Looking for something? Try searching the site:
Subscribe to Blog via Email
-
Recent Posts
- At last, the soil podcast is here! November 3, 2017
- Don’t count your weeds before they hatch: update on occultation vs. solarization for weed suppression in no-till cabbage August 24, 2016
- Tarps for killing cover crops: mid-project update June 22, 2016
- Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops? May 26, 2016
- Phacelia is a bumble bee paradise July 8, 2015
- Cover crop mixtures: new factsheet May 25, 2015
- If you can see it, it’s too much May 13, 2015
- No-till transplanted onions in New England April 12, 2015
- Trying high-residue no-till on a budget March 19, 2015
- Maine is the first state to pay tribute to soils during the International Year of Soils March 12, 2015
- The website will go on, but this project is ending… March 9, 2015
- Under Cover: Rotational No-till and Mulching Systems for Organic Vegetable Farms in Germany February 2, 2015
Archives
Categories
- cabbage (1)
- Cover Crops (38)
- Equipment (12)
- Extension (1)
- Nutrient Cycling (9)
- Nitrogen (6)
- Deep Nitrogen (3)
- Sulfur (1)
- Nitrogen (6)
- pests (2)
- Podcast (1)
- Soil (19)
- Soil health (7)
- Soil microbes (3)
- Soil moisture (8)
- Soil temperature (7)
- Vegetables (18)
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
Posted in Podcast, Soil, Soil health, Soil microbes
Tagged soil health, soil organic matter, soil podcast
Comments Off on At last, the soil podcast is here!
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
Posted in cabbage, Cover Crops, Rye, Vetch
Tagged occultation, solarization, tarps
Comments Off on Don’t count your weeds before they hatch: update on occultation vs. solarization for weed suppression in no-till cabbage
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
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment, Rye, Soil temperature, Vetch
Tagged solarization; occultation; tarps; roller-crimper
1 Comment
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
Posted in Cover Crops, Equipment
Tagged killing cover crops, occultation, small-scale no-till, tarps, weed suppression
Comments Off on Trading tillage for tarps: an effective way to kill weeds and cover crops?
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
Posted in Cover Crops, Phacelia
Tagged bumble bees, flowering cover crops, pollinators
Comments Off on Phacelia is a bumble bee paradise
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
Posted in Cover Crops
Tagged Austrian winter pea, cover crop cocktails, cover crop mixtures, overwintering cover crops
Comments Off on Cover crop mixtures: new factsheet
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
Posted in Cover Crops, Soil, Soil health
Tagged soil erosion; soil aggregation; soil building
Comments Off on If you can see it, it’s too much