Living Mulch Sustainable Farming near Missoula
www.permies.com Helen Atthowe, Missoula County Horticulturist (1995-2010) http speaks about a variety of experiments with living mulch. She covers minimum till, no till and full till. Helen talks about creating beneficial insect habitats: bees, parasitic wasps, (in april she was experiencing a 1-to-1 ratio of parasitized aphids to non parasitized aphids), spiders, ground beetles … Broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage yields are explored. Using three foot wide raised beds. The minimum till was done with a single shank chisel plow followed by a light tilling with a tiller/rotovator. Living mulches experimented with include clover which contributes nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also competes with the production crop. The trick is to find the balance and get the best of all worlds. Music by Jimmy Pardo
22 Responses to Living Mulch Sustainable Farming near Missoula
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can someone explain how clover adds potasium and phosphorus? i know it uses rysobium to fix atmosrpheric nitrogen but you cant get the other nutrients from no where
Wildwesty
January 24, 2012 at 4:11 am
@jitakyoeiJL This video is an example of one of the best permaculture backyards in the world. It is in Melbourne Australia which is a meditteranean climate
polyaussie
January 24, 2012 at 5:09 am
i love this video…. I think that with the right polyculture of plants with a better partitioning of resources would be helpful. maybe a white clover paired with roman chamomile as an insectary… they both stay short and run to a nice groundcover.
also… I know that all plants have a die off period at some point in the year… it may only be a matter of seeding the right crops in at the right time..with a seed drill this could be quick work and it may eliminate much of the need for machines
sukitmang
January 24, 2012 at 5:31 am
Thanks for the video.
Gave me a lot to investigate before planting this springs garden.
mikebrowni
January 24, 2012 at 5:44 am
@evantspurrell Yes, a less aggressive clover is a better choice; the red clover was great for weed suppression/insect control. I just returned from a roller-crimper demo for setting back cover crops. It works great on grains and grass covercrops, but not on legumes, except crimson clover. We tried sheet mulching 2009 (unrolling a large round bale of hay over asparagus). It was not economical at our scale – we used more hay to get the mulch deep enough and hay is an off-farm purchase.
hatthowe
January 24, 2012 at 6:07 am
Try sheet mulching and using a more diverse living mulch. i’m really not surprised the clover overwhelmed the Brussels sprouts with the methodology you used
evantspurrell
January 24, 2012 at 6:50 am
i loved the closeups of the bugs & the before and after. this must have been a big video project. not sure who won till or no till. i guess, in a way, we all won.
christhamrin
January 24, 2012 at 7:31 am
@LakeCountryFireworks
You are right! For the first 10 years we only used white clover – it’s time to go back to a short stature white clover or maybe a hardy subterrean clover.
Helen
hatthowe
January 24, 2012 at 8:13 am
Masanubo Fukuoku believes in white clover!
vutEwa
January 24, 2012 at 9:06 am
This gives me many new ideas for my 2011 garden – red clover, white clover, hairy vetch…..
hatthowe
January 24, 2012 at 9:32 am
@burramaluca Maybe next time I’ll do the editing when Helen isn’t sitting right there!
paulwheaton12
January 24, 2012 at 9:57 am
@jitakyoeiJL Not yet. Although I do still have some footage of Norris’s place in Portland – an urban lot loaded to the gills with permaculture stuff.
paulwheaton12
January 24, 2012 at 10:08 am
@ThunderPreacher I plan to have lots of samples of vegan stuff as well as omni stuff.
paulwheaton12
January 24, 2012 at 10:58 am
Wow, very interesting and useful. And wonderfully made video.
P.S. The lady in the video is noticeably in good shape – it pays off to live a healthy lifestyle!
teddy0072
January 24, 2012 at 11:05 am
Love the living mulch. The concept works for backyard gardening. In Texas I’m using hair vetch to help fight the Bermuda grass. Keep the videos coming. Thanks
bthaile
January 24, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Yes, the experiemnt was worth it!!! I learned a lot, modified the system, and the minimum-till approach was very profitable 2006-2010. More on that in later videos!
Helen
hatthowe
January 24, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Would you say the experiment was worth it?
ceadeses
January 24, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Thank you for showing a vegan example.
ThunderPreacher
January 24, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Best videos, thanks Paul. Any videos documenting the transformation of an urban/ suburban front and back yard into a permaculture food forest?
jitakyoeiJL
January 24, 2012 at 2:01 pm
The (Red) Clover used here would have better “minimal” effect if it where “White Clover” instead.
LakeCountryFireworks
January 24, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Great – I love permaculture experiments AND their results = perfect 😀
CurrentWave
January 24, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Hahaha – you met your match this time Paul! Love the new ending 😉
burramaluca
January 24, 2012 at 4:24 pm