No-Till Garden Beds By Hand With A Broadfork

You've pulled out your summer crops. Now what? It's time to prepare the beds for a fall crop, cover, or mulch before winter.

I use a broadfork and Garden Claw to gently aerate and cultivate the soil. No-till methods like this are found to enhance the productivity of the soil, and besides, tillers are jerky, smoky, heavy pieces of equipment to wield.

If needed, I start by pulling large weeds by hand. I try to not let beds get too weedy but sometimes it happens, as you can see in the sunny early-morning garlic bed pictured above.

I begin working the soil with a broadfork borrowed from City Folk's Farm Shop. I plunge the tines into the soil and gently press down on the cross bar. Then I rock the broadfork back to lift the soil gently as I pull the broadfork out. I don't turn the soil here, I just use the tines to aerate sections.

Next I quickly rotate a Garden Claw (available for purchase at City Folk's) to the right and left over the surface of the whole bed. The point of the claw is to break up large clods and loosen any smaller weeds. I keep movements gentle here so as to not compact the soil.

Before I plant seeds or transplants, I go back over the bed with a hand cultivator or rake to remove the loosened weed roots and/or smooth the soil into rows. As needed, I add compost and/or organic fertilizer to build the nutrient potential. At all times I maintain the edges of the bed, piling up loose soil back onto the center as needed.

I've seen the results of this no-till, hand-powered method at Swainway Urban Farm, where the naturally raised beds are now so loamy you can plunge your hands in the soil with almost no resistance. I love the quiet, gentle work of using hand tools to re-build my beds between seasons.

No-Till Garden Beds By Hand With A Broadfork

You've pulled out your summer crops. Now what? It's time to prepare the beds for a fall crop, cover, or mulch before winter.

I use a broadfork and Garden Claw to gently aerate and cultivate the soil. No-till methods like this are found to enhance the productivity of the soil, and besides, tillers are jerky, smoky, heavy pieces of equipment to wield.

If needed, I start by pulling large weeds by hand. I try to not let beds get too weedy but sometimes it happens, as you can see in the sunny early-morning garlic bed pictured above.

I begin working the soil with a broadfork borrowed from City Folk's Farm Shop. I plunge the tines into the soil and gently press down on the cross bar. Then I rock the broadfork back to lift the soil gently as I pull the broadfork out. I don't turn the soil here, I just use the tines to aerate sections.

Next I quickly rotate a Garden Claw (available for purchase at City Folk's) to the right and left over the surface of the whole bed. The point of the claw is to break up large clods and loosen any smaller weeds. I keep movements gentle here so as to not compact the soil.

Before I plant seeds or transplants, I go back over the bed with a hand cultivator or rake to remove the loosened weed roots and/or smooth the soil into rows. As needed, I add compost and/or organic fertilizer to build the nutrient potential. At all times I maintain the edges of the bed, piling up loose soil back onto the center as needed.

I've seen the results of this no-till, hand-powered method at Swainway Urban Farm, where the naturally raised beds are now so loamy you can plunge your hands in the soil with almost no resistance. I love the quiet, gentle work of using hand tools to re-build my beds between seasons.

Edible Plant Flowers

Lil doesn't have much patience for gardening some days because "it's all about vegetables!" She plants her garden in flowers instead of food and she's taught me to appreciate beauty for beauty's sake alone. But most of the food we grow comes from flowers too. Can you identify these flowers from edible plants?

Answer key: 1. chamomile 2. cucumber 3. elderberry 4. pattypan squash 5. potato 6. sesame 7. tobacco 8. tomato 9. seed poppy

Edible Plant Flowers

Lil doesn't have much patience for gardening some days because "it's all about vegetables!" She plants her garden in flowers instead of food and she's taught me to appreciate beauty for beauty's sake alone. But most of the food we grow comes from flowers too. Can you identify these flowers from edible plants?

Answer key: 1. chamomile 2. cucumber 3. elderberry 4. pattypan squash 5. potato 6. sesame 7. tobacco 8. tomato 9. seed poppy

Garden Experiments 2014

I don't believe much of anything that doesn't have some evidence to go along with it. Maybe I have issues with authority, or maybe I'm too well-trained as a scientist, but sometimes I don't even believe evidence provided by other people. I like to test things myself.

The garden is my experimental lab. I tested the 'potato towers grow twenty times more potatoes' theory, twice, and now definitively believe that the only advantage of potato towers is ease of harvest.

Two years ago, I sought proof for the garlic growing wisdom that one should remove the scape for the garlic plant to produce a bigger bulb. I planted a large patch of seed garlic. I split the patch down the middle and removed half the garlic scapes for cooking - they usually come up in early June - and left the rest as is. They grew beautiful flowers. At harvest time, we saw clearly that the plants with scapes removed produced bigger bulbs.

2014 Garden Experiments

This year, I've set up trials to answer these garden-related questions:

1. Which is better for production - organic seed garlic from out of state or high quality, locally grown garlic? I planted three varieties of garlic from multiple producers to answer this question. I am running the trial in two separate locations to eliminate location variables.
2. Are seed potatoes worth the cost? Organic culinary potatoes sprout readily and have grown well for me before. I question whether $6/pound seed potatoes are any better than sprouted $2/pound organic grocery potatoes. Because of the availability of seed stock, I wasn't able to choose varieties to directly compare but we can still measure yield from the four varieties planted (one seed stock, one grocery store and two saved over from last year's planting).
3. Can I grow artichokes in Ohio? If so, where? I grew four varieties of artichoke from seed and am planting them in locations around the garden including in the hoop house, the hugelkultur, and in regular beds.  Alex and I fondly remember artichokes from our year living in Monterey, California and we would love to have a source of fresh artichokes again.

Experimenting in the garden excites me and gives me a chance to explore my limits while learning new things to pass on to others.

What are your garden experiments this year?

Garden Experiments 2014

I don't believe much of anything that doesn't have some evidence to go along with it. Maybe I have issues with authority, or maybe I'm too well-trained as a scientist, but sometimes I don't even believe evidence provided by other people. I like to test things myself.

The garden is my experimental lab. I tested the 'potato towers grow twenty times more potatoes' theory, twice, and now definitively believe that the only advantage of potato towers is ease of harvest.

Two years ago, I sought proof for the garlic growing wisdom that one should remove the scape for the garlic plant to produce a bigger bulb. I planted a large patch of seed garlic. I split the patch down the middle and removed half the garlic scapes for cooking - they usually come up in early June - and left the rest as is. They grew beautiful flowers. At harvest time, we saw clearly that the plants with scapes removed produced bigger bulbs.

2014 Garden Experiments

This year, I've set up trials to answer these garden-related questions:

1. Which is better for production - organic seed garlic from out of state or high quality, locally grown garlic? I planted three varieties of garlic from multiple producers to answer this question. I am running the trial in two separate locations to eliminate location variables.
2. Are seed potatoes worth the cost? Organic culinary potatoes sprout readily and have grown well for me before. I question whether $6/pound seed potatoes are any better than sprouted $2/pound organic grocery potatoes. Because of the availability of seed stock, I wasn't able to choose varieties to directly compare but we can still measure yield from the four varieties planted (one seed stock, one grocery store and two saved over from last year's planting).
3. Can I grow artichokes in Ohio? If so, where? I grew four varieties of artichoke from seed and am planting them in locations around the garden including in the hoop house, the hugelkultur, and in regular beds.  Alex and I fondly remember artichokes from our year living in Monterey, California and we would love to have a source of fresh artichokes again.

Experimenting in the garden excites me and gives me a chance to explore my limits while learning new things to pass on to others.

What are your garden experiments this year?

2014 Spring Garden Update {Wordless Wednesday}

1. Bee on grape leaf 2. Bee on celosia flower 3. Chickens in their new dual pasture yard 4. Old chicken yard garden beds in progress 5. Fig finally springing back to life 6. Rows of garlic plants 7. Harmonious Gardens managed by Swainway Urban Farm 8. Potato leaves 9. Row of tomatoes and pollinator food, aka weeds 10. Strawberries

The spring garden is growing! Our annual produce garden is 75% planted, the front yard organic farm rows are in progress, and the egg-laying chickens are finally in a pastured system (more on that another time). What's going on in your garden?

2014 Spring Garden Update {Wordless Wednesday}

1. Bee on grape leaf 2. Bee on celosia flower 3. Chickens in their new dual pasture yard 4. Old chicken yard garden beds in progress 5. Fig finally springing back to life 6. Rows of garlic plants 7. Harmonious Gardens managed by Swainway Urban Farm 8. Potato leaves 9. Row of tomatoes and pollinator food, aka weeds 10. Strawberries

The spring garden is growing! Our annual produce garden is 75% planted, the front yard organic farm rows are in progress, and the egg-laying chickens are finally in a pastured system (more on that another time). What's going on in your garden?