The Ohio Department of Agriculture released the news last year. They have discovered through many years of testing that it is really not a good idea to cultivate your soil. This is a general statement – of course there are purposes for tilling such as adding amendments to newly installed planting beds or preparing a good medium to install a lawn of sod or seed.
Tilling your garden or landscape beds? Not so good. We have been inundated with information through the years – maybe just people talking – telling us that a bed is not prepared right unless you till, your garden will not grow well unless you till the soil before planting or on architectural drawings for the landscape a certain depth of tilling is required. Do you see what one does not belong with the other two just listed? The architectural drawings are typically for new beds – so yes till. The sod or seed area is also a “new” bed preparation, so to speak. The garden though, or an existing landscape bed with existing plants becomes the topic of the study. Within this study the Ohio Department of Agriculture has found that the tilling process on existing beds or even within the existing vegetable garden space really ruins the soil.
Soil has micro pores and macro pores. Of course the micro pores are smaller these are the areas where nutrients are normally found, the plants feeding root system will gather nutrients from the soil – the macro pores are the larger pores these are the areas that will retain water after a rain or much needed oxygen for the root system as all plants root systems breath oxygen. There are many other values to these pore spaces though the point being – tilling destroys these pores. The Ohio Department of Agriculture has found through extensive testing that your garden will actually grow better, larger and healthier if you do not till.
Don’t throw your three-prong cultivator out yet and if you do not have one of these but have mulch then you will want to get one for your garden tool collection. Why? To cultivate your mulch; especially if you have dbl shred hardwood bark mulch or a mulch of the sorts. Hardwood bark mulch is chipped from hardwood tree bark as the name implies. Tree bark has a naturally occurring wax created by the tree that actually repels water for the trees benefit. When the bark is shredded the wax is still present. Now put two and two together – What happens to wax when you place it in the sun and it gets warm? It melts, right? What happens to wax once it melts and it cools? It solidifies once again. The irony is the wax melts and spreads across the planting bed so subtly as not to be seen and then solidifies – how often does this process happen, over and over again.
Did you apply this mulch to your landscape beds to harm your plants or help them? It is not a bad mulch to use, though it does require a bit more maintenance than others. You must cultivate hardwood bark mulch and mulch of the likes at least two to three times a year. If not, then you are literally suffocating your plants as well as creating a roadblock for water absorption to the roots.
On the flip side you have soil conditioner, leaf humus, compost and mini pine nuggets or chips which are also great mulches, the downside of these? They tend to wash out of the landscape beds easily they are almost impossible to keep on most reasonable inclines and usually creating the need to clean out your bed edges.
There is a time and a place for everything under the sun.
Love it or leave it I say and I love them all!!
Speaking of love, as a Landscape Concierge I meet an abundance of very interesting people those of whom I hold their privacy and satisfaction as close as my own heart…I met a new electrician technician recently on an estate I have been helping the homeowner revitalize we will call him Jake. Upon an off the cuff discussion I mentioned to Jake how angry people have become according to the media and if the media is on spot – what a sad state of affairs. Jake replied with the bright eyes a young man has when the world is his canvas to paint – “People are not angry – I believe most people are good – kind hearted – looking out for one another – loving”. Jake made my day! He is a shining spot in someone’s life – a precious flower in his or her garden. I do not know about you but I agree with Jake, whether it is true or a leap of faith I will believe Jakes heart. Life is a garden; so definitely remember to cultivate the joy, as love grows best when watered!
Until next week… keep your garden thriving.
