Le Potager du Sloth: Gardening without fatigue more than Bio

[Did67]

maybe add a legume to fix even more nitrogen (vetch ...)

If we want to fix the excess nitrogen present in October / November, but not consumed (what we call the leftovers), I do not know if this is relevant. I would rather go for non-legumes with rapid growth and very chilly stinks - generally, brassicaceae (mustard, camelina, ...).

[Paul72]

Didier, I ask myself the question, if it would be useful to use alfalfa on the remainder of hay at the end of winter (even at the end of summer), in order to manage the ground cover at the start of vegetation (and we cut them as the vegetables grow). It is a little competitive plant a priori. To avoid the reflection on the mulch too little covered (and even to give a bit of local humidity)

[Julienmos]

maybe add a legume to fix even more nitrogen (vetch ...)

If we want to fix the excess nitrogen present in October / November, but not consumed (what we call the leftovers), I do not know if this is relevant. I would rather go for non-legumes with rapid growth and very chilly stinks - generally, brassicaceae (mustard, camelina, ...).

but why not combine the two?

the non-legume (s) to fix the nitrogen residues in the soil
and a legume to fix (even more) nitrogen from the air.

For the choice of EV, I don't really like mustard since it is from the cabbage / turnip family, which is a drawback in the case of a SMALL vegetable garden where, due to lack of space, the cabbages return to the same plot afterwards. few years.
That's why I prefer phacelia.

[Julienmos]

the soil (dry from dry) after harvesting the potatoes ... it took a little use of the hook ...
but will sow an EV in there ... would have to water a lot to moisten it "to the heart" ... you have aggregates (or should we say clods?) as coarse at home?

[Did67]

Yes, you're right about phacelia ... But cautious - in general. In winter, with us, it risks "burning". Now we can speculate on global warming.

For nitrogen, it is rather a "common pot" that must be seen. Not: one wipes up the excess, the other adds more. When the remainders are modest, the combination probably works well as a "sponge". When they are high, I am less sure. But on the other hand, in this case, the legume self-regulates and does not fix much when the soil's N content is high. She also uses herself ... So after all: why not, finally!

From the point of view of your vegetables, there would be no picture.

But if we think of "gardening without polluting", the question arises - even if undoubtedly, we should not exaggerate (see my nuance above). No need to switch to ecological polpotism.

[Did67]

the soil (dry from dry) after harvesting the potatoes ... it took a little use of the hook ...
but will sow an EV in there ... would have to water a lot to moisten it "to the heart" ... you have aggregates (or should we say clods?) as coarse at home?

Worst !

It will fall apart like soaked cookies with the first heavy rain! Leave it like this ... You sow and if it's dry like that, you stomp. The ideal: it rains a little; you let "dry" for 1 day and you will have crumbly lumps; you stomp ...

[Yool]

the soil (dry from dry) after harvesting the potatoes ... it took a little use of the hook ...
but will sow an EV in there ... would have to water a lot to moisten it "to the heart" ... you have aggregates (or should we say clods?) as coarse at home?

Yes At home strong clay soil. No rains for a few weeks. So in the most exposed places the ground has this head there.

[Yool]

Yes, you're right about phacelia ... But cautious - in general. In winter, with us, it risks "burning". Now we can speculate on global warming.

Last year, semi Phacelia in mid September. Everything held up in winter (very few really cold days) and it started to bloom in the spring. I had a lot of regrowth in the middle of the vegetables everywhere where I had sown. I left, because I have never seen a plant so effective at attracting bumblebees and bees!

[ndeloof]

Hello.

I find the universe of living soil fascinating, which I discover with the sloth technique. It is clear that the life and structure of the soil is a subject totally unknown to the general public (and many farmers ...). In any case, personally, it almost makes me regret not having chosen agronomy studies

But to fully understand the approach, there is still one point that remains a little confused in my mind, despite several hammock sessions: I try to understand what we are giving up (disadvantages but also advantages?) To have ideas clear. Basically, being able to explain and argue brings a lot of new questions, and shows that my understanding remains superficial. In short, I put it in writing here, it's part of the synthesis work:

The home has gone from a simple scraping of the soil with its artery - I would say a "mechanical surface furnishing" which cleans a little and facilitates sowing, in modern agriculture I would say that is more or less what the cultivator with its straight teeth on leaf springs, good with 500hp which pulls instead of a donkey. The home is therefore passed to plow. Hence the question: what mechanism makes plowing efficient (in the short term, with negative effects in the long term)?

Little all about https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour:
"Its main advantage is to bring up the clay-humic colloids and mineral salts buried by the infiltration of water, which improves the structure of the soil, its permeability, and prevents the depletion of the soil's mineral resources. in a way, it speeds up the work of the earthworms which themselves perform a quarter of the plowing "


If I understand correctly, the idea is to bring to the surface the fertile elements which have "too" (?) Infiltrated, and which will then be able to benefit the new seedlings. So if I understand correctly, we will try to extract "even more" from a soil that is already rich in depth, to promote short-term productivity. Plowing also makes it possible to (artificially) aerate the soil and to force organic matter into it (spreading, in Brittany, we know well) which then benefits from a large contact surface with the soil thus oxygenated for decompose better - not sure that the living beings of the soil thus moved / massacred appreciate, but at least the bacteria, with their explosive growth, must be able to get by. The worms which "provide a quarter of the plowing"must have a rather different opinion

So in summary, plowing allows the forceps to be injected with fertility elements, but with the disregard of the soil's capacity to organize itself naturally to make plants resilient, via underground collaborations. We are, it seems to me, in the logic of "the plant is a root soaked in an NPK soup". And it necessarily works a little too. At least in the short term before a big storm which takes 20cm on the whole plot

This is where I am, it remains a little confused, so I am interested in your reflection on the subject to clarify my ideas and prepare for questions from those around me - two friends, themselves farmers, who are intrigued by this. Like what...

[jft78]

the soil (dry from dry) after harvesting the potatoes ... it took a little use of the hook ...
but will sow an EV in there ... would have to water a lot to moisten it "to the heart" ... you have aggregates (or should we say clods?) as coarse at home?

Worst !

It will fall apart like soaked cookies with the first heavy rain! Leave it like this ... You sow and if it's dry like that, you stomp. The ideal: it rains a little; you let "dry" for 1 day and you will have crumbly lumps; you stomp ...

With me too, it makes big lumps. But the earth is still moist at depth. On the other hand, there was a dry and very hard layer on top and the hook was also necessary to harvest the PdT.
I had the "bad idea" of burying them a bit when planting in April because there was no longer enough hay and no grass mowing yet available during confinement. So the harvest was not really lazy ... especially since it was not great (a good kg per m², which is half of what I got in previous years). However, I had spaced them more (40cm). I noticed that they did not bloom, but I understood that it had nothing to do with production? and the foliage was quickly scorched. To see again next year.
For now, I have replaced the hay cover / grass mowing and would try a bean seedling.