With these basics you can manage any garden anywhere to turn sunlight into organic soil matter that is living + soft to work + weed free. Humus is contained within multiple life forms in the soil. More life in the soil = more production on top of it. Grow more life in your soil. Its natural.
A sow makes a farrow for her litter. A pig makes a furrow with its snout. The most productive fallow is a living thing that absorbs atmospheric carbon. The gardener uses a mattock to make furrows + farrows + to plant fallows. SEE Collection of 7 Photos Below that explains these methods in practice.
Annual Grain Crops are managed to fast track the restoration of organic soil matter. Fallow Grasslands perform the same function. Daikon Radish may be planted up until end of July here. EXPERIMENTAL Ground Worker Seed KITS Available VIA LINKS BELOW – Information on this page is Foundation for GARDEN FOOD CROPS. If you have stored water to maintain constant plant growth then you can grow high humus content soil with ease. If you rely upon rainfall only (known as dryland or rainfed cropping) then you can modify management to match the rain and the soil to increase production.
Select seed species to suit each season. Millet is a small warm season seed (200,000 seeds per kg). Planting rates vary according to objective. With Millet 100 plants per square metre is ideal for growing full size plants to set seed. More seeds per square metre may be planted to grow more canopy. OBJECTIVE is to grow Living Fallow Crops to restore organic matter to the soil via decaying roots. Living Fallow Crops can also act as “collapse crops” or pull as “mulch crops” or cut as “green fodder” for chooks.
Low cost cereal crops (like millet + sorghum) have the advantage of fast growth. Use a mattock to roll the ground like a pig. A sow will make a stack with grass and soft topsoil to make a nest for her piglets. Hence the use of the word today “farrowing sow”. Sorghum is renowned for its deep root system that penetrates hard clays. You keep improving fertility by feeding these crops if needed with blood and bone or “no waste food scrapes” from your kitchen. The more they grow and the more you turn them over = more fertility + improved production.
To LEFT: is a Standing Crop of Barley = Living Fallow. CENTRE: is a Farrow fresh made with a Mattock. Furrows have been dug to cover the Farrow . When using a mattock work with legs wide apart and swing it in the centre with short movements. Always move topsoil uphill if possible. To RIGHT: is a Crop of Daikon Radish that was planted into a Farrow that has broken down. Once you have made a Farrow you continue to work and turn it. To go from a “Fallow to Farrow” is usually best completed over several weeks. Start with chipping or pulling. Then gradually move into Farrow Formation by stacking soil on top of crop. This is a good way to reduce weed seeds with applied water as you “roll it like a pig” and work it with a mattock. DATE: June 2023
Living Fallow to Left may be irrigated by filling furrows with water. Farrowing brings heavy clay to topsoil if you dig deep enough. As soil is stacked it covers the barley that breaks down with speed when moisture is available. Use a light spray of water to form a bind on disturbed topsoil that helps bring soil into contact with plant matter. Water encourages earthworms to move into the topsoil. Barley on Left is about 10 weeks old. From Spring onwards you can switch to Warm Season Millet + Corn + Sunflower + Sorghum = all fast growing Summer Cereal Crops.
Same Scene from ABOVE: Mattock was used to collapse Barley. Series of shallow cuts were employed about 50mm deep. Immediately prior to working with mattock the standing crop was seeded with Lucerne. Water is then applied. Lucerne can be planted here Autumn and Winter for ease of establishment. Lucerne is a long term living fallow and green fodder crop. DATE of PHOTO: 27/06/23
Wild Turnip on Darling Downs Grassland during a wet winter. Turnip is a herb. It typically only grows in grasslands devoid of competing grasses (from overgrazing or several dry years). Once it dries off in October it will drop leaf litter while leaving a standing body of stalks. Standing stalks block wind and filter sunlight. Eventually the stalks will collapse as mulch. The cost of Wild Turnip Seed is nothing as it is an annual weed. The cost of attempting to control it with herbicide is pointless. Let it grow and collapse to return organic matter to the soil. New grass recruits will prosper on Spring Rain under the canopy of Wild Turnip. Turnip will even protect new grasses from late frost.
Completed Process: 6 weeks ago this section was a Farrow – now recently planted with Daikon Radish. Green STRIP to LEFT is a Mix of Winter Weeds. Lucerne seed was recently sprinkled into this STRIP where conditions are now ideal for growing lucerne without any tillage over Winter.
Plant Density: Daikon Radish is initially planted at 200 seeds per square metre. Every week it is thinned to leave eventually 20 plants per square metre. During this process the canopy from initial high density plantings will shade out slower growing weeds.
Green Weed Mat to LEFT: was planted 8 weeks ago to Leeks, you can see Leeks in 3 furrows. All of these green weeds are winter active and will dry off in Spring. Furrows to RIGHT: Daikon Radish now about 2 weeks old will need to be thinned as they develop. DATE of PHOTO 07/07/23
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