Le Potager du Sloth: Gardening without fatigue more than Bio

[stephgouv]

Thank you Doris, yool and Didier for your answers which I am sure will make skeptics even more jealous for this ease in solving the problem (well when we do it early enough)
When I speak of skeptics, they are people who would like but dare not take the step for fear of being overwhelmed. But with your clear and precise answers, they will be reassured.

[Did67]

Ah, the fears! This is to say that the brainwashing which took us away from the principles of life was effective !!!

Ah, this famous: if man does not get involved, it will never work! So WHAT should you do? Of course, if I don't do it, it will miss !!! My god, my god, my god !!!

[Doris]

Thank you Doris, yool and Didier for your answers which I am sure will make skeptics even more jealous for this ease in solving the problem (well when we do it early enough)
When I speak of skeptics, they are people who would like but dare not take the step for fear of being overwhelmed. But with your clear and precise answers, they will be reassured.

Fear of being overwhelmed: When I was making a traditional 35 m2 vegetable garden on bare ground without fertilizers and pesticides, it was bothering me and there I was overwhelmed, now with 80 m2 under hay, that's good life, really. In addition from tomorrow I will transform a wasteland into a vegetable patch under hay, if you saw the mess it is at the moment, and the time it takes me to maintain a little, because it adjoins the neighboring land ....., I am confident, I would get less annoyed this year is for sure.

[stephgouv]

Personally, I am convinced despite the fact that I am entering my 1st year and therefore not yet seen results. But reading and seeing the results quickly convinced me.
I try as best I can to explain the technique (without personal result for now) only from what I have read or heard.

[Did67]

I recommend doing - and open people will copy, in their own way. And that's what's good. Let yourself be 3 years: the first year, the neighborhood laughs at the establishment (it will never work, there are seeds in it, etc ...); the second, doubt settles (well, damn it, we wouldn't have believed it!); the third is questioning (when do you put the hay? how much?) ...

[Did67]

For those who are wondering how to transport round bales with 2 CV:

[Rajqawee]

Hello,

I have been looking for some time for a place to exchange with other gardeners, and a forum as active seems to me to be ideal! I have not read the 1600 pages (impressive!), So I insert myself as is in the conversation, especially since the current theme speaks to me rather well.

I have an "urban" plot (including community gardens in town), which necessarily leads to discuss, exchange and be examined by the neighbors of the plot

I only started the vegetable garden for a year, but with a good phase previously of a year (the waiting lists to obtain a plot are looooong) so I was able to learn a lot, and I chose to cultivate in bottomless "planters", built in reclaimed wood, in which I made lasagna, on which I put ground cover (hay, dead leaves, weeds torn off ... well in short what I find .)

I of course passed for a UFO in the middle of the weeded and re-weeded plots, furrowed, abutments, turned 10 times a year. But, what rather pleasantly surprised me was:
-I passed for a UFO, but nobody was contemptuous or mocking.
-the "elders" who participate in the association but who no longer work on the plots gave me good moral support at the start, because they remembered their own elders who sometimes had similar practices, or even themselves, in particular mulching .
-After a few months, I was comforted by the results that I found good, and it allowed other gardeners to learn from the methods used, or to take the plunge

I believe that in fact there are a lot of gardeners who are almost convinced that these methods (let's call them what we want, ecological, permaculture, agro-ecology .... in short, I sell it as "simple, sustainable and natural ") are effective, but must mourn the famous" perfect "and" clean "or aesthetic garden. This is the biggest obstacle.
So I confirm that doing and letting the results be seen remains a great means of communication.

[Did67]

I think that "wanting to convince" and "witnessing / explaining" are two opposing attitudes:

- wanting to convince is to put oneself, without often realizing it, in a position of superiority, of guru, of "master"; "I am right, therefore I will explain"; inevitably, in a sane person, this causes rejection: who wants to be brought back to school? In others, what has a pathological need for "dependence and" mastery "is to push them a little deeper into infantilization:" listen to what I do and repeat after me! "(Even if it does arrange or that's what they're looking for!)

- on the other hand, to testify is to expose oneself: "this is what I do, this is why ... Too bad if you laugh, I have such or such a reason to do it" ... You have the right right not to believe me, but observe the results all the same ... It is no longer you speaking, but your vegetable garden ...

During a whole first phase, I wanted to convince. Before realizing what I just wrote. And switch to "testimony, you do what you want!"

And I introduce my confs by saying that I address myself to intelligent people, that my vegetable garden is not a model to be reproduced, that it's just mine that delights me, that I ask people especially not to believe me , to be critical ... And I add: "I would like you to listen to me until the end!"

And since then, it has worked much better!

[Rajqawee]

For my part, I would say that convincing or testifying are two complementary methods: it depends on the situation.

Regarding farming methods, I would say that we must try to convince to try, at least on a small piece of garden, by testifying to its own results! It is quite easy to convince someone to try an onion cultivation on half a square meter by planting bulbs in an unworked soil that you mulch abundantly, and then you do nothing at all. At worst, we lost 10min of our life, 50cts of bulbs, and 0,5m² of vegetable garden over a period when we generally do not miss too much space.
It is more difficult for a person to try to cultivate all of their favorite culture (genus, tomatoes) in a completely different way, because there is an important attachment to the success of the culture

This year I managed to convince a colleague to make his plants yourself from seedlings that grow in a warm frame that he built from recycling and plastic sheeting, thanks to organic seeds which we shared the purchase, telling him "at worst, it doesn't work and it cost us 5 € each of seeds that do not germinate, and we will buy the plants that we lack. At best, it works and that's it Well !"

I think "conversion" is best gradual, because it gives the gardener time to change, too, and to accept the advantages and disadvantages of these new practices.

In any case, I always take care to respect the practices, even if they are far from mine, nobody has the answer. And then if there are people who avoid taking anxiolitics because weeding relaxes them, basically, everyone remains a winner

[JardinierAmateur]

Let yourself be 3 years: the first year, the neighborhood laughs at the establishment (it will never work, there are seeds in it, etc ...); the second, doubt settles (well, damn it, we wouldn't have believed it!); the third is questioning (when do you put the hay? how much?) ...

The first year, the harvests are not spectacular either (even if very appreciable in view of the production / labor ratio). The second year is already much better (organic gardener spoke of "optimized or" improved "soil, from memory, after a year). And the third year is I imagine even better. I will talk about it in 3 years, since I'm leaving on a new vegetable garden ...