Double-Dug vs. No-Dig

[HEChicken]

HeChicken, I have 5 chickens. When I tried to scoop it up like you, that's when it was very hard. I admit I didn't layer as much as you. It was starting to get smelly so I wanted to scrape it off. I use rice straw if that makes any difference and my soil is sandy.

Mary

Hmmmm….I don't know. I use wheat straw and have never even seen rice straw -maybe it doesn't break up into the smaller particles as easily. Also it sounds like it compacts more with contact with the poop - I think a previous poster mentioned rice straw is used to make bricks. The wheat straw doesn't compact with the poop at all. A scoopful is heavy but not difficult to lift out of the bedding, if that makes sense. The biggest difference though may be the volume. I don't know how many birds I have but it is probably in the neighborhood of 70-100. I am breaking all the rules because they live in a 10x10 coop - the coop is all roosts LOL. The intensive nature of it may mean that the compost action starts faster than if I had the recommended 4 sq ft per bird. Incidentally, I wouldn't recommend keeping this number in a coop this size. I get away with it because they aren't confined to a run during their waking hours - they have free-range of 10 acres. They only go into the coop to sleep, lay eggs, and access the feeder.

 

[digitS']

I used to use a scoop shovel for the snow. Too Heavy! Gave it to Dad . . . I think he may have finally thrown it away, probably about when he hit 85.

It would have been just fine for our last snowstorm. It "dumped" 5 inches of snow that amounted to just over .1"of water. Powder? That stuff was more illusion than reality.

I have been thinking about a name for my snow shovel. Yeah. I think I will call it "Savannah." Nice name, don't you think?

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I've called my snow shovels names, but nothing as nice as Savannah!

 

[baymule]

@digitS' Savannah is a lovely name for a snow shovel. Never thought about a name for my pooper-scooper..........(unprintable)..........

 

[ducks4you]

"Mulch, mulch and more mulch!" AND hand dig it in. If the soil is easy to run your fingers through, so that you do not need a hand trowel to plant seedlings, it is EASY to weed, too. So thoroughly mix your soil with mulch, use a rake and then your hands to work it, and weed when necessary.
OR, grow seedlings, use PREEN and plant them while the weeds or any other seeds do not grow this season.

 

[digitS']

I picked up the current issue of The Mother Earth News and there is an article that fits well in this topic:

Intensive Gardening: Grow More Food in Less Space (With the Least Work!)(Link)

The magazine very kindly put it on its website!

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks for the link. I read the article and pretty much agree except on two points.
1) "When I initially encountered Jeavons’ book in the 1970s, I set out to follow his technique for double-digging my garden. I quickly discovered...that this was a daunting amount of work."
Yes, it's a lot of work, but you only have to do it once. I come out of every winter toting 6-7 10 gallon buckets of water daily to my horses and pushing 12-14 wheelbarrows of muck from the stalls. I AM FIT in the Spring bc of this, and ready for any digging. (After THIS winter I'll be ready for ANY dirt that isn't an ice cube!!!)
2) "...raised beds of only 6 inches deep for most crops..."
This isn't deep enough for tomatoes. I still make sure that my tomato plants have almost 2 ft of some kind of a hole, so that they dig deep and I can stop watering them by mid summer--unless there is a drought. Since we all rotate our beds, why not make ALL beds deep enough for the deepest rooted plants.
It's great to read these articles while we are planning. As I said before, I have double dug 4 beds and I still have 5 that need it done in a few months.

 

[thistlebloom]

I believe it was you Steve who once called my habit of cramming and crowding "intensive gardening" after I had been complaining about myself. It was so sweet of you to legitimize my bad gardening habits!

 

[baymule]

I believe it was you Steve who once called my habit of cramming and crowding "intensive gardening" after I had been complaining about myself. It was so sweet of you to legitimize my bad gardening habits!

Me too!!

 

[digitS']

I don't think of giving plants no more room than they require to reach good harvest size as a "bad gardening habit!"

It is efficiency, right and proper.

Now, leaving plants beyond quality harvest condition does not reach those standards. But, if you don't like my standards, I have others.

Steve