We started a big trial of five different methods of establishing a vegetable garden without digging or tilling the soil below. It will be very interesting to see how these different no-till approaches work in this cool climate.
0:00 No-Till trials
1:16 Overall Site Preparation and Layout
3:10 Good Quality Topsoil
5:33 Back to Eden Woodchip
7:30 Ruth Stout Hay
9:36 Dowding/Perkins Compost
11:15 Deep Litter Lasagne
13:55 Issues and Plans
15:42 Credits with the help of a Robin
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41 Comments
I have a feeling you will need the entire villages help in order to keep the slugs under control.
Cool. I do wonder fresh wood chips would perform considering your experience with the municipal woody compost in the potato trial..
I think it would be interesting to put a thermometer in each of the beds that records temperatures during day/night to see wich beds cool of fast or insulate the soil good / heat up quickly in the morning sun and how much of a difference there is and link that to the development to the plants that are growing there….but that would go into the "smart gardening" or "gadget-gardening" area equipmentwize….
Please learn how to pronounce compost properly now you live in the UK 🙂 It drives us nuts.
cool set of trials. It'd be cool to see a korean natural farming (especially original, but jadam would be cool too) no till bed as well.
Thanks Bruce. Wish I had the room to experiment as well. Looking forward to spring and the garden once all this snow is gone. Merry Christmas
I finally got it. You remind me of MSN Earthworm (also known as VineMeat)
You had a little bird merrily hopping around with you there. You have a lot going on with this one, and I suppose you can't decide what to plant until things start to work really, Can you?
Very interesting Bruce, the Ruth Stout method does seem like a very large, shallow compost heap, I suspect it will not be overly successful, it will be interesting to see the results.
can i ask a question about no till in terms of biology.
my current understanding is that no till causes plants and soil life to work together. digging disrupts that. also adding fertiliser does this by laying soil life off the job.
is that correct?
Great experiment! Can't wait to see the results.
Outstanding, well designed trial, it will be interesting to see how the different methods improve the soil profile over the years.
woah, another masterpiece 😼! i'm located on north of france and i follow you since a month ago, and you really inspire me, and thanks man for that's. i've 18 for some months and i gardening for my family to be able to ate some freshly vegetables cause of inflation and crisis here and everywhere else in the world we cannot buy thoses high values vegetables. some of your approaches really interest me like using some concentrated fertilisers to get a better harvest. have a good day man, good luck for the next season who happens soon 🙂 and sorry for my wrong english (i wish i will be better one day !)
I've done much the same trials, but in series, not in parallel. I started gardening in the southern US, where the deep mulch / Ruth Stout method works great, but then moved to western Oregon 40 years ago and found that it didn't work at all in the wet, cold, slug-filled climate we have here. I've switched all my outdoor beds to the deep compost / wood chip path style and they work very well. In my polytunnels I found that the deep mulch delayed the soil warming and since the polytunnels are for growing hot weather crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that was a failure for me. I now lightly "tilth" the surface of the polytunnel beds to incorporate a few cm of compost, then reapply more in the summer when it's getting hot. It all boils down to climate and purpose, but it's great to see you doing the controlled trials. We could use someone doing similar trials in Spain or Italy (or Texas) for comparison.
Great video can’t wait to see the progress
I really enjoy your videos. Your presentation of the subject is among the best learning channels on YouTube.
Great Video. Mr. Bruce lol
I'm eager to see the results of this trail. Especially the one with the aged wood chips. What Paul Gautschi is unfortunately not very clear about is that the wood chips he uses, previously run through his chicken coup. They are enriched with chicken manure. Many people trying this method were disappointed because they tried it with regular wood chips. Maybe it works better with the aged wood chips.
I love the idea of framing the compost. I'll have to remember that the next time I make a garden with woodchip paths.
You're spoiling us with all these trials Bruce! You must have had a hell of a year managing it all, so thank you very much for all the work you do! Glad to be a patron of your channel 🙂
This year I've started trialling another no-dig/mulch method. Thanks to your channel, I've learnt to look at my context, instead of applying existing methods verbatim. I've got access to an abundance of autumn leaves (non-oak), and my soil is lacking in organic matter (it was a neglected allotment). So I've amended the soil with kelp meal, compost and alfalfa pellets, and then covered them in a thick layer of leaves. Don't know how it will turn out, but last time I checked there were many worms busy breaking it all down. I've had a professional soil test done before I started, and I'm planning to do another one next year (another lesson from your channel).
I can't tell you how excited I am for the Lasagna bed. Just remember though, the end goal of permaculture is to create an ecosystem. Something should be eating your slugs.
Oh… I just thought of something… I wonder if you could house some pet shop hedgehogs and give them movable paddocks in the garden. Like rotational grazing but it's cute hedgehogs eating slugs. I imagine it would rival the Guinea pig ranches youtube keeps suggesting after I looked up guinea pig vs rabbit farm.
Great video, 😁
Thanks Bruce and Kristina! (And likely many others), very interesting and I am curious as to what will happen to the various fields.
Professional work as always
I'm very interested to see the follow up videos on these trial beds! I love that you are attempting to do a side by side comparison so that the different beds can be a good test run. I think it's overkill to tarp things before planting just based on my own experiences, but if you used a lot of perrennial weeds, you'll be glad you did! I'm keen to see if slugs are a problem, but overall, seems like you should have great beds and great fertility!
I cannot wait to see the results. I know I have to be patient. But I know you will deliver the results with amazing detail. Thank you love love love your vids.
Thanx Red Gardens
Showing what doesn't work is really helpful so I know what works best
Brilliant trial! You rock! Happy holidays to you!
I really love no till.
my best source of free huge cardboard pieces i found was a bike shop. they get the frame of the bikes in huge thick less printed packages and they have very litle tape and staples you need to remove. Hope this may help you 🙂
I really appreciate the commentary and scientific approach to gardening, this is a discipline full of myths and crazy claims, and it’s great to see someone put them to the test while acknowledging their setup’s limits.
Excited to see your analysis! I have begun new beds, something between Ruth Stout and lasagna style. Eventually they'll be managed more Dowding style once the initial material decomposes.
Very, very interesting trial! Since you anticipate possible snail/slug issues; do you already have plans to deal with them should they occur or will you deal with them when they do?
Grazon being applied to hay fields has basically destroyed the Ruth Stout method here. I hope it's not an issue for you
I'm excited. Started gardening 15 years ago with the Ruth Stout method. Now I use a hodge podge of methods. It will be great to see these trials.
Will be watching this one closely. As I've established new no-dig beds over the past few years I have always left the beds covered the first year and planted squash/pumpkin or slow brassicas into the mypex to suppress any weed seeds. Will be interesting to see how you get on planting into it in year 1 in Irish conditions. Thanks for the video as always
Your appetite for experimentation is remarkable! To the benefit of all gardeners. Thank you.
Excellent video. Lot to learn
When you get the chance I would like to hear your method of scientific biases on how well terra peta works. I mean all I hear is it best thing in the world. But you never know with claims now a days. So if you ever feel the desire I would love to hear it from you.
Was it an active decision to plant nothing instead of some kind of cover crop? Really interested to understand your reasoning 🙂
Every time I hear municipal compost, I worry about the plants being stunted.
Cool trial – I am very interested in this as I'm a Dowding/Perkins devotee, and it works for me in southern Ontario, so I haven't tried anything else. I like the addition of the biologically active compost as well. I understand the idea of waiting to see if there is weed pressure before planting, but is it worthwhile to plant a single row in the spring with a full season crop (or crops) just to see how things work out?
You likely know that JM Fortier is a fan of ramial woodchips, but he harvests his in the spring to capture the early flush of nutrients. I wish that I could find spring ramial wood chips here.