That is a beautiful garden, puts my ten square to shame.
West half of my garden has had a truck load of leaves poured into it every year. also six yards of compost this last year.
I plowed the grass last summer on the east side so I could plant next year. I did plant a row of beans on one side.
I plowed the east side several times trying to get the grass to die.
I will plow one time in February if I get a good dry weekend to stir all of the leaves that I put in this fall.
I guess I just don't understand how you can let the dirt just sit. If you plant a cover crop then that is just more stuff to try and get killed off so you can plant vegetables. Now my plow only goes down about six inches and it would be really nice if I could go down double that. but I can't, so I really don't know what to do other than plow. I have noticed that the west side of the garden has much nicer soil than the East side.
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jal_ut
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7447
- Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
- Location: Northern Utah Zone 5
Bryce, it would be nice to plow deeper, but for the most part 6 inches is about the max for most tilling and plowing. That will suffice. The roots will penetrate those layers lower, but we don't need to do it.
Around here some farmers will use what is called a "Sub-soiler". It is simply a big long and heavy tine mounted on a tool bar on the back of a tractor. It can be pulled and shoved quite deep to cut some grooves into the lower layers. I have never used one, and can't say much about its effectiveness in helping roots to penetrate deeper. The thought is that it breaks up any hardpan that has formed at the level of plowing depth.
Many studies have been done about the development of roots and how deep they go. Look up some of these papers and you will quickly see that roots have the capacity to go go down, whether we work the soil or not.
https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrar ... 37toc.html
Around here some farmers will use what is called a "Sub-soiler". It is simply a big long and heavy tine mounted on a tool bar on the back of a tractor. It can be pulled and shoved quite deep to cut some grooves into the lower layers. I have never used one, and can't say much about its effectiveness in helping roots to penetrate deeper. The thought is that it breaks up any hardpan that has formed at the level of plowing depth.
Many studies have been done about the development of roots and how deep they go. Look up some of these papers and you will quickly see that roots have the capacity to go go down, whether we work the soil or not.
https://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrar ... 37toc.html
