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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 10:40 am 
I am wanting to prepair a plot of ground, that has not been planted before, for a fall garden. Any suggestions on what would be good to get the ground in good shape to produce a good harvest? Has anyone ever used Lama manure?


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:21 pm 
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Just use homemade compost or any free organic matter that you can get, and pile it on the soil in a sheet composting style.

If you like you grow a thick fall/winter legume/grain cover crop combination on in to for even more soil building power.

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The entire Kingdom of God can be totally explained as an Organic Garden (Mark 4:26)
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:38 pm 
After spreading it on then would it help to till it into the ground? Or leave it on top? Thought after the fall harvest choping up all vegetation and tilling it in with a lot of leaves.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 12:47 pm 
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I personally don't believe any home gardener needs to till any garden soil. I've been an organic no-till gardener for over 3 years now. All my garden soil plots are soft, crumbly, dark, rich, and full of earthworms. Excessive tilling destroys the beneficial mycrorhizza fungi in the soil structure.

I just layer organic matter on top of my soil in the fall/winter season.
Most cover crop seeds will grow just by sprinkling and watering in the seeds on top of compost.

I just mow, chop, or cut my green manure crops when ready, with either my swing blade, scythe, or hoe. After a few days of decaying, I just plant my transplant crops straight through the mulch. For seed germination, I might sprinkle a little mature compost or rich garden dirt on top of the green manure mulch, before planting the seeds.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:07 pm 
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I think no-till gardening is a great idea, but in most parts of Texas, you can't start out that way. You'll have to build up to it. What kind of soil do you have on your place to work with? To start out, you should probably pile on as much composted matter as you can come up with and till it in, then you may even consider putting another layer on top just to sit. From what I have heard, llama manure makes great compost.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:43 pm 
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I disagree. I believe no-till gardening, or lasagne style gardening, can be done anywhere in the world. The only draw back is you need lots of organic matter to get started. However you don't have to put organic matter every where in your garden. You can start a small borderless raised bed garden, then later expand your garden as you collect organic matter.

If you run out of rich, mature compost, then you can do legume/grain green manuring all year round, in various corners of your gardening areas. You can always use lots of free or cheap organic mulches, and just use aerated compost teas to simulate regular well aged compost/humus, in order to get an abundance of beneficial soil microbes to biostimulate your gardening bed system.

There are plenty of creative, economical ways to build up organic matter and microbes on a small or large farm in a no-till organic farming system.

My original soil here in Alabama was hard, red, acidic clay soil. Average soil pH = 5.0. After 3 years of using nothing but compost, mulches, green manures, and aerated teas, my soil super-rich, dark, healthy, and near perfect. My current average soil pH is 6.8.

I have started new lasagne garden bed mounds right on top of low cut lawn grass with no problems. The alternating layers of "greens" and "browns" mulches in the mound, suffocated most of the weeds. If any weeds did grow through the mulch, I apply more mulch, and green manure the weeds. No problem.

If your crop plant roots really need extra aeration, just poke holes in the soil around the roots with your spade fork. Otherwise, the microbes and the earthworms will do all the natural tilling you need.

Also I read once that no man-made tractor or tiller can match the power of some legume cover crops. For example, a thick, rich, inoculated alfalfa hay crop, if left alone over a 1-2 year period, can fixation enough organic nitrogen over an acre of soil, that is the equivalent of over 1-2 tons of 10-10-10 synthetic fertilizer! Not only is the top 6 inches of soil fertilized, but now you got fertilization and organic matter, even as far down as 24-36" down or deeper, with its legume roots working with rhizobacteria! Now if you green manure the alfalfa hay by just mowing, now you got over 3 feet deep of organic matter/compost underground, in aerated loose soil, for the next season's crop to use. No man-made tilling machine can do that.

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The entire Kingdom of God can be totally explained as an Organic Garden (Mark 4:26)
William Cureton


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2003 2:45 pm 
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If you want to plant a Fall garden (this year), it will require getting your soil ready for planting by July. Lasagne bed gardening within the next month is not very feasible unless you want to set up a drip irrigation system that will drip almost constantly, because the August and Sept heat and lack of rain will not allow for breaking down the organic matter to a point that would be adequate. I made a lasagne bed a couple of years ago that I started in Summer. It was not ready for planting until the next Spring, but take into consideration that I had 18 inches of stuff piled up to break down for the bed. It grew marvelous tomatoes, but would not have grown much of anything at first.


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