Fwd: Maybe try the No-till way (Was Pioneer Plants)

Joe, et al:

"I may have missed the original point of this thread
but I wanted to ask a question:
Why is it we want to "green manure" or otherwise amend
the soil?
Will the site be planted to a "tradtional garden" or
simply be covered up?
Are we assuming that the site soil is too poor to grow
anything and, hence, it is necessary to amend it?  Has
the soil been tested?"

The original message appeared in the archives but not on email for some unknown reason. Here is the original message.

"If a "Pioneer Plant" is a plant that thrives on dry, rocky, compacted,
weedless building sites, then I need to know which plants are good
Pioneers.
Which plants are best to plant first on barren ground?"

My concern is that the building site does not have volunteer weeds growing on it after two spring rains. An internet search led me to pioneer plants to use after volcano eruptions, hurricanes and clear cutting, but nothing for a Medit valley. Moire's information is very apropos. After spreading some organic matter, which plants should I use?
Kathleen
Redding CA - north end of the Big Valley

--- Begin Message ---
  • Subject: Re: Maybe try the No-till way (Was Pioneer Plants)
  • From: J* S*
  • Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 07:06:56 -0700 (PDT)
Kathleen, et al:

I may have missed the original point of this thread
but I wanted to ask a question:

Why is it we want to "green manure" or otherwise amend
the soil?

Will the site be planted to a "tradtional garden" or
simply be covered up?

Are we assuming that the site soil is too poor to grow
anything and, hence, it is necessary to amend it?  Has
the soil been tested?

My thinking would be to simply plant it "as is",
regardless of the "growability" of the soil (as long
as there isn't something truly toxic in it).  

There's plenty of plants that will grow on such sites.
 Abandoned strip mines are regularly reclaimed and
renovated.  Hydroseeding/mulching is often used, with
specific species used in the seed mix.  Small plants
are planted that will scramble and ramble and hide the
rockiest of sites.  Tiny trees -- selected species, of
course, are planted where any smallest pocket of
diggable soil can be found.

The results can be fabulous.

If you're going to plant a flower bed or vegetable
garden there, well then you'll need to do as you
originally asked and get some organic matter into the
soil.

Joe

--- Tony and Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> kgkg1010@aol.com wrote:
> > 
> > The land is near the Sacramento River, lots of
> river rock. The next street
> > over is called Gravel Pit Road! The ground is
> compacted sand, but I think
> > I'll find clay that has been hauled in during the
> grading of the land. I
> > wonder about a green manure that would need to be
> rototilled - how hard is it
> > to rototill rocky ground? Are there plants that
> help build the soil that
> > aren't turned in?
> 
> Kathleen 
> Actually, a lot of work has been done in recent
> times on improving
> difficult soild like sand and clay and the
> astonishing result has been
> that the quickest way to improve such a soil is not
> to till it at all,
> but (following nature's lead) to simply apply as
> much organic matter as
> possible to the surface.
> 
> The usual story goes more or less like this " for
> several years I have
> been trying to improve my soil by digging in organic
> matter, sand etc,
> but with little sign of improvement. This time I
> just put the stuff on 
> the surface and there has been more improvement in
> one season than in
> the past several years". 
> 
> Perhaps you might like to try this method for
> yourself. Rototillimg
> rocky ground can be a real pain, as if the rocks are
> much larger than a
> large potato there can be serious risk of damage to
> the to the tiller. I
> speak from my own experience When we set up our
> little "orchard" around
> fifty years ago we got in a contractor to till the
> area which was just
> on the fringe of the main part of our garden, a bit
> of ancient river
> bed. There was no question of tilling most of this,
> as many of the
> stones turned up there were bigger than our heads,
> but we wrongly
> thought the orchard was nearly clear.
> 

=====
Joe Seals
Santa Maria, California --
where the weather is always perfect
and my garden always has something blooming
and birds galore

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