|
| Cut unnecesary trees and burn them, return those nutriets (mined from soil for decades by wood) to the garden soil in the form of ash and mix well. That will take care of many fertility needs plus condition the soil. This a a very common practice in some poor villages in South America.
Hardwood (some confier) timber is a water vacuum in summer and often outcompetes any herbaceous plant within 60' for moisture. Shading is secondary IMO and can be an asset during afternoon heat where sunscald may be common.
Rather than mess with turning, shoveling, and managing a stinking compost bin, we let the garden soil do the composting for us....much more efficient....crop residues, cover crops residues, manure, mulch, and purchased compost feed the soil livestock. We plant ridge-till now on raised rows 24" apart....soil composting and irrigation is done on poorer soil in the row middles....as needed humified soil in row middles is hoed to rebuild ridges and to recycle plant available nutrients onto the row. The soil started as 3'+ fill dirt clay with 10+ yrs of tillage/incorporation to build a deep and rich topsoil with good infiltration and aeration before moving to ridge-till. You are fortunate starting with a deep sandy loam!
We are NOT organic (but grow very healthy crops) and use small amounts of AMS+muriate+Kmag during the year to facilitate rapid soil composting and efficient plant feeding. P from manure/compost, granubor, and gypsum as needed. Wood ash did a nice job of building other nutirents. Only 1 row is tilled per year after digging sweetpotato in fall with tomato to follow in spring. Rye/radish/crimson serve as winter cover crops.
Good luck with your organic program! Maintaining optimum+ soil potassium levels will help with some garden pest and disease issues....helathy veggies use A LOT of K!
Edited by southernokie 7/12/2012 12:24
| |
|
Our Organic Method
