Lazy Arizona Organic Gardener's Basics by Crystal Lee

Soil Rejuvenationīecause of the large amount of compost created on the farm - see Lazy Composting - we top all beds with a couple of inches of compost each year. When harvesting root crops we try to lift each tuber or clump carefully, shaking the loose dirt back into the hole it came from.

Walkways are kept weed free through a several inch layer of straw and the constant compaction created by walking on them. We never walk anywhere but on these paths which keeps the dirt in the growing beds fluffy. Using a metal rake and shovels we scraped the dirt in the existing vegetable garden into a series of 3-foot wide beds separated by 18 inch walkways. At current prices, we spend about $60 on straw per year. What has developed over the past few years in our no-till, heavily mulched garden is based on 1) disturbing the soil as little as possible, 2) avoiding compaction of planting beds, 3) mulching with home-grown lazy compost, and 4) placing a 4-6 inch layer of straw on the beds each winter, followed by additional straw as needed when planting seedlings during the year. We needed to develop our own method using ideas from both these knowledgeable experts but based on our specific land and growth requirements. We grow many root crops which naturally disturb the soil when harvested. The no-till method is based on disturbing the soil as little as possible so as not to introduce light and air to dormant weed seeds. We’re lazy farmers so we needed to compromise.

Lee takes the time to create perfect, weed-seed free, compost which allows him to use a shorter layer of mulch than Ms. We needed to modify.Įnter Lee Reich’s No Till Gardening method at Maintain a Weedless Organic Garden. We’re over 50 years old and that’s a lot of bales to lift and divide.

$150-$175 per year of hay quickly eats away at our financial advantages in gardening. Our soil is comprised primarily of clay and rocks. It turns out that this wonderful method of weed prevention has limitations when used on clay soil and requires about 25 bales of spoiled hay annually for a 50 by 50 foot garden. Go to Ruth Stout’s System for Gardening for more information on her mulching method. Rushing to the library I found a book entitled Gardening without Work by an octogenarian named Ruth Stout. Our journey to a 10-month garden started when my husband laid down the law that I was NOT allowed more garden space until I could figure out how to garden without the back-breaking amount of rototilling and hoeing that I’d been doing. Do you dream of raising most of your own vegetables? Are visions of canned goodies dancing in your head? Yet do you find the thought of all that work to be daunting? Follow along in the couple of Lazy Farmer posts to learn how you can develop a nearly year ‘round garden with low input techniques.

Lazy Arizona Organic Gardener's Basics by Crystal Lee