Tillers, Broadforks, and Compost, OH MY!!

    We are gardening in the middle of Alabama. Like it or not, our soil is a heavy clay soil that compacts into a hard brittle soil.

Here is what our soil looks like uncovered.

    Up until this year I have battled this soil with a rotor tiller.  She has been a good tiller for the last nine years. I have spent many hours behind her. But this year I tried something totally different. I broke down and ordered a Treadlite Broadfork. I was skeptical when it arrived. And it was a challenge on the hardened clay soil. I have since learned that unlike the tiller, it works much better when my soil is wet; I can drive the broadfork deeper when the soil has some moisture. I have fallen in love with this tool. I never dreamed I could loosen my clay soil this effectively. WOW!

My new baby.

    This approach allowed me to greatly reduce my tilling. I still continued to use the tiller for some jobs for a while. But that is another story.

    Many years ago, I read Dick Raymond's gardening books. I walked away with an understanding of the importance of mulch for a garden. I have tried buying hay, scavenging bags of leaves off of the side of the road, Lasagna Gardening with cardboard and scrap paper, all with limited success. This year I realized that I had a wealth of leaves lying under some three acres of trees. I proceeded to drag the leaves up to the gardens. I managed to create a light leaf mulch over most of the garden. But dragging a tarp loaded with leaves up a hill over and over and over again gets old in a hurry.

    I had read David the Good's (yes that is how he refers to himself) book,
 Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting

     One of the things you realize in reading David's book is that there is no such thing as enough compost or mulch. He has an interesting alternative to stretch your compost. It is his own compost tea, swamp juice, or that nasty smelling 55 gallon drum at the edge of the garden, as Precious Virginia thinks of it. Here is the link to his video about his compost tea. 

That which should must not be disturbed.

    David's approach is an anaerobic compost tea. You toss in greens, browns, water, urine; any thing not banned by the EPA mainly. When he named his book, Compost Everything, he was not kidding. You are instructed to cover it securely. This is an important step. The lid I originally used did not fit as snugly as my current one. I think a new mutant-strain of fly has developed in there; they certainly have been prolific. 

Any way, several months ago I placed some around my early tomatoes in the back and the main tomato crop in the front. (They are doing quite well I might add. Details coming in a future post). As life gets crazy, special projects fall by the way side. Until the 4th of July.

Oh My, My, My!!!

    I celebrated the 4th of July by emptying the swamp juice.  Yes we do celebrate things a little differently in my neck of the woods.

The sludge was placed around the latest corn crop.

Castor Bean

 

Giant Dill Pumpkin.

  
    I used the liquid to fertilize most of the newcomers in the front garden as well as the sweet potatoes in the back garden. I will update you on the results. The foul odor of the front garden dwarfed the fowl odor of the chicken pen that day. Fortunately, I had a shower and the garden had a good rain shower.

    The leaf mulch I hauled in to the gardens was a great start. But it still seemed insufficient for my garden needs. The weeds still seemed in control and a good dry stretch of weather would take its toll. I needed to take it to the next level. What could I do for my poor garden? Stay tuned.