#slashmulch

We've mostly harvested our corn from our #slashmulch #3sisters garden this season, and again, it has exceeded my expectations. This year, our corn harvest will likely be slightly reduced from last year, mostly because of deer and raccoons. But it seems the energy equation somehow balance out, as we appear likely to harvest significantly more squash, as well as some potatoes, a huge number of tomatoes, amaranth, arugula, mustards broccoli, and a bunch of "wild" herbs and vegetables. It's still pretty amazing that these crops will grow so successfully without tilling or removing vegetation. #permaculture https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1XEGoga6h/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=swv2sxcyed5m

Here's an update on our slashmulch edible meadow/ 3 sisters garden. This area was never dug ,sod was never removed. We just started by growing out the lawn lawn, scything, and planting directly into the slash piles. "Slashmulch" is an ancient technique which has often been called "the most sustainble form of agriculture ever used by humans." What's special about this kind of system is that there are cultures that are known to have continuous cropped fields using this kind of system for literally hundreds of years with stable yields, without importation of fertility. Where does the fertility come from? 3 years in, we have incredible density and diversity of food plants: camas, garlic, onions, leeks, 3 other types of edible allium, carrots, Turkish rocket, borage, comfrey, monarda, anise hyssop, endive, salsify, mustard, tomotoes, ground cherry, sheep sorrel, blood veined sorrel, dock, clover, potatoes, oregano, calendula... and probably several other things I'm forgetting. And of course, corn , beans and squash. Many of these are great specimens despite the neglect. The shasta daisies are huge. The borage is huge. The garlic is some of the largest I've ever grown. Almost none of this was planted. None of it was ever dug into the soil. So, where does the fertility come from? For the corn, beans and squash, it comes from deep mulching. Remember, 4 inches of fresh organic mulches will break down to about 1 inch of compost. These "mounds" get way more than that. But this also relies on biodiversity. Through some mechanism that isn't yet well understood, high diversity generates fertility. This has been shown in several studies now, but most importantly a set of german studies of field ecology where fields with high diversity actually generated significantly more biomass than fields that were fertilized, even without N-fixers. With N-fixers, the result was even better. There was a line where once you got enough diversity fertility seemed to come out of nowhere. 8 species was the minimum, but even better results were achieved with 16 species... More detailed comments and notes over on Facebook. #slashmulch #Fukuoka #naturalfarming #Permaculture #3sistersgarden https://www.instagram.com/p/BzYL25bg4m-/?igshid=ecdonwkhpqey

Allium unifollium and sea kale, planted kitty-corner from our slashmulch three sisters planting. The folliwing images are of slightly different slashmulch piles with the corn germinated. We've got about 98% corn germination now, and probably 80% squash germination. It's still surprising to me that this works, but it does. Note: slashmulch is a complete natural farming/no-till growing system for field preparation and crop management relying on slashed vegetation as a mulch, interplanting and timing to control weeds. Other than the initial slash, minimal weeding or care is required. While common in the tropics, our experiment last year was the first of its kind I'm aware of in temperate climate areas. This year, there are a half-dozen other trials, based on our model, around the US. #Permaculture #slashmulch #naturalfarming #threesistersgarden

Various interesting things. 1. herbal "box" edging, 2. an updated shot of this guild that would be completely appropriate to any suburban yard, 3. French Bio-intensive spacings and interplantings in deep mulch, and the last picture... the first signs of germination in our slashmulch system for this year. We've got both corn and squash up already, despite a particularly late and lazy slashmulching. It still amazes me that we can get germination in this kind of system at all. But it works! #slashmulch #permaculturegardening #ediblelandscpaedesign #deepmulchgardening