Got abuse for the way I garden.

[tomf]

Yes I agree people hide behind their computers and post the rudest things, I will not lower myself to do such. I do appreciate the work the moderators do here, it is nice to have a place where politeness counts. I also think that most if not all of the people here are decent.

[tomf]

I once replied in a rude way, and I had no idea why I did until I thought about it. My brash comment had to do with some bottled up feelings I had over my father in laws death and my wife's depression over it; the subject hit on things related to it. It was just a bad joke that was posted, nothing I should have reacted to. When I saw what I did and the come back he posted, I felt so ashamed and apologized profusely. I explained that feelings just came out I did not know I had and what they were about. The person was very nice after I explained and told him how sorry I was. I then vowed to never post anything rude or nasty again, so far so good.

[SarahTheMascara]

Where I live if you don't till the soil a couple times before planting potatoes the potatoes get worms! As I discovered the hard way two years ago. I don't understand why he would care how you choose to garden, especially if you get good yield on your crops. Very strange. My outlook has always been to ignore people who forcefully and rudely express their opinions, when that's all it is, an opinion. No bearing on reality.

[meandtk]

My thoughts are that a person has to do what he/she must.
Some folks must till. Others are able to do no till.
Some must till intensely. Others may be able to till lightly and it do well.
I just broke up some ground that had been fallow for 15-20 years. It took much going over to break through the grass roots, as I have no turning plow, just a disc to pull behind a small tractor. I also have an invasive grass that I will have to till regularly to kill it back.
One must be understanding toward the needs of those whom he addresses.
Thanks to all here who post with such understanding.

[tomf]

I found this picture.

[Allyn]

I love that pic. Old dude found a way to do what he needed to get done. 'Nuff said.

[PaulF]

Good post and timely, too. Don't know how I missed this one. I get invited to give gardening seminars and talks several time a year on many different topics. I always go into these sessions knowing whatever I say will be treated as gospel by some and others will dispute everything I say. Some of the topics I am asked to talk about I feel I know pretty well and others I have a fairly good grasp on but know there is so much to learn.

I diffuse these sessions by beginning with the statement, "This is the way many feel makes their gardening successful, but there are so many variables that no one way is either right or wrong. I am here to learn as much as teach. Take everything I say and use what you want and forget the parts you do not agree with. If we both learn something the day is not a waste of time." During or after the sessions there is always give and take of ideas and methods. Makes the hour or two go by pretty quickly.

[digitS']

For some, intolerance is imagined as a virtue.

Human growth falters. Reasoning stops.

These individuals are chained within their fenced yards.

Steve

[PaulF]

We in the "nice" mid-west don't see quite so many vocal know-it-alls. In the last ten years only one or two of them invaded one of my discussions and they left early since I refuse to give in to them. I take their name and phone number so they can be put on the list as presenters for the future. None were aggressively obnoxious, thank goodness.

[gumbo2176]

Tom, you should have invited that guy to come over to your garden and allow him the pleasure of breaking new ground with a shovel, fork, or whatever hand tool he chooses. That may have made an impact on him, or at least his hands, arms and back.

I too have heavy clay soil and when I first put in my vegetable garden many years ago, I borrowed a friends rear tine 5 HP tiller and every 3-4 ft. I had to stop it and dig the clay out of the tines. What I figured would take me a little over a day wound up taking me a full week of tilling, removing clay from the tines and repeating that process.

Then it was on to the horse stables to dig out truckload after truckload of well composted manure, hay and straw to amend the garden---then till that all in. Today, my soil is 100% better than it was way back then and I can now turn over the soil in my garden in a little over an hour to almost 1 ft. deep with a well used front tine 5 HP tiller.

[ButterflyLady29]

Tilling works in some situations and not others, that's simply the way it is. I tried to convert a small section of new ground into garden without tilling. Didn't work. That section is now part of a larger garden and it still isn't as nice as the tilled portion. One of my fenced gardens was tilled by a previous gardener so that one doesn't count in the till/no till argument. Another garden was never tilled but was inhabited by some digging ducks before it was converted so that doesn't count either.

I haven't tilled the fenced gardens since I've owned the property, mostly due to not having a tiller, but I dumped hundreds of gallons of mulch,compost, and other organic material on the gardens over the years I've planted there. The soil is nice and loose and dark, not at all like the nasty clay that even the previous owner had to work with.

And I've seen the way farmland has changed since the inception of no-till farming was implemented. My grandfather would till in cover crops and tons of manure and his fields were nice and fertile. Since the land was rented and the renter went to no-till the soil has visibly degraded. I don't know if it's not tilling or the loss of organic material but there are pieces of old crop waste laying on the ground for years after that crop was harvested when before the material had decomposed and nourished the soil.

Then there are the people who think any soil disturbance is a crime against nature. That's a whole 'nother story.