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The following is an excerpt fromThe Lean Micro FarmbyBen Hartman . It has been adjust for the World Wide Web .
Unless otherwise observe , all photographs and illustration copyright © 2023 by Clay Bottom Farm .
A Guide to Two-Step Bed Flipping
When prepare garden beds , there are only two things you really need to do — clear away erstwhile crop ( or dope ) and smooth the ground . Everything else is probably pointless , or piffling , to practice Pareto ’s term . In this chapter , I excuse a round-eyed way to essentialize seam formulation .
On tiny farms , market gardeners might flip — or modulation — beds from one harvest to another several times per season to make the most of every square foot . With these rotation , you effectivelydouble or triplex your production area by planting the same bottom two or three times each yr .
That is , a 1⁄3 - acre plot literally becomes adequate to a 2⁄3- or 1 - Akko farm growing one crop per year . This justifies applying a great amount of compost to keep fertility levels high for multicropped bed .
The Key to Successful Bed Flipping
The keystone is to flip the bottom quickly and expeditiously . At Clay Bottom Farm , we pitch more than 100 beds each time of year — well our most onerous undertaking , an opportune place to incline up .
Here is the layer - flick process we get up when we impress to our fresh farm . First , wecover honest-to-goodness crop ( normally without cutting ) with a ensilage tarp and get the green decay in the sun(step 1 ) ; within a few weeks , the crops will turn to mush .
Next , we move out the tarpaulin and crease any debris into the path , if needed(step 2 ) . The bed is then quick to replant — no broadforking , chisel plowing , rotovating , hoeing , undercutting , or fertilizing ask . The method is as unproblematic as it get .
Two-Step Bed Flipping: Perfecting the Method
The rule guiding the cognitive operation is to leave behind ascendant in the ground . Roots exit in blank space provide carbonaceous material for soil microbes to deplete . Also , as they crumble , roots allow for air pocket behind , loosen the soil social organisation . The rotten plant issue also fertilize the soil .
This method extracts the farmer from the growing cognitive operation — you do just enough , as it were , and then walk away while nature does the rest . We preserve hours every time of year with this approachcompared to formal methods like tilling , chisel ploughing , broadforking , ripping , or pulling out old craw by hand , while sparing our bodies unneeded laborious work .
After sixteen years of growing , I ’ve reason thatmost methods promoted for bottom homework , like those just mentioned , can be skipped , especially if you are deep mulching . They do n’t pass the Pareto test .
As with abstruse mulching , this method would be impractical in a large surgery with acres in production — it would be too ill-chosen to manage the tarps . Below I describe two - step bottom flip out in item .
Just Smother It: A Better Way to Flip Short Crops
For spinach , baby park , capitulum bread , and other “ short ” crops , we pull a 14′ × 75′ silage tarpaulin over top of the bed when we are done harvesting them . This size of tarpaulin cover two bed at a time plus the paths on either side . If we need to hide just one bed , we ’ll pen up the tarpaulin in one-half .
I recommend cutting tarp to minute widths like this to make it easier for one person to handle them . Remember Schumacher ’s advice : Design with humans in mind . Make your husbandry comfortable to do .
Cutting and Pinning Tarps
slew tarps about 18″ panoptic than the bed / way of life width you plan to breed , as the crops underneath will tug the tarpaulin up slightly . ensilage tarps for market place horticulture are available many places online . We buy ours at a local farm provision in orderliness to write merchant marine costs , which can be substantial due to the free weight of the tarps .
Next , we pin down the tarp with sandbags , which we take with driveway gravel for optimum drain . One sandbag spaced every two paces — about 6’—keeps the tarps pinned down in the wind . If you are in an superfluous - windy area , take a closer spacing . If we are using more than one tarp side by side , we check that to overlap the edge by at least 12″.
Laying the Tarp & Covering Crops
Tip # 1 : Align the edge of your tarp precisely with the edge of the plot . If the tarpaulin is misplaced even by a few in , you ’ve given smoke room to grow . They will take full advantage of the opportunity .
Tip # 2 : stretch out the tarpaulin a bit as you lay them so that they are as tight to the flat coat as possible . The tarp kill the crops through faint neediness — occultation — and by trapping heat . The tighter your tarps , the darker and hotter it is underneath them .
Tip # 3 : If you ’ve laid down drip tapes to water , leave them in place under the tarpaulin . They are easy to move out , if needed , after the crop has buy the farm .
Tip # 4 : Farm like a tree and work forwards . Tarp beds at least two weeks out front of when you need to embed . Do n’t await until the last minute . On our farm , at least two bed are usually cover by tarp at all clock time in provision for planting .
Covering Preparation
There’sno grounds to mow , trim down , or tear up crop before covering them , unless you want to garnish them down so that the tarpaulin lay flatter . For example , we will sometimes trim coriander and basil plants if they are knee - high or taller . We leave these trim on the bed surface , under the tarpaulin , to decompose in place .
In most cases , however , it ’s better to economise your time . louse and germ will sufficiently rip up and manducate up uncut greens .
Two-Step Bed Flipping: Finishing the Process
After the greens have “ run ” ( died ) under a tarp , we draw out it off and scan the decomposed topic into a path , clearing the bed just enough to found or graft into it . If transplanting by hand , we will sometimes leave the residue on the surface as a kind of mulch instead of graze them off . However , raking is usually preferred .
Composting Decomposed Matter
from time to time , this hatful of decomposed matter is too bulky to fit out neatly in a path . In this case , we graze it into a pile at the end of a bottom , create a small compost heap that we will spread across the bed in a calendar month or two , once the greens have more fully break away down .
Alternatively , we might run down these spent K underneath another nearby tarp — out of sight , out of judgment — or add them to a compost pile near the secret plan . The peak is tokeep onetime plant life as close to where they grew as possible , to let them enrich the grime and salvage yourself a backache .
The Takeaway: Let the Crops Lead the Way
There are rare occasions when we tarp a harvest even before it has eat up maturing . For example , in 2021 , a bed of sugar was overhaul by fast - develop Peruvian daisies that we had mistakenly have go to come in 2020 . We decided that or else of fight the pot , we would traverse the bed with a tarp , let the daisies and lettuce melt , and start over in a few weeks with another craw .
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