“I have more and more herbs that are perennial,” she said. This range of perennials could also extend to strawberries, horseradish, lovage, and asparagus.
“For the first two years I struggled to get it where I wanted,” she said. But now, 10 years later, “the floor is so fluffy, I really don’t have to add anything to it.”
New gardeners come and are overwhelmed by the intransigence of the weeds, she said, especially after a summer vacation or an extended break.
“That’s one of the main reasons it generates sales,” the gardener said. Pridgen uses catch crops to block weeds and feed the soil; Daikon radishes open the soil without digging, and legumes such as vetch and clover add nitrogen to the soil. “I’ve had a lot of good harvests over the years,” she said.
At Lederer Gardens, a community farm and community garden in northeast Washington, gardeners initiated a no-till system this year. Rows 30 meters long and more than a meter wide rise between earthen corridors, and the beds are now full of tomatoes, winter squash, corn, okra pods and French beans. In one stretch, strawberry plants act as ground cover between kale.
To create the garden, the old flower beds were cultivated 12 inches deeper using a heavy steel tool called a wide fork – essentially a device with curved prongs between two tall handles. The tool is pressed into the ground with the foot, then rocked back and forth and opens the ground without disturbing the surface. The beds were then raised an additional 12 inches with a mix of soil and compost.
