The Ultimate No-Till Strategy

Everything you wanted to know about the no-till deep compost mulch system and lasagna beds. Pros, cons, how to build and FAQs.

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[rubytuby]

For a small garden like mine all I did was put a fence around it lay down the cardboard, and fill it with leaves about 2 feet deep. Leaves are all free all bagged up waiting on the curb for me around the neighborhood. It’s been three years now and I put six feet leaves on my garden. The compost is about a half a foot thick. In the spring the leaves are only about 4 inches deep I push them aside and put my plants in I never I have to clean my garden. Everything stays in the garden and gets buried with leaves every fall.

[msdramamusic]

I just purchased .27 acres this is the method I'm going to do.

[tedpreston]

No-till has been a wonderful system here in Colorado. I'm planting for the second year in a garden that started as a sand patch growing weeds. Building beds was as simple as mowing the weeds, then covering the plot in cardboard, then laying out beds and paths using compost and straw. After laying out the beds, watering and compacting the compost, I planted straight into the compost.

The first year, the garden grew gangbusters with a typical selection of garden plants. I added several inches of compost over the past winter and spring, watered and compacted again (just by walking/dancing on the beds.) Just today, I moved some of the soil in one bed. The whole of the soil in the raised portion of the bed (the compost) was beautiful, dark, rich-looking soil.

This garden is particularly suited to no-till gardening because there is a constant supply of compost year-round just a short wheel-barrow trip away. No-till gardening benefits from ample additions of compost each year. I'm fortunate that my wife loves horses and I love making compost: a match made in heaven! Four horses produce a big pile of manure and urine-soaked wood shavings, and I add almost nothing else to my compost piles. To compost them, all I do is place the contents in a pile. Every couple months, I turn the piles, and I start building a new one with the fresh manure.

BY the time I use the compost in the garden, it has been turned five times, each time in piles large enough to hold a lot of heat in the interior. The heat helps the materials in the pile break down more completely, and kills weed seeds. I use the compost when it has been in piles a little over a year. Each time I turn the compost piles, I wind up with a pile of the oldest, now finished, compost at the east end of the row closest to the garden. (The west end is closest to the barn. 🐎)Since I turn the piles four to five times in a year, I always have a pile of compost at the east end to cart over to the garden.

[jc]

A couple things Charles Dowding does sometimes that everyone should do if they can... He often buys compost 3-9 months ahead of time and lets it finish if its hot. Some things will even grow right on top of compost pile while it's too hot to put on a bed. When he gets new compost, he also tests it for herbicides/pesticides with beans and other plants.

[EarlybirdFarmSC]

I have been tinkering with this method over the last few years and I really like it. Good explanations and love how your hoop houses are coming along.

[Leaflimb]

Awesome video! Thanks Josh! One option for compost for folks with limited funds or limited availability is to use leaf compost - this is often available from municipalities for free/cheap

[hughdman]

Thank you Josh. As always, very informative and a big help to those of us trying to feed our families! Thanks for being a solution!

[greenfeetoutdoors]

Great video Josh, love the idea of no-till gardening. Your videos continue to inspire me to keep experimenting, combining differnet techniques and watching the growth response. Thanks and take care.

[highroad]

We can use a tractor to bring compost or mulch into the garden. That saves our strength for planting. I used dead nettle as a volunteer cover crop this winter in a spinach bed. I pulled the nettle from just around each plant yesterday and added chicken compost to each plant just before it rained last night. Hopes are that the spinach will be in the height of growing as the dead nettle is declining. Soon it will be dry enough to go next door with the tractor for the yearly garden compost. There is a dry rotted silver maple, very large downed trunk that I can use for walkway mulch, too. Sometimes a truck stops by to drop off wood mulch. I have row tunnels for brassicas here in the SE. I’m very excited to get this going this year! My no till area is 1/4 of the annual garden area. The rest is worked by tractor, but with lots of compost. The chickens have been in the till area all winter, but not my no till area. We also have a food forest perineal garden that does great with lasagna layers and compost tea. I Learn something every day and experiment often.

[rogerbeck]

I always pick up new information/tips with each video. Now I need to source some good compost. We have a no till farm in the area that makes their own compost and I plan to call them for a tour to understand their process. My compost needs will not be that great but I'll still need at least 10 yards once I get started. Thanks again brother!

[raminsatyahadi]

Such a wonderful and informative video, thank you!🙏

[ssoma]

I could have never done this on my farm I had. The place to get compost was to far and cost to much, but I retired and sold my farm and moved into town with a great t compost place it took me 30 yards to turn my whole yard into a garden from grass. About $600 including delivery. Card board and chips were free, and in about two months all the free leaves I want to cover beds for winter

[heatherthomas]

loved this video, thanks - it looks very professional. I tried making Toby Hemenway's sheet mulch for the first time ever and I'm pretty surprised by the result, after about two months I have minimal hay weeds coming up. I really like your design though with the wood chips for the walkway. Glad to see your progress through the years!

[lewisjohn]

Our local council here in France have legit, bio compost. I buy it by the tonne for about 20 euros! My problem right now is that I have a small trailer and it is about a 40 minute round trip. They don't deliver. I have also acquired some land connected to my garden from the local Mayors office. I promised to clean up the area and it is the first thing you see when you enter the loved the idea of this and I got the land for FREE!! I think this approach can work with most local authorities if you show them what benefits THEY get out of it.

Another informative video again

[jeshurunfarm]

Nice Josh.
Respect on the forth season.
From a mid summer Africa 🇿🇦

[hughdman]

I did the same thing. I love deep compost mulching my beds. It works awesome.


Then, last year, the composted mulch I got from my mulch yard was not composted. Started cooking everything I planted in it period so be careful where you get your mulch. I recommend storing it for a few months or longer just to make sure it's "cooked" already.

[randyketcham]

Good tips on how to do the deep system. Good list of pros and cons. We have limited access where I am to finished compost. We do have the availability of raw chicken and cow manure which we are planning to haul in and let sit for a year to break down where the garden will be and then till it in before we start using less tillage and more no till gardening. We have reclaimed strip mine ground so it is poor soil and this is a relatively quick way to jump start the garden beds in just short period of time along with gypsum and bone meal spread throughout. Thanks for continuing to provide in depth explanations with your experience at your farm and at the city farm.

[waynesell]

Listening closely here in Michigan. Backyard gardening . Gonna make a change to notill this year! Thanks

[sowingback]

I have appreciated your video content. I have learned loads from your channel. Thank you!

[conradhomestead]

Great information. Thanks for sharing!