NO TILL GARDENING

Gardening without power equipment

It is possible to plant, and maintain a fair sized garden with only a few hand garden tools. One solution to not having a roto-tiller is to prepare your garden for planting using the no-till approach. No-till large scale farming has become common practice, and it is quite simple to accomplish the same results in the garden without resorting to the heavy use of chemicals such as those used in no-till commercial farming. Instead of applying large amounts of herbicide to control unwanted vegetation, here is a simple yet effective solution to the problem. You can purchase a grass and weed barrier at garden centers, home centers, Wal-Mart, and online suppliers. Grass and weed barrier is a cloth mat(same black material landscapers use to line flower beds (landscape fabric)) that can be placed directly on the ground to prevent weeds and grass from growing. If your planning on a 100 square foot garden then you will need approximately 110 square feet of grass and weed barrier(square feet of garden x 110%). The extra 10% of material will compensate for the overlap needed to achieve seamless weed and grass control. Since a picture really is worth a thousand words, here is a rough illustration of what I am talking about.

10/21/08 Wal-Mart price for grass and weed barrier-$15.79 for 360 square feet

Determine the outline of your garden and cover the area with the material, taking care to overlap the seams a couple of inchs. You need to place weights on the material to keep the wind from moving it around. I would recommend weighting the entire border with landscape timbers, bricks, blocks, rocks, or whatever you want or can find. You should also weight the seams every four or five feet with rocks or bricks as shown in the illustration. Next, I would apply mulch(leaves, straw, pine straw, or bark chips) to a depth of 3 to 5 inches. If there are no gaps or holes in your garden mat, then the weeds do not have any opportunity to survive. If you want to apply lime to your garden it should be applied prior to laying down the landscape fabric.

In the spring when it is time to plant, you simply cut an x shaped hole where you want to place your plant, dig the appropriate size hole with a small hand trowel/shovel like those used in a flower garden. The material is then put back in place. As always, we recommend cutworm collars be placed around new plants since the collars don't cost anything(Cutworm collars will be explained in full in the spring planting section in early february).

This no-till method of gardening lends itself to a very attractive garden which requires very little maintenance. Weeding is almost entirely eliminated, mulch adds textured look, well defined border frames the garden, and the need for watering is greatly reduced by the mulch and landscape fabric.

All things considered, this type of gardening requires the least amount of physical exertion, and is probably the best method for the very small backyard garden.

Where to next?

1. Ask a question or leave a comment.
2. Go to the garden home page.
3. What to do if I am an apartment dweller?
4. What can I do this winter to help with my spring planting?
5. I have a small garden spot but no roto-tiller.(you are here)
6. The last time I planted a garden I was disappointed with the results.
7. Go to Project365V.
8. Go to sitemap.
9. Visit the garden diary.