No till garden

Do you understand the power of a chicken? We have learned to love and respect our flock, they do some amazing work for our farm. And they love doing it, I have never seen a chicken that did not enjoy scratching and pecking in the soil.  Chickens can do a lot for your homestead and they are very entertaining. But, I want to go into detail on one thing they did for us this winter. They prepped a garden spot for us.

If you follow us you know that we move our chickens however, this winter we put them on a spot and let them stay there all winter. They ate all the grass, weeds and they scratched down to the soil. We moved the chickens in early March and waited. As the sun came out and warmed the soil, weeds started to emerge. Grow weeds first, then kill the weeds and plant your garden.

Weeds began to emerge
after a couple weeks

Then, I took the flame weeder and torched the weeds. I love this tool, and I have never met a weed that stood up to my torch.

Torched the weeds that
emerged

Now, you basically have a sterile seed bed. Remember, each time you till, you bring up new weed seeds.

After we waited for about 2 to 3 hours the next step is to add compost on top of the sterile seed bed. This way we are building soil vs. breaking it down by tilling. Then we plant the crop in the composted organic matter.

The chickens were on the same ground all winter, dropping their manure, scratching and spreading it around. The soil underneath the compost has plenty of natural fertilizer because the chickens.  They were also digging through the soil and eating grubs and other bugs. This is what chickens love to do. Our chickens are vital to our farm, they also helped make the compost we use for our gardens.

Spread compost 1 to 2
inches thick with
garden rake

No excuse not to have a garden this year. You don't need a tiller, cultivators or other big tools to make a garden. Now you have a no till garden, so I would challenge you to grow a little food for your family. Plant things you love to eat. If you don't have chickens put a dark colored tarp down on the spot you want a garden on. Then leave it for 3 weeks, uncover it and let the weeds start to come up again. Then, take the torch to it, this is the fun part for me. It's that easy, now you have a garden and you didn't have to break your back trying to dig up the back yard. Good luck!

Jason Smith
Homesteader and Market Gardener
Email: jason@smithfamilyfarmtn.com
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH_6SzCMTTkjND
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Website: www.smithfamilyfarmtn.com