Is It Necessary To Plow My Garden Every Spring?
The plowing of a garden as the first step in the season’s tillage operations is such a well-established annual custom that most gardeners consider it indispensable. My experience has convinced me that plowing can be dispensed with for several years - at least under certain conditions - without reducing yields or quality of crops. This is the story of why and how I did it.
Although I live in a small town surrounded by farms, I have always had difficulty in getting farmers to plow my garden early enough in the Spring to suit me. It is sometimes easier to get Fall plowing done, but because of the hazards of wind and water erosion, Fall is not the preferred time.
Like most gardeners, I became restless as the days of Spring lengthened and chafed under enforced delay of getting at gardening. Some relief was obtained by my spading enough land at one side of the garden for radishes, lettuce, peas and some other early crops, and then waiting for the plowman to plow the remainder of the garden, but this was not wholly satisfactory.
Finally, tiring of exasperating procrastinations and sometimes refusals of plowmen, I decided to plant without plowing or spading, and then to follow with shallow cultivation between rows as needed. This system worked so well the first year that it has been continued since. I had at first thought that I might possibly need to plow every other year or once every three or four years in order to maintain proper soil structure. It may later be found that plowing is necessary over longer periods, say once in 10 years, but there are no indications at the end of the first seven years that plowing will be necessary in the near future.
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