Convoys and No-Till Gardening

 I saw a meme this morning that I tried to copy here, but some glitch prevented it.  I'll try to describe it instead.  

The first image had a picture of a long line of tanks and other military vehicles on a paved road.  

Title:  Tyranny.  Subtitle:  Russian Tank Convoy

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Right below the first picture was a photo of a highway with two lanes of vehicles traveling in the same direction.  Leading the line were  a semi and a smaller red-and-blue-on-white vehicle bedecked with multiple flags.  Several of them were American flags, but I couldn't tell what the others were.  

Title:  Toddler Tantrum  Subtitle:  MAGA Freedom Convoy.

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As many memes are, it's a little too over-the-top for my tastes, but I agree with the underlying message suggesting that causes that people commit to vary widely in fundamental worthiness of support.  

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This morning I sent an email on scheduling the next meeting to the rest of the gardening group that meets at my place.  I didn't plan to do so at the outset, but I ended up making a list of things that I hoped our next speaker might be able to help us out with.  As I did so, I realized that my list could double as notes that I might be able to use as part of my preparation for that speech I'm supposed to give to the Hutchinson Horticulture Club next Tuesday--on No-Till Gardening.

I'll copy the list here, along with a few introductory notes.  

[Our speaker] is from South Africa, and . . . she is not experienced in vegetable gardening.  That lack of gardening experience is, unfortunately, the case for many who are extremely knowledgeable about soil biology. 

Please indulge me while I try to think by writing here.  I would like for us to be able to ask _______ good questions that will give us guidance in our quest to make no-till doable on a home gardening scale.  Admittedly, I'm also trying to organize my thinking about that talk on no-till gardening that I need to present on March 15, in a little over a week.  I see several methods that work on a field-size scale (Gabe Brown) that don't translate very well to home gardening, especially urban gardening .  I also have difficulty with several of David Dowding's and Paul Gautschi's methods--for other reasons, even though they really nail the benefits (and some of the methods) of the no-till gardening approach in general.  .Elaine Ingham and her cohorts depend very heavily on some technical skills and equipment that most home gardeners don't possess.  Some of the details that have been worked out for no-till market gardening (Richard Perkins, Jesse Frost) don't seem quite right for home gardening either.  

Here are some of the things I would like help with:

1.  Avoiding soil compaction.  

2. Controlling weeds without soil disturbance.  

3.  Organizing the space in a no-till garden. 

4.  Accommodating elderly gardeners or others who have joint pain and declining muscle strength, flexibility, and balance.  

5.  Generating or acquiring and importing the huge volume of compost and/or mulch that is needed. 

6.  Making efficient use of irrigation water.

7.  Incorporating plant diversity without chaos.  

8.  Keeping living roots in the ground as much as possible.  

9.  Maintaining a balance between being a no-till purist and a realist.  

10.  Incorporating elements of other successful gardening traditions with no-till.

11.  Being a good steward of all God's gifts to gardeners.

Wow.  I think I made an intimidating list.

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I think the information in the above list will likely morph at some point into more manageable categories which might include headings like these:  

1.  Agricultural no-till methods that need translation into doable no-till home-gardening.

2.  No-till for gardeners with physical limitations.

3.  No-till for gardeners with limited financial resources.

4.  Local climate conditions that affect no-till success. 

5.  Supporting soil life without completely throwing overboard other good growing practices developed over many years--pieces of which were promoted by Ruth Stout, Dick Raymond, Mel Bartholomew, Eliot Coleman, Jacob Mittleider, Masanabo Fukuoka, John Kempf, Elaine Ingham and others.

6.  Utilizing materials that are readily available locally.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone in my reading audience who has had experience with No-till Gardening (sometimes called No-Dig Gardening).  I'd like to learn from your successes and failures.  I would especially love to learn more about #5 in the above list.  Add to the list of names any other gardening gurus from whom you have learned something.