Organic Gardening Info from Peaceful Valley

Currently there seems to be a lot of discussion about rototilling vs. not rototilling. My husband is big on rototilling, I on the other hand am thinking, enough already! BUT, how do cover crops fit into that equation? Isn’t part of the point to use them as green manure: and if so, don’t they have to be broken up pretty good? Also, I can’t imagine trying to hack them out in the spring! They develop some pretty hefty root systems.

And, just to add to the intrigue, we have two gardens. One garden we have done a lot of work to build up the soil; what we are lacking (in my estimation is good soil microbes. I rarely see earth worms). The other garden (or garden in progess) is the remains of an area that someone filled with sand so we are trying to build up the soil using Cover Crops.

Contributed by Bill from his Bay Area community garden plot.

This year we are making a more concerted effort to actually, like, plan meals and buy what we need as opposed to ending up with the world’s most expensive compost heap from the wasted food bought at the farmer’s market with best of intentions.

As a part of that, I’m also taking a more serious run at the whole gardening thing in our community garden plot.

This actually started last fall when I turned and planted the entire 20′ x 30′ (approx) plot with fava beans. Now, we happen to love fava beans, but not that many. There was an ulterior motive.

Namely, fava bean plants do a brilliant job of pulling nitrogen out of the air and fixing it into the cells of the plant itself. As well, since favas are such a vigorous over-winter growth in this climate, they nicely shade and choke out most of the weeds that would be sprouting about now.

To put the nitrogen into the soil, the bean plants must be worked into the soil. Last year, I did this largely by hand (with a much smaller number of favas) by digging holes, chopping up the plants with a shovel and turning them into the soil. It worked, but not terribly well as it leaves potentially large air pockets in the soil that plants hate.

This year, I used Blue Blade (pictured below). Or the scariest damned Make-style hack ever. It is one of the various inventions used by the gardeners in plots around mine. (No, I didn’t make this — if I had, the sides would be a bit sturdier and I would have used nylon nuts to keep the damned thing from falling apart.)

It is a pretty simple device.

• Rip apart an old lawnmower
• Cut a piece of plywood in a circle the same diameter as the lawnmower’s deck
• Drill hole in middle and bolt lawnmower engine to plywood
• Attach blade to bottom
• Attach plywood to a sawed off barrel (In this case, plastic… lending to the fear factor)
• Cut a 2.5″ in diameter hole to the side of the engine
• Attach a plastic tube used to feed in the favas
• Grab a handy stick and jam the engine’s throttle wide open because you don’t have a throttle cable or dead man’s switch anymore

Then? Fire the damned thing up and feed favas, weeds, and any snails/slugs into the tube.

The end result is green gold. A thick mat of minced favas that are easily spread and turned into the soil. Not only does it add a ton of nutrients to the soil, but the fibrous matter loosens the soil quite a bit and makes subsequent planting and weeding tasks a ton easier.

I’m still letting a good sized patch of favas grow to full maturity. Which is frightening. I picked up fava seeds from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply along with a rhizobacteria that grows in symbiosis with the plant to maximize nitrogen yield through excellent plant growth & health. In my case, this means a solid mass of 6 foot tall favas!

Peaceful Valley or “groworganic.com” is an awesome company. They have been very helpful and have an amazing assortment of heirloom seeds.

We planted a cover crop winter mix in the fall, in our backyard terraced garden. It has done great, I have been prepping to cut it down, give it time to decompose. I have been really into the no till philosophies, read up about the possibility of just leaving it cut down, no till, as a mulch. But I just read something else that says the nitrogen benefits are lost if it is not tilled in. I am confused, any advice? I am all about the low maintenance gardening, companion planting, without too much intervention (not that we are opposed to the work).

After many years of apartment dwelling, I was finally able to move my family into a house with a cozy front yard, and a (relatively) nice sized back yard for the kids to play in, and for my wife to have a nice garden.

But the problem looks like this (please forgive the mess, still in the moving-in process):

When I was a kid, I used to HATE yard work.  My parents didn’t garden at all, so our maintenance involved raking leaves, watering plants and mowing the lawn — for a kid who likes to see the fruits of his efforts, this wasn’t exactly fulfilling.  Looking out over this relative desolation, I didn’t feel dejected; quite the opposite, in fact.  I saw opportunity, in many forms.

First of all, I have been working at Peaceful Valley for going on 6 years.  When I first started here, I knew zilch about growing.  Nothing.  I’d never so much as planted a flower seed in a pot for Mother’s Day. In my time here, I have gained a vast amount of theoretical knowledge: I knew the hows and the whys, but never had the opportunity to apply what I’d learned.  Seeing this yard sent visions of sugarplums (and other fruits and veggies) dancing in my head.

What I am going to be doing over the next 5 or so months is getting this area cleaned up, put together and ready for growing.  Come Spring, I’m planting a lawn, and my wife is setting up a small vegetable garden, probably with raised beds.  As I do each step, I will be taking pictures and thoroughly documenting each phase.  The goal is not only to do my own yard, but to give a bit of direction for anyone else who wishes to do the same.

Here’s the plan:

(more…)

I planted some heirloom tomato seed varieties that I bought from you this spring in a bed in which I had plant the Soil Builder mix over the winter season. The soil is rich and has good drainage. I have drip irrigation. The bed gets 4-6 hours of direct sunlight every day, and I live in L.A. so it is warm here.

Thanks,
Pamela

Hi Pamela,

Hope that helps! Thank you for growing organically!
Amber

Here’s a recent question from a customer that I fielded… there is some info online about this but not much. If anyone else out there has an opinion or any tips or tricks for horse manure composting… let’s hear ‘em!

Question:

“We use the manure from our horses. When we worm the horses, we stop adding their manure to the compost pile for a week because the manufacturer says the wormer is out of the horses’ systems in three days. What is your opinion/advice on the wormer/manure/compost timing issue?

Short Answer:

You should be fine not segregating your manure if you can answer yes to the following:

• Are you willing to lose 5% of your compost pile’s red worms (worst case scenario)? 95% of the wormer never leaves the horse
• Is your manure exposed to sunlight (from the time it hits the ground to the time it hits the garden)? Sunlight breaks down the active ingredient in the wormer.

Long Answer:

Do you know the brand of wormer you are using?

I have horses and have looked this up in the past… the page I had looked up is here.

Here is what you want to know from that page:

“Will horse dewormers kill red worms? The most common wormer used is known by the brand name Ivermectin® made by the Merial Company. Merial’s research shows that the active chemicals in Ivermectin® are deactivated when manure is exposed to sunlight. Equine studies show that 95 percent of the active chemicals in Ivermectin® are deactivated in the horse before being passed in the feces. Leading experts in vermicomposting believe that the concentration of Ivermectin® in the horse manure is not high enough to seriously injure Eisenia.”

In the past I have used wormers with the above mentioned active ingredient, I have been trying some alternative to chemical/pharmaceutical worming (tobacco and other natural alternatives). See: ‘Natural Horse Wormer – A Gentle Alternative’.

What I started to do with all my horse manure after reading that sunlight would break down the chemicals was to muck it and dump it outside my compost pile, let it sit in the sun for a week or so and then add it to my compost pile. I do this with other ingredients of my compost too. My leaves, grass trimmings, some local soil, sand and horse and chicken manure are all in separate piles near my compost enclosure. I add my food compostables directly to my bin, then add other ingredients to keep the balance.

Having said all that… I have always had high amounts of red worms in my manure piles (even when using chemical wormers) and in the past I never made a point to segregate the manure right after worming. In fact I worked on a horse ranch for a while and we composted the manure of all 30 of the horses there and never changed routine for the wormer… always had a huge worm population (it was monitored by ranch guests who wanted to go fishing

Currently I segregate the manure for other reasons:

A) the balance I mentioned above

B) I like it to dry out a little prior to composting.

I’m not sure if having it dry out is good or not (now that I type that, I question it). I guess since I segregate it and it dries out in the sun I have gotten used to it being dry when I add it. I like that it’s lighter and not as smelly when it’s dry… I assume that it still has high Nitrogen content… and when it’s dry it mixes easier with other compost materials. When you add wet manure it sticks together and sometimes will not break apart or mix with other materials… when it’s dry it crumbles.

Hope that helps!