The 2013/14 Data Gathering Project

This is the presentation given at the NAGA AGM on 12 April 2014

AUTUMN PLOWING / SPRING ROTOTILLING, COMPOSTING, plus some additional info on (STONES, WEEDS and HARD CLAY)

Data was gathered both on Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014; it was collected from several allotment gardens, farms and consultation with fellow gardeners.

Where information came from:

• Troy Allotment Gardens Website, Wisconsin (USA), similar in latitude and climate to Ottawa;
• Blackburn Hamlet, and Kilborn Allotment gardens, a visit with George Bushell, President of the Gloucester Community Gardens.
• Talking to local farmers, and a visit to a working plantation in Charleston, SC (USA). 

Problems: Big stones in gardens

Immediate action required before May rototilling:

• Removal: the stones can damage plow equipment, even rocks the size of apples could damage prongs of rototiller.
• Walked around the garden and saw several large rocks, one nearly 2ft x 3ft!
• We need to remember that these gardens plots are part land-refill (i.e.: clay, rocks, pavement chunks, concrete pieces with metal, etc.) all of which would damage the farmer’s equipment.

Proposed Actions:

• NAGA Board sends communication to all gardeners to identify and remove any large rocks as soon as gardeners came across them, at any time of the year. If these rocks are too large for one person to safely handle, we’ll help. 
• I removed some rocks last fall before freeze-up and will champion this project but need assistance of several strong bodies and our riding-mower/trailer to immediately haul them off to our stone drop-off pile before rototilling begins.

Plowing / Rototilling

NAGA standard practice:

• Autumn: plots are plowed
• Spring: plots are rototilled

Other Allotment gardens standard practices:

• Spring: gardens are rototiller
• Autumn: NO plowing/ rototilling

"Backyard gardener's" standard practice is usually just a spring cultivating of their garden plot.

Farmers in the area have moved onto minimum soil cultivation, i.e. one plow disc, or single harrow between rows of the previous years crop.

The city-contracted farmer who plows our allotment gardens questioned me as to why we plow in the autumn. He stated that rototilling is enough and is all that is required. Benefits of big money ($) to be saved here, plus the added environmental benefits of no additional plowing.

“Plowing/Rototilling Experiments” done at the gardens last autumn and this spring 

• Experiment #1: two plots P290, P283 were not plowed in the autumn, they will be rototilled only this SPRING. This was a 'worst case' plot selection; as both these plots are heavy clay (had never had composting), and were in a low area under several inches of spring water melt. 
• Experiment #2: 1/3 of plot P289 rototilled only in the autumn; 1/3 of plot P289 was rototilled only in the autumn, with 6 bags of leaves (not shredded) added prior to rototilling; 1/3 of plot P289 was rototilled only in the autumn with 6 bags of shredded leaves added prior to rototiling. 

Action: Compare the cultivation results between all plots in May (depth of rototilling and amount of soil break-up), and if results are comparable, do only Spring rototilling in the future.

*Additional food for thought: could it be done in Fall vs. Spring? 

• Pros: not waiting on the city’s spring plowing time schedule, you could plant when you wanted to, and also plant some crops on your annual in the fall (e.g: garlic); and 
• cons: would our clay soil be better aerated/broken up by waiting until soil is completely dried later in the spring?

Composting

• Troy, Wisconsin (USA) allotments: everything is composted right on each individual’s plot.
• Boone Plantation Commercial Farm, Charleston, SC. (USA): everything is composted on same spot where it was harvested. All farmers compost on the same harvested field.
• Blackburn: some gardeners do compost on their plot. The rest move their compost to the edge of their plot in the fall. A farmer is then hired ($) to clear it to the far end of the field. Once there, it is NOT USED  (as in never) as the gardeners find it too much work to reclaim it. The Chair cannot get any action or consensus on composting on the plots, is frustrated and has given up.
• Kilborn: everything is composted right on each individual’s plot.

NAGA: we are the only ones to have compost bins.

As of today there are “ 22 COMPOST BINS” on the grounds, ... 20 small, 2 large. There also appears to be 18 additional new bins made from pallets (looks kind of fort-like) at the fire-station end of the gardens, ...some have compost in them, locks on them, others have garden fencing, poles, cages, chairs stored in them.

EVERY COMPOST BIN is presently FULL and/or OVERFLOWING onto the surrounding area. We seem to be inundated with the stuff! They also have GARBAGE and STONES thrown into and around them. Gardeners who have the temporary bins next to their plot have to move the soil back to level their plot every year because the tractor can’t plow or rototill in the desired direction because the bins are in the way.

                                 

Currently gardeners are encouraged to carry their plant material from their plots and place it in “TEMPORARY BINS.” As these fill-up, all the compost is moved again to large “HOLDING BINS” to compost for a year. It is then turned over and any un-composted material is moved to a “Second Bin.” Gardeners are then encouraged to dig out the composted material and return it back on their garden plots. As this is very heavy and hard work and getting volunteers has not been a reliable solution, money is paid out ($) to do the emptying, transporting, and turning the compost throughout the season.

Reasons given by NAGA gardeners on why they don’t compost on their own plot:

• Some gardeners thought “they were required” to tidy and remove all season-end plant materials off their plots each fall. NOT TRUE, just cut up pieces into small enough bits so as not to tangle the rototiller. 
• Some were afraid of plant diseases if left on plot and not going through a full year of composting. NOT TRUE, discard any diseased plants to the garbage immediately as you would normally do. ALL FARMERS compost directly on their fields, I’ve been doing it for over 15 years on my plot with zero problems. 
• Most gardeners I polled don’t use the binned compost as they find it too hard physically to separate out the uncomposted materials, rocks, plastic, glass, wood pieces, twine, rope etc. They preferred the free ($1000/yr) mushroom compost provided by NAGA in the spring. 
• Some were concerned that leaving weeds to compost on their plots would result in hugely larger number of weeds sprouting next spring. NOT TRUE, you will always have weeds. Just the physical act of pulling one weed that has gone to seed will disperse hundreds of seeds onto your plot. 

Most of our NAGA garden’s common weeds produce anywhere from a few hundred - to thousands of seeds per full mature plant. And the seeds can remain fertile in the soil for years, for example a single lambsquarters plant can produce 39,000 seeds in one season and can germinate up to 40 yrs later. Scary eh!?!  Miss one weed (or your neighbour misses one), add in the results of plowing/ wind/ birds and every plot will get more than its fair share of weeds every year. I did three walkabouts of our allotment gardens last year (early summer, late summer, and fall). Every plot always had some weeds, ...including my own!

Proposed Actions: 

• Removal of these temporary bins and Phase Out the Large Holding Bins. Seems these temporary bins are very labour intensive and also just too convenient a drop-off spot for strewn garbage and stones. This will get gardeners doing their own composting on their own plots, putting garbage where it is should be, (in the main garbage bins) and taking their stones to the rock pile. 
• And here’s an Easy-Lazy Way to do it ...with no lugging heavy stuff from bin to bin to bin and then back to your plot: Just leave your compost material right there on your plot where it came from!!! ...your soil will thank you.

Darn Weeds

Here’s some tips on how to manage your weeds:

• Pull/hoe weeds regularly “before they go to seed,” and leave them to dry-out in a sunny spot in your garden for mulch. Expect the same of your neighbour. 
• Remove (or dry-kill) ALL quackgrass rhizome roots before you plant your garden, they will just continue to spread through your crop and then they’re really hard to remove. Dig a trough around the grassy side of your plot to prevent entry of these grass rhizomes. 
• Use plenty of mulch to keep weeds from sunlight and inhibit growing. 
• Plant veggie rows close together to shade out weeds. 
• Make a little time for weed control each time you visit your plot, ...it’ll pay huge dividends and give you time for more visiting with your fellow gardeners.

 Hate your hard clay soil?

We understand, yes it soaks up water like a sponge, and gets rock-hard when dried out ... but it does have tons on nutrients/minerals in it for your plants.

So we did a Leaf Shredding/Composting Experiment last autumn to help out the hard clay:

• I bought a used leaf shredder and Ron Elmer (with his generator) shredded leaves (free leaves from the curbside) and added them to 4 plots. Shredded leaves compost very fast compared to full leaves and don’t blow around during the winter. 
• Curious of the result? Check out the soil structure improvement results due to added leaves/shredded leaves on these plots P221, P229 (perennials), and A86 (annual). 

At the AGM I brought a 14 inch long, straight carrot I dug up on April 11  from my perennial plot P221. My plot has 15 years of just adding a few bags of leaves from the curb each year. A great improvement from the 1st year I dug my hard clay plot, bent the prongs on my digging fork, and had stunted short carrots. 

With a Leaf Shredder one can add way more leaves and amend the soil quicker. An added bonus is you don’t have to dig the leaves into the soil to prevent the wind from blown them around in the fall/winter.

*note: if you use a substantial amount of leaves or wood chips to amend your soil composition, you WILL HAVE TO ADD a bit of Nitrogen fertilizer to the soil to replace the Nitrogen used up in the composting of the leaves and wood chips! 

• I will also use these chopped leaves as mulch during the growing season to control weeds and retain moisture for the plants. Bonus ...it’ll turn into compost by next year. 
• So if you can’t grow long straight carrots in your hard clay, simple...just keep adding some leaves along with your plant residue to compost right on your plot!

Any interest out there in the community on exploring the benefits of the leaf shredder? ...let us know.

I hope to put together some information deck for our website soon, on Introduction to Managing your Soil better with Organic Gardening, other methods to improve soil structure and using less chemical fertilizers but still getting way more nutrients into your veggies. 

Happy gardening! 

Jim 

Two of my favourite tools for weed control (what are yours?)

There are two important words in the title. The first important word is 'weed'. The second, and most important word, is 'control.'

Weeds for gardeners are a fact of life. As sure as the sun will rise in the east, a garden will have weeds. An ornamental garden will have very few weeds, or NO weeds, because the gardener(s) spend a lot of effort removing all the weeds. The Nepean Allotment Garden Association (NAGA) is not an ornamental garden, although there are several gardeners that do a fine job of bringing beautiful flowers and creating an ornamental oasis for us all to take enjoyment in - thank you for that!

What is a weed? What may be a weed to me, could be somebody else's dinner salad. Dandelions can be eaten, but most people like to control this plant so it doesn't get out of control. However, there are some common plants that appear in the garden that nobody will eat, or find ornamental, or that will have any utility, other than making your life a misery in the garden. Annual Sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) is a common weed that is unsightly and grows rapidly, for example.

Wikipedia has a page devoted to what defines a weed:

The word—commonly applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, such as farm fields, gardens, lawns, and parks—carries no botanical classification value, since a plant that is a weed in one context is not a weed when growing where it is wanted.

When I started gardening in the NAGA plots, I was soon overwhelmed by weeds taking over my annual plot. It go so bad that I felt my time and effort was entirely consumed by removing weeds, as I could hardly tell the difference between where the food plants were among all the greenery of the weeds! Many days of caring for the food plants were lost simply to removing these darn weeds. That didn't feel like gardening! I was neglecting the good stuff to get rid of the bad stuff!

I finally decided to consult YouTube to see what experienced gardeners do to get rid of weeds without resorting to chemicals (which are not allowed in the garden, and now also illegal in Ontario). What I learned was that removing all the weeds from your garden is only a dream and a fairy tale. You will have weeds in your garden. It is impossible to 'get rid' of weeds (for more than a day at least). However, you can control them!

What is control? The thing you need to do is CONTROL YOUR WEEDS. CONTROL means that they never overwhelm you or your garden. CONTROL means that you can see what, and where, the food plants are. CONTROL means not having weeds everywhere, all the time. CONTROL means you will see weeds, but it will take you only a few minutes to deal with what you see. CONTROL means the 'NAGA weed inspectors' won't be making a note of who to call for getting their weeds under control (and potentially losing your plot!). It means not being discouraged every time you go to the garden!

Simply cutting weeds above the soil helps, but I don't find the end product very attractive, or very effective. The other thing I learned from some YouTube videos was the use of hoes, or even better, specialised tools that are meant for controlling weeds by CUTTING them BELOW THE SOIL. This was a 'Eureka moment' for me.

Disclaimer: Allow me to state up front that I have absolutely no financial, family, or other connection to Lee Valley Tools. Other than a fairly tidy, weed controlled garden, I have nothing gain from promoting the tools I am about to describe.  In this posting I am suggesting two Lee Valley garden tools that have worked very well for me. In fact, Lee Valley have several tools similar to the ones below, but I haven't tried them. You'll have to try them yourself if you think they suit your style, or budget, or need, better than my chosen tools. (Also, these recommendations are not from the Board of Directors, they are from me.)

Swoe is me. The first tool I recommend is called a Swoe. The Swoe sells for about $45. 'Swoe' rhymes with 'hoe', and it is almost like a hoe. I believe the 'sw' comes from 'sword', from Wilkinson Sword. Gardeners are frugal. So far, for the time and effort saved, I have found this tool well worth the money.

The picture below, from Lee Valley's catalog, shows the swoe being used. This tool has several good features. First, the kiln-dried ash handle is very long, you can stand upright while you do the job. This is good, especially as we age. Second, it has a diamond-shaped flat stainless steel blade. The stainless steel is nice as it is very tough, and does not rust. The blade is angled so that it is parallel to the ground when you use it. A slight up-and-down motion of the handle allows you to wedge the blade under the soil on the opposite side of the weed, and then you pull, blade under the soil, and cut the evil weed! The blade is sharp enough to cut weeds, but not sharp enough to cut your fingers. A back-and-forth motion allows you slide the blade UNDER the soil and cut many weeds per stroke. The cut weed falls onto the surface, and the cut remains below the soil, away from the life giving sunlight. If the weed hasn't gone to seed, you can let the weed stay on top, dry out, and go back into the soil. Don't take my word for it, though, there are some reviews here from another seller in the USA.

The swoe in action!

  



The swoe blade, close-up.

Japanese weeder. Because the swoe is a large tool, it can be unsuitable for removing weeds that are closer to your food crop. Lee Valley sell hand-sized tool, the Traditional Japanese Weeder which sells for about $21. I left one these behind in my garden once, and some thief quickly relieved me of it. I hope their garden is weed controlled, at least. The tool is so useful that I quickly bought another one to replace the stolen tool. Unlike the swoe, Lee Valley also sell this tool for left and right handed people! You can see this in he photo below (courtesy of L.V.). The blade on this tool only cuts when you pull the tool, and it is a lot sharper than the swoe. According to the Lee Valley webpage, it is "hand-forged, laminated 4-1/2" blade combines a hard carbon-steel face with a shock-absorbing softer steel back for increased durability."  With regular use, it has never rusted on me. I have recommend this tool to everyone I see with a weed problem. One gardener purchased one after a short loan, and she said it saved her garden. Her weeds had gotten out of control, and this tool saved the day. Just as a reminder, this tool operates as the swoe does, but cutting off weeds BELOW the surface.

 Left and Right handed!

 

 

The Traditional Japanese Weeder blade, close-up.

 
I have found these two tools to be the quickest, chemical free, method to CONTROL weeds. You will spend an eternity removing weeds. And as the soil in the NAGA garden contains a lot of clay, it can be nearly impossible to get the roots out of the soil.

Finally, unlike a regular hoe, when you use these tools, there is a minimal amount of soil which is moved around by the blade action. I have found there is no second step to move soil back to its original position as you get with a hoe, or a digger. These are efficient tools, and they have allowed me to quickly control the weeds and then let me get back to gardening the food crop. Isn't that what it's about?

These are my experiences and recommendations. There are over 100 gardeners in NAGA. Perhaps you have another method that works well, or better! PLEASE send us an email, and let us know what works well for you. We can share your ideas on this blog, and hopefully we can get the weed problem under CONTROL!

All submissions should be sent to: naga.ottawawebsite@gmail.com

Happy weeding,
Craig Hamm
NAGA member, Director-at-Large, learning gardener

Are you taking vacation this summer? Serious issues keeping you from your plot?

Gardening is rewarding, but it is a lot of work to keep a garden tidy. Weed control keeps the garden looking good for the community and is also a courtesy to adjacent plots; they don't want your weeds to propagate to their plot. But sometimes, life takes over, and you just can't get to the garden for a week or more, and the weeds will grow, and grow rapidly!

If you are going on vacation during the gardening months, please have somebody help you out during your absence. As a last resort please notify a Board member that you are going to be away for a period. In this case the Board may be able to enlist help to keep the weeds controlled while you are away. At least the 'weed patrol' will be aware why there may be a problem.

Unfortunately, if you find yourself dealing with a serious family issue, illness for example, and you cannot keep up with your garden plot while you deal with this, please look for help from a friend or other gardener to control the weeds in your plot. If that is not possible, as a last resort please let a member of the NAGA Board know. We do not want or need personal details. But we might be able to help you keep the weeds under control while you deal with much more serious issues.

To contact the Board, please email: nagagardens@gmail.com