[How-To]
raised garden : no till farming style
Growing an organic garden is one of the most rewarding things to spend your time doing. Food is the energy that keeps our bodies alive and moving, feeding your body right gives you an abundance of energy and creates a healthy living system.
Food = Life
What you will need to make an 8ft x 8ft bed:
- Newspaper (without too much color, no glossy paper)
- 5 trash bags full or 1 bale of hay, alfalfa is perfect
- 6-8 cubic feet of compost
- 6-8 cubic feet of AGED manure (chicken, steer, goat... whatever you can find)
- Wood, stones, cinder blocks - anything that holds the raised bed in place
Raised bed designs:
Step 1:
Soak newspaper in a bucket of water (or spray with the hose as you go and lay down covering the entire raised bed, 3-5 sheets thick depending on the amount of weeds, and layer them covering about 1/3 of each sheet with the next sheet. This keeps the weeds down and will break down into the soil giving it carbon. Glossy paper doesn't break down very well and has chemicals that are no bueno, as does colored ink.
Step 2:
Put up the barrier of wood or stone, whatever you are using, so your raised bed doesn't shift around over time. There are tons of great ways to set up the bed and you definitely don't have to make your bed 8ft x 8ft. If you do make it that large, you will need to put some stones throughout before you build the bed so you have something to stand on. One factor in the no-till method is that you should never step on the bed, so you never disturb the natural factors at play beneath the surface of the soil.
Step 3:
Start your first layer of manure, which should be about 2" thick. You may be able to find free manure if you live near any dairy or egg farmers, but make sure the animals are eating grass and weeds, not grain fed. If you get it from a local farm, ask if they have any that is already aged, otherwise you'll have to let it age for at least 3 months but it depends on where it is and how it's maintained. Once the manure is ready, it will be a very soft soil texture and won't have a smell. Otherwise, you can buy steer manure from a local nursery, but not all nurseries have it available so call first. Water thoroughly.
Step 4:
Layer 2" of hay, alfalfa, straw, or even dead leaves and branches will work. Water thoroughly.
Step 5:
Layer 2" of compost high in green matter ie. vegetable waste, fruit peels, fresh leaves, etc. It should say on the compost bag what was used to make it. Green matter provides a high nitrogen content.
Step 6:
Keep layering until you have a nice, thick bed. The last layer should be compost, then top with some straw as mulch.
Step 7:
Plant stuff!
Buy local, especially local food. Shop at the farmers market where food is grown 30 miles away, or go to the actual farm itself. Large scale agriculture relies so heavily on oil in every sense of it from fertilization (ammonium nitrate) to pesticides to packaging (plastic=oil) to transportation. Farm to plate the average meal travels 1500 miles.
Stop using plastics. Start easy and don't use any plastic shopping bags or bottled beverages or styrofoam containers. Bring your own bag, your own bottle, your own reusable take home container. Then take a bigger step and vow to not by anything that comes in plastic. Stop using "regular" household cleaning products, haircare, lotion, etc. There are very basic ingredients that can be used to do everything around your house. Vinegar kills mold and disinfects so it pretty much cleans everything. Mix it with lots of lemon or lime juice to make it smell nice and the acidity helps remove grease, etc. too.
Most important, ride your bike walk and use public transit if it's available. Stop driving so much! If you're going 5 miles away, take your bike. Before going anywhere, ask yourself if you really need to drive. Put trips together into one big trip rather than going out 3 times a day.
Don't produce so much waste. I'm weening myself off of all city controlled waste pick up, eventually I plan on having no waste taken at all but currently I still have about a 1/2 crate of recyclables a week and one small bag of trash between the three of us in my household. Start a compost to efficiently repurpose food waste. Throw all your used paper in the compost, unless there's a lot of colored ink. If you cook from scratch, this vastly decreases packaging waste.
The possibilities are endless. It's up to us to fight against this ugly consumerism that depends so heavily on oil and coal. It isn't sustainable and we don't have to live like this.