refilling the ground with fertilizers, many of which can damage plants and the soil’s microscopic life.
One of the major differences you will notice is regenerative style gardens tend to be less organized. They utilize a natural, real world ecosystem type of approach. They will have different beneficial plants growing next to each other. In regenerative style gardening, you may allow the weeds to run wild in certain areas. You may leave all of your plants where they stand all winter, don’t pull them, don’t do anything and just let the volunteer plants grow up on their own in the spring.
In this method you prepare the soil by hand by either simply planting seeds or plants right into the ground by digging a hole and popping them in. Or a more productive method would be the “double dig” soil prep method.
As a general gardening rule of thumb, the goal is to get your soils as soft and fluffy as possible, and as deep as possible.
The double dig method, involves removing the grass and top inch of soil and digging down 8-9 inches setting the soil back in the place upside down with the shovel through the entire garden area. Next manure and other organic matter is added and a shovel is used to break up the soil and mix everything in. Come back with a rake to smooth everything out. You will end up with a large area with very nice, soft soil that is deep and has plenty of air pockets ideal for growing vegetables of all kinds.
Weed Control:
There are several different methods to planting and weed control in both row style and regenerative gardening methods. Easy ways of controlling weeds is putting down cardboard or other biodegradable material around the plants. Straw, mulch, and other materials can also be used for weed control and moisture control.
Another method for weed control is a proactive approach before planting. In this process, the weeds are allowed to come up for a week or two after the garden soil is prepared either by double dig method or tilling. Next the garden is covered with a thick dark tarp to kill all of the new weeds. These weeds are now dead in a week or so and they will not grow back in that same spot. Fresh seeds or plants can be planted in the soft dirt that was kept nice and moist under the tarp, and weeds will take alot longer to come up using this method. Straw or mulch can be added around the plants when they get a few inches tall.
Another major concept of regen gardening is year after year you keep the mulch/straw in place in your garden area. This mulch and straw keeps the soil underneath moist and rich. The mulch breaks down over time and the nutrients wash down into the soils underneath.
Everything is kept in place and there is no tilling or tearing down of the soil. You simply replace the dead plants with new plants in the same spot. When a plant dies, you pull it up and put a new seedling in its place immediately. Cover crops can also planted in this method, when needed in certain areas over the cold season.
Pros:
Able to get deep soft dirt using double digging method
does not disturb earthworms or other soil organisms (supposedly)
weed control uses mulch and straw materials added throughout the season
Annual plants and Perennial plants can coexist in the same area
Cons:
Lots of initial work in startup double digging process
lots of work using hand tools
could be less productive than traditional gardening
Hybrid Garden Method (Farmer’s Method)
So I have decided to announce my own garden method, it’s called “Farmer’s Method”. As you can see in the picture, I’ve tilled my garden. I have a spot on one area with all my herbs and perennials planted together. I have a border of flowers and herbs along the outer edge of the garden attracting beneficial bugs and pollinators, they are on the outer edge so that I can come in with a tractor and till up the garden as needed. I have a wide row ready for planting carrots and radishes scattered all about. I also leave wide rows so I have room to run my tiller or cultivator in the garden for weed control. I’m using straw for weed control around the plants planted in a row, which also keeps the soil moist and reduces constant watering. The soil under the mulch and straw is soft and moist which attracts beneficial microorganisms and earthworms.
In my method we take all of the Pros and remove most of the cons for the perfect in ground gardening method by doing the following:
Easy Soil Prep with Machines when needed
Weed control with straw/cardboard/mulch where needed
Weed control with machines when needed
Plant permanent/annual plants on the perimeters of our garden so we can still come in and till up our garden every year
Plant beneficial flowers and plants together in certain areas of our garden
Till up large patches and plant unconventionally when needed like a long wide row for carrots, radishes, etc.
Utilize row style planting whenever it’s beneficial
Till up your dirt as deep as you can one time and then use less intense methods of soil prep each season thereafter
Pull up dead plants at the end of the growing season and add nutrients back to your soil
Plant a cover crop over the winter months
As you can see, I like both gardening methods! To be clear I am a steward of the earth and I do not use chemicals in my garden. I do not wast water or energy in my garden. I minimize erosion and take care of the environment as much as I can.
You should take note of the different methods and come up with your own method. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is there is no “wrong” way to garden. Do what you want to do, and don’t paint yourself into a corner with someone else’s ideology!
WAGMI!
Farmer