Le Potager du Sloth: Gardening without fatigue more than Bio

[JardinierAmateur]

Thank you Bobbysolo67, and thank you Didier.
So I think that in my case: very clayey, very heavy soil, thuja can be beneficial in the long term.

[Kristof]

Hello everyone, I just finished reading "the lazy man's vegetable garden"
I wanted to thank Didier for everything I learned about the life of the soil. I did not think that the symbiosis between plants and microorganisms was so important.
I do not intend to work the soil in my vegetable garden anymore, maybe even enlarge it a little. It's so easy to create a new plot with your method! When I think I broke the brand new handle of my spade while creating my 1st vegetable garden in my lawn ...
I think I will try the experiment by covering with brf from the size of my hedges and grass clippings. These are materials that I have on hand and that I usually compost or burn. The brf would mainly provide carbon and the mowing grass, nitrogen. If I understood correctly ?

[Did67]

Well understood.

But beware: grass clippings = 95% water !!! So repeated applications, in thin layers (if crops in place).

Another way: that of the "nitrogen pump" (not mentioned in the book). Cover a lawn with "poor" material in large quantities. Do not hope to cultivate immediately, because "nitrogen hunger": that would generate too many disappointments! Install clovers (the most "productive" fodder vegetables in terms of symbiotic fixation): following the nitrogen hunger, they will "fix" the nitrogen in the air ... two or three years), there will be the butter and the silver of the butter: very good aggradation / humic substances / nitrogen enrichment ...

[JardinierAmateur]

Finally a clear improvement of things!
THE hay, put in a very thick layer late, in April, had not decomposed so much ... The earth was still very heavy ... clay soil in Brittany.
No longer having any crop in place, I removed the hay to sow green manure. Then I put the hay back, in a lighter layer, so as not to prevent the young shoots from crossing the mulch. I sowed rye, the seeds are big enough, I was not afraid. But I also put alfalfa (or phacelia, I do not remember), in any case small seeds. To stimulate germination, I watered abundantly. And hô miracle, finally, the hay turns black in contact with the ground !!!
So I think the humification process is underway !!! It took a long time!
Looking back, that doesn't surprise me, organic farmer spoke of a full year to reap real benefits.
Just a question: Didier if the germinated seeds do not pass the mulch, I remove it temporarily?
Thank you

PS: Ahmed, you were right, patience works well

[Did67]

Indeed, if the seedlings do not manage to pass, you will have to discover ...

And in the future, just draw lines, and sow in them. A row of phacelia every 30 cm will do. The roots will colonize the soil across the width!

[JardinierAmateur]

OK, thanks !
So, as soon as my green manure is high enough, I put the hay back in .... Did I understand correctly?

[Did67]

I always speak "in theory" because I didn't. "This is how I think I am doing". So it's just an exchange of ideas.

No, I think "optimize" the green manure AND the non-work:

- so in the remaining hay, I draw lines to open enough and sow (rather non-legumes, with autumn growth, since it is a question of fixing the nitrates)

- I let develop without tiring myself to cover, until towards the end of January / beginning of February

- I "hunt" the few weeds qualified as "painful": brambles, bindweed, couch grass, rumex, ...

- at the end of January / beginning of February, just in time so that it does not proliferate too much, I unroll my layer of hay; it will still be wet by precipitation, without taking from the soil reserves as it may be the case if I unroll later; if important development (rye), I pass the rotofil to bed first ...

[Adrien (ex-nico239)]

No, I think "optimize" the green manure AND the non-work:

I am that closely

A question of a different order ... as it seems that this year we will finally be able to prepare correctly the 2019 season so we will do some seedlings indoors.

So the laziest technique is which?
I thought about wood fiber buckets

Or is there better?
Or is it useless?
Or is it to proscribe?
Or ... etc

[ChristianC]

Against the false news, nothing like certain headings recently put in place by the media:
So about earthworms :

Is it true that earthworms account for 80% of terrestrial biomass?

[Did67]

The answer given in the document is correct.

I remind you that in my opinion, too many people write on the internet who are unable to discriminate data - there is no longer the "reasonableness" filter. This is a good example where the "soil biomass" (which is only a few%, the soils being essentially, except in particular cases such as peat bogs, minerals) becomes "terrestrial biomass". We can clearly see the genesis of the confusion: soil - earth (the land of the plowman) - earth (the globe) - terrestrial (entire earth) ... And a true notion becomes total idiocy.

Add to that what I have written many times: on the internet, the more "unbelievable" a piece of information, the more it spreads virally!