Author Archives: Natalie Lounsbury

At last, the soil podcast is here!

I made a podcast. It’s the podcast I wish existed when I started farming and learning  about soil. I have tried to keep the episodes short and sweet, covering the basics while also delving into some pretty cutting edge science- some … Continue reading

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Don’t count your weeds before they hatch: update on occultation vs. solarization for weed suppression in no-till cabbage

When I last wrote in June, I was really excited about how quickly the clear tarps were killing cover crops and weeds. I even proclaimed “the answer is clear: solarization is outperforming occultation.” Now that the tarps have been off … Continue reading

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Tarps for killing cover crops: mid-project update

UPDATE 8/24/16: Please see follow-up post on this experiment. Initially, the title of this post was “The answer is clear: solarization is outperforming occultation for killing cover crops.” At the time I originally wrote it, clear tarps were killing cover crops … Continue reading

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Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops?

It’s been so long! I apologize for my hiatus from this blog. I’m going to skip the chit chat and get right to the topic though: TARPS. I know a lot of small-scale growers have been using tarps as a … Continue reading

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Phacelia is a bumble bee paradise

In my narrow-minded search for fall-planted, low-residue, winterkilled cover crops, I tried growing phacelia a few times to suit this purpose. It did ok, but I found that with good fall growth, it really isn’t low-residue in spring. More on … Continue reading

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Cover crop mixtures: new factsheet

Selecting, seeding, and managing cover crop mixtures is the topic of a new factsheet from eOrganic written by our colleagues at Penn State. I had a chance to talk with Charlie White recently about their project and I’ll be sharing … Continue reading

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If you can see it, it’s too much

Sometimes, I feel like erosion is a big elephant in the room. It happens. It feels unlucky, it feels bad, and sometimes it feels inevitable. It is also still one of the biggest threats to long-term productivity and soil health … Continue reading

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