Apologies for a late posting; we had a mishap Friday night and our cat Dougal was struck by a car. He had surgery yesterday afternoon when he stabilized, and we saw him this morning. Despite being down to six lives, he is doing well and we expect a full recovery, but between that and the new job the weekend dissappeared...
To task. This is the core of F-san's teachings, the crux of the matter. The Four Principles are...
No Cultivation.
This seems to be the hardest hurdle for many; those withg a thousand dollar rototiller are escpecially hardpressed to wean off of tearing the soil up. But as we learned from our last book club book, destroying soil tilth and fungal hyphae sends soil backwards down the soil succesion, towars a soil that favor weeds. F-sensei has come to this realization from another angle than soil analysis, from the realization that nature does not need tilling (Ruth Stout had the same satori). But the ends remain the same; the longer you do not disturb soil structure while still adding nutrition, the better it gets. Chop it all up and anything you add is a wash...
No chemical fertilizer or prepared compost.
We part ways here (a little); anyone spending any time on this site knows how I feel about compost. It is an answer to most everything. But even F-san used some compost of the houise garden, he was more about not doing on field crops. I still feel ok with compost there. But we are sure in the same place on chemical ferts.
No weeding by tillage or herbicides.
I have followed this well this year, both by design and by lack of time. I need to work on my paths some, but the beds are pretty weed free (except for the ones I like). The wife has some issues with the lack of aesthetic value she usually espouses elsewhere and we are negotiating. But no turning, no weeding (a few scythings here and there to knock them back some) and leave the roots in the ground (more carbon). Soil building continues.
No dependence on chemicals.
We may part ways on compost, but F-san and I are pretty much in synch about the chems. I have tried to cut back on even the organic stuff this year; some successes, some failures. But I found a lone horn worm on the maters yesterday COVERED in wasp eggs. I left things be. Life is good. I did try knocking back the squash bugs with various weapons this year, but they tore me up again (the business travel left too many big windows). Solution? Next year my friends Scott and Cherie grow the squash and we do more maters and pickles and such. I will starve them out for a few years. There are always ways around the chemical routine.
So there we have it. The plan defined. Thoughts?
HG