Methods of natural farming in the garden plot. From the plow to the computer: traditions and innovations in agriculture Folk farming

Today, the phrase “organic farming” is not just widely heard, but is the cause of numerous discussions. Some say that this is an extremely correct method of farming, others consider it only partially correct. Let's look at what organic, or natural, or nature-conforming farming is (these names are synonyms) and what its principles are based on.

Harvest obtained from organic farming. © Elina Mark

The term " Organic farming"has several more synonyms: ecological farming, biological farming. Organic or natural farming is primarily designed to maintain the health of ecosystems, soil, plants, animals and people.

A little history of organic farming

The theory of natural farming is not as new as it seems. The first to propose and test it agronomist scientist I. E. Ovsinsky. As a result of 10 years of work, in 1899, he wrote a book entitled “ New system agriculture”, in which he revealed the principles and evidence that a gentle approach to soil is less aggressive towards nature, less labor intensive and ultimately more productive than an intensive farming system.

The study of natural farming did not stop there. Not to say that it has been popular all these years, it has always had both supporters and enemies, but research has been going on, and again and again, and again it has been proven that caring for the soil gives truly significant results. As a result, today the meaning of organic farming can be expressed as follows:

• preservation and support of natural soil fertility,
• ecosystem conservation,
• obtaining environmentally friendly products,
• investment of significantly lower costs to obtain a harvest.

Basic methods of organic farming

Based on the above, the principles of natural farming become clear:

• refusal of deep tillage,
• refusal of mineral fertilizers,
• refusal to use pesticides,
• promoting the development of microorganisms and worms.

Refusal of deep tillage

The refusal to deep tillage of the soil is based on the knowledge that the upper layer is inhabited by a huge number of living organisms, the vital activity of which contributes not only to the formation of humus, but also to the improvement of its structure. Plowing and deep digging disrupt their living conditions, as a result of which the microbiological composition of the arable layer changes, and with it the ability to naturally maintain soil fertility, and the risk of weathering and leaching of elements important for plants increases.

The negative impact of this agricultural practice does not appear immediately, but after several years, as a result of which there is a need to use mineral fertilizers and other chemicals to maintain yields at the proper level.

In accordance with natural farming, the soil does not need to be dug up, but if necessary, loosened to a depth of no more than 5-7 cm (ideally 2.5 cm).

Refusal of mineral fertilizers

The refusal of mineral fertilizers is based on the knowledge that almost all fertilizers (substances mixed into the soil to replenish the nutrients it lacks) have a hidden aftereffect. Under their influence, soil acidity gradually changes, the natural cycle of substances is disrupted, the species composition of soil-dwelling organisms changes, and the soil structure is destroyed.

In addition, certain mineral fertilizers have a negative impact on the environment (air, water), on the plants themselves and, as a consequence, the quality of products and human health.

In organic farming, instead of fertilizers, the use of green manure, mulching, composts and other organic matter is practiced.

Refusal to use pesticides

The refusal to use pesticides can be explained simply: there are no herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides that are not poisonous. All of them are included in the group of substances that are toxic to humans (for this reason, there are strict rules for working with pesticides) and tend to accumulate in the soil in the form of residual products.

So, for example, it is calculated that the percentage of yield loss as a result of using a number of herbicides for the main crop, and for subsequent crops in crop rotation, can be up to 25%.

Nature-conforming agriculture in the fight against diseases and pests recommends using preventive measures, but if the problem could not be prevented, folk remedies or biological products.

Organic vegetable garden © Randi Ragan

Promoting the development of microorganisms and worms

Promoting the development of microorganisms and worms in organic farming is based on the fact that these soil inhabitants are direct participants in their formation. Thanks to soil microorganisms and larger inhabitants (worms, beetles, spiders), the mineralization of organic residues, the transformation of important nutrients, the fight against pathogenic microorganisms, insect pests, the improvement of soil structure and much more occur, which ultimately characterizes it as healthy.

Healthy soil is the basis for the growth of healthy plants that can withstand unfavorable climatic conditions, diseases, and pests.

To implement this principle, natural farming recommends the use of organic matter, EM preparations and avoidance of deep digging to increase the fertility of the land.

Any business and any thing can be improved by an order of magnitude, says Nikolai Kurdyumov, a famous author who has become a domestic guru for tens of thousands of admirers of organic farming. He calls not to listen to workaholics, not to get used to routine, but to invent ways to make life easier on the site. After all, in nature everything grows and is born without human participation. Nikolai Kurdyumov has already achieved his goal. He admits that the hardest work in his garden is planting seedlings and harvesting chemical-free crops. Everything else is done by itself. And you can do this if you read this book.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Organic farming in Russia. Experience of the best summer residents of the country (N. I. Kurdyumov, 2013) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

How to create fertility on your acres

Actually, you can garden on anything. On sand or perlite, on expanded clay or crushed stone with a nutrient solution - hydroponics. On small peat cubes placed in a pipe or trench through which the same solution flows - low-volume hydroponics. You can even do it in the air, periodically wetting the roots with a solution - aeroponics. All this is very expensive, troublesome and harmful, and these vegetables are not safe to eat, and you don’t want to: they are almost tasteless.

Tasty and healthy vegetables grow only in living soil. It is most convenient to grow them in permanent raised beds (for cold areas) or in trenches (for dry hot areas) filled with humus soil or compost, and covered with a layer of plant debris. It’s cheap, productive and very tasty, and most importantly – quite “lazy”. This is exactly how I garden.

The ideas of creating excess fertility, the idea of ​​gardener independence from industry, have been developing and being used in the world for more than a hundred years. They are all based on a simple rule: give back to the soil as much organic matter as it gives. Then she will be alive, fertile - and will give you even more. This is called organic, regenerative, conservation, and in Russia – natural farming. It consists of several directions with a common essence: “learn from nature.”

IN late XIX century in Germany originated biodynamic management system based on straight knowledge. Biodynamists perceive plants, animals, humans and the Cosmos as a single system. Their agronomy strives to achieve maximum harmony of all factors affecting the plant. They have reached heights in the art of preparing compost and humus. We learned how to improve the health of plants, animals and humans in a closed cycle of exchange of waste products. The depth with which they understand living nature seems incomprehensible to the average person.

In the 50s, thanks to the agricultural policy of soil conservation and the work of such devotees as Faulkner and Rodale, organic, or restorative agriculture. The Rodale Institute has developed and scientifically substantiated methods that make it possible to more fully accumulate and use natural factors - sun, water, air, the work of soil inhabitants and the properties of the plants themselves. It has become possible to practically not attract external energy, chemicals, fertilizers and irrigation water.

In the 70s, the already discussed permaculture. In the late 70s in France, and then in the USA, based on the works of Alan Chadwick, it was developed biointensive mini-farming(BIMZ). It is based on stationary organic beds using mulch. The book about BIMZ was written by John Jevons.

It is necessary to mention Dr. Jacob Mittlider: he developed a very reasonable garden geometry - narrow ridges. All Russian “smart gardeners” now use them.

In recent decades, it has become completely clear: healthy plants can only be obtained in a stable ecosystem. Research in agroecology has intensified. For example, the European Union Bioland has been researching the living soil system for more than half a century, environmental reasons outbreaks of diseases and pests. Farmers have achieved good yields and healthy plants by creating diverse and resilient ecosystems in their fields.

In Japan, the technology of EM - effective microorganisms - has long appeared. This artificial community of beneficial microbes helps decompose organic matter, cleanse the environment, increase soil fertility and displace pathogenic microflora from them. Now our STIMIXES have in many ways surpassed the Japanese Kyusei and all their Russian derivatives. Manure processing technologies using earthworms are actively used.

In Russia, natural farming is being developed by many farmers and scientists, and everyone adapts to the conditions of their zone and invents their own methods. Read more about them in the book “Peace instead of protection.”

By observing plants, many of you can create your own intelligent plant growing. To help you, here are the basic methods for creating organic soil that I know about today.

We increase soil fertility!

Good soil

“Mother Earth will give birth”? You didn't look through a microscope! Whoever is there - and everyone will give birth!

In the very first, thin edition of “Smart Garden” in 1998, the artist Andrei Andreev and I depicted huge vegetables on a compost heap. I saw compost as a panacea (Fig. 1).

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The essence is correct, but in physiology I got carried away. The growth on the compost heap is really powerful, but the bushes become fattened, go to waste, and there is little fruit yield. Except, perhaps, cucumbers. These can even eat manure and still bear fruit like crazy. Well, cabbage will be happy with clean compost, and lettuce. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and onions need balanced soil without excesses. And potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and other root vegetables - also with sand.

What soil needs to be improved?

My friend in his youth lived in the famous village of Starocherkasskaya - the capital of the Don Cossacks. Floodplain of the Don, meadow chernozems, two meters deep, soft. And his garden was also on the site of the old regimental stables. I remember he sincerely complained: well, it’s a complete pain to collect the harvest! Potatoes in the weeds - almost a bucket from the bush, beets - two of them will no longer fit into the bucket! Of course, improving such soil will only spoil it. It is enough for her to return as much organic matter as has grown on it. And digging it is a crime. But we have few such happy places. My friend was just lucky.

For us, simple clay people, in order to achieve good fertility, we need to work with the soil. And in order not to wait years, it is better to immediately improve the soil in the beds - the first and last time, but radically. Oh, how many times have I regretted not doing this right away!

Drastic starting soil improvement

If your soil is heavy loam, then you need humus, sand, and, if possible, fine screenings of expanded clay. If it is a poor sandy loam, you need clay and humus. In both cases, a third of the new volume of the bed should be organic matter, rotted to varying degrees. And only the peat bog needs fresh nitrogenous organic matter: grass or hay, kitchen waste, unusable grain or spoiled feed. And also some clay and sand.

First, mark out the stationary beds (the second chapter is about them): you will improve the soil here without touching the passages. Why do unnecessary things? The depth of improvement is no more than 35 cm: below it is still too cold. Then stock up on the necessary additives: humus, sand or clay. And then - DO NOT Rush. I assure you: creating two 8-meter beds per year is a very good pace. This requires health! Or good helpers.

I know two ways to radically improve the starting soil conditions to create fertility in the beds. You can combine them according to your capabilities.

1. Ridges according to Holzer. The famous Austrian permaculturist and naturalist farmer Sepp Holzer uses his method of quickly creating a humus reserve in extremely poor soils and harsh climates. In place of the bed, a trench is dug 40–50 cm deep and the same width. It becomes clogged with dry trunks, branches, and rotten wood (Fig. 2). This is the primary reserve of slow-moving organic matter and a “sponge” for moisture during drought.

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Then, the trench is dug, and in Sepp’s version, the earth is thrown from the sides, placing it in a shaft 70-100 cm high. The meaning of the shaft is the huge difference in microclimate. The sunny windward side is hot and dry. Sunny leeward - hot and humid, subtropical. Shady without wind - humid and not hot, shady with wind - not hot, but it blows away moisture.

On the shady side, the plants will climb up to the ridge. In the sun, they will bush and fly, just like on the beach. Taking all this into account, Sepp sows the shaft with a mixture of different plants - cereals, pumpkins and squashes, beans, corn and sunflowers - everything that has large seeds and quickly increases biomass. By the way, the area of ​​the slopes of the shaft is one and a half areas of its base.

The finished shaft is covered with straw or hay, strengthened from the wind with branches, and the branches with longitudinal poles (Fig. 3). The huge advantage of the shaft is early and rapid heating of the soil. A trench was formed between the ridges; branches were also placed in it and covered with straw. The roots will reach here too.

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Sowing is done directly into the straw using a pointed peg. The seeds germinate after the rains. All plant remains remain on the ridge. A year later, potatoes, various rutabaga with turnips, and pumpkins and zucchini are planted here, and on top is a wall of corn.

Beautiful, deep, natural! But I’ll be honest: this is for the hectare owners who are most passionate about permaculture and Sepp personally. For my three-acre garden, this is not an option. We are not used to climbing steep shafts and unraveling wildly mixed bushes. We don’t know enough about the behavior of different plants. I won’t take it on the fly. Therefore, I lean towards more conventional methods.

2. Initial soil improvement by direct change in soil composition. In my early books - “by John J. e wonsu." In fact, according to Andrei Bolotov, and Efim Grachev, and A.I. Kuznetsov, and in general, all smart gardeners and winegrowers do this. But it just so happened: Jevons wrote a bestseller, I read it in the late 90s and was impressed. John is an American organic farmer and hard worker, the inventor of “bio-intensive mini-agriculture” (BIMA). The harvests from his beds were many times larger than traditional ones - you must agree, this is impressive. He began to invent on extremely bad, poor soil. Therefore, I improved it immediately, and then increased its fertility, not from scratch. The idea is simple: you need to mix the soil with organic matter (and if necessary, with sand or clay) to the depth of two shovels. Well, two bayonets - this is in hot California. One and a half (35–40 cm) is enough for us. And three or four shovels wide.

Jevons suggests mixing soil with amendments, gradually moving around the bed: removing the top layer, mixing the bottom with compost, putting back the top layer, mixing it with compost, moving a little further... I keep it simple. When improving my clay bed with sand, I take out the most fertile top layer entirely and put it on the edge. I mix additives into the bottom and return the top layer to its place, also mixing something in (Fig. 4).

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The top, most organic layer has been removed, it is on the left. The bottom is mixed with sand. The top layer is also returned with sand. This is the only way I was able to radically reduce the density of my soil. The comfortable zone for roots has almost doubled in depth. All that remains is to restructure the soil - this will be done by worms and roots (Fig. 5).

So, let's take the best of both worlds.

We take out the top 10–15 cm of the most fertile soil. We deepen the bottom with a trench as deep as a shovel bayonet. In the trench - logs and thick branches, but not so many, so that the capillary connection with the subsoil is quickly restored. It is harmless to lightly powder this windfall with some nitrogen fertilizer, moisten it with manure mash or the contents of a dry closet - it will rot faster. It is useful to throw in some fresh weeds - the same nitrogen. In the dry south it is extremely harmless to sprinkle hydrogel, one mug per square meter.

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We return the subsoil down from the trench, pushing it between the pieces of wood. We spread the excess subsoil in the aisles or take it away. At the bottom we place one or two strips of unripe compost or grass, flavored with EO, “Shine” or another bioactivator. Then we fill the bed with the removed top layer mixed with additives (sand/clay) and humus.

The result is a raised bed - a convex, gentle shaft. The convexity adds a fair amount of space and illumination to the plants, and in the spring it better receives the rays of the sun. For the damp Non-Black Earth Region and Far East- an ideal option for beds. In the steppe zone you need good mulch and smart watering.

In Fig. 6 – ridge beds on Irina Kalmykova’s plot in Taman (www.kuban.farmgarden.ru). They warm up much earlier and better. Here, in a very dry area, they are covered with a special mulch film, under which there are drip tapes.

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The result of our sweating: the bed is ready to immediately produce a decent harvest. The difference is visible in the first year.

Look at fig. 7. Three cucumber bushes on the right are on improved soil, two on the left are on normal soil. L. Lobanov’s vegetable garden, “Shine”, Ivanovo.

On the right in Fig. 8 the soil has also been improved. Adding organic matter and bioactivator also added warmth to the soil. The eggplant yield is 9 times greater than from the left control bush. Experience of A. Bushikhin, “Shine”, Yaroslavl.

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Already a lot! But this is just the beginning. The soil is not yet inhabited by living creatures, not structured, not penetrated by roots, not seeded with coprolites of worms and other poop. Now we will annually improve it with natural forces: plants, worms, microbes and fungi. But this is no longer difficult. Our main activity is feed soil workers green manure and all sorts of organic matter. Another important work - don't disturb them. They will do the rest themselves. And I assure you, they will do it as wonderfully as you never dreamed of.

Organic mulch

Mulch, in our understanding, is primarily to save the soil from drying out. This is true, and three times true for the hot steppes. I used to write this: in the south it is impossible to live without mulch, without it the soil dries out! In fact, it is impossible without it both in the rainiest Non-Black Earth Region and in cold Siberia. It is this that protects the soil from erosion by rainfall. It is the organic matter of mulch - main source carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and food for soil animals. It is mulch that protects the soil from temperature fluctuations. During the day it reflects the excess heat of the sun, and at night it stores the heat of the root layer. Only under the mulch does dew settle and come into use, prolonging the effect of rain.

But first, I’ll touch a little on “non-organic” mulch.

Mulching film

We use black film mulch, which I often described in books, only for strawberries - we put it once every three years, spreading organic matter under it. Without a good dose of organic matter, there is no point in laying down the film: the soil will not improve (Fig. 9).

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The advantages of film mulch: moisture is retained much longer, there are almost no weeds. Disadvantages: it is not nutritious, not mobile, does not allow replanting or compaction of plantings. Not applicable at all for densely planted greens and root vegetables. In summer, the black film heats up. In the damp north, in Siberia, this is only beneficial. In our country, the film also has to be covered with straw: already in June it “heats up” to 70ºC. And to be honest, I’m very reluctant to pull plastic out of the garden almost every year. But it depends on who.

Of course, in Europe, especially in Israel, film mulch is the basis of high-tech production. But the mulch films there are perfected: the required width, with holes, reflective (same Fig. 6) and long-lived. And even with a yellow underside - it turns out that weed seedlings die better this way. And now they are already biodegradable. Below them is a dose of organic matter and irrigation tapes that periodically supply water and nutrient solutions. For the desert - it’s smart, and there is no other choice. For poor sandy loams and sands, this is also a radical solution, if you have the money. See www. farmgarden.ru, there’s a lot of interesting stuff there.

Mine the main objective– natural soil fertility. Therefore, my constant mulch is plant remains: straw, grass from mowers, leaves and shredded branches. It is placed after the beds have warmed up, when the seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers have taken root and grown, and under it fall the succulent weeds pulled out during planting, the remains of greens and radishes, and fresh grass - a gift to the worms.

Here, for example, a young currant bush is cut to increase growth. 4–5 kege of fresh grass lay under it (Fig. 10). It will be eaten by worms before August. Imagine the work they will do!

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Straw we take the baled one. It controls weeds better than others. It is light, reflects light and does not heat up - this is an important plus for the south. Easy to lay in layers. Decomposes slowly over the course of a year. If you want to speed up the decomposition, sprinkle a solution of sugar and urea, one glass per bucket of water. This is the “fuel” for microbes that decompose cellulose.

Traditionally, strawberries are mulched with straw, in English – strawberry, “straw berry”. All my beds usually go into winter, covered with a thick blanket (Fig. 11). Having removed the mulch in the spring, I can sow and plant by hand - the soil is perfectly prepared.

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It is especially useful to cover trampled autumn green manure with straw (Fig. 12). By spring there is little left of it. IN mandatory and all the passages and paths in the garden are constantly covered with straw - here the roots also feed and find moisture.

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I can’t help but mention: POTATOES UNDER STRAW. This method is successfully used by many.

After warming up a little and loosening the bed with a pitchfork, we scatter humus, compost, and any nutritious organic matter on it. We place straw on top in a loose layer of 10–15 cm. We make passes in the straw with our hands and press pieces of seed tubers with sprouts into the soil. We leave holes so that the sprouts can quickly get out. Once we got out, we rake the bushes so that no light gets through to the soil. This is all. There is no need to hill up, weeding is almost the same. It is necessary to water well twice: at the time of budding and at the end of flowering. The harvest is harvested at the beginning of the yellowing of the tops. There is no need to dig: the tubers lie right under the straw, clean.

Grass from lawnmower hopper- perhaps the most ideal mulch for beds (Fig. 13). It is nutritious, contains a lot of nitrogen and attracts crowds of worms. It quickly cakes into a dense layer and holds out weeds perfectly. It is always damp underneath (Fig. 14). Open from April until the end of the season. Replenishes as mowing occurs. During the winter it disintegrates completely. Completely free.

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Shredded branches- supermulch. For several years I have been happily preparing it using an MTD rotary chopper, but I learned and appreciated it only after becoming acquainted with the developments of Canadians. It turns out that the branches hardwood thinner than 5 cm - just a warehouse of sugars, pectin, amino acids and vitamins. Wood fiber is a bonus and material for creating especially durable, high-quality humus. In fact, forest soils are very fertile. Now it's clear why.

I mainly chop fruit branches, and no thicker than a finger. They are especially high in sugars and proteins. The layer is also compacted, holds moisture well and cuts off weeds. At the same time, the mat of small chips is very pleasing to the eye (Fig. 15).

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Leafy branches from summer trimmings are especially good. A real food warehouse! Before chopping, the leaves need to be dried, otherwise the chopper periodically slips, becoming clogged with juicy mass. A pile of chopped branches with leaves begins to burn inside already on the second or third day (Fig. 16).

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Branches grow twice a year, and also completely free. And my garden is not small. There are also ornamental shrubs, willows and turf, and a forest belt of wild plum. Need another shredder! This one would still rattle, but three seasons is a long time: the knives have been sharpened to zero.

Hence the answer to the question, which shredder is better? Better is the one that comes with spare knives! Take two spare sets at once. And advice: never chop dry tree branches. The machine is not designed for them! The knives will immediately become dull, and your hands will be beaten off. Dry branches are only for the fire. The exception is dry shoots of blackberries, maiden grapes and honeysuckle, thin branches of willow, stems of weigela, buddleia, corn and other “hollows”.

Dry leaves- the same as straw, but more nutritious and compacts more densely - a real blanket. Knowledgeable people stock up on leaves by the cubic meter. Any kind is suitable, except oak and walnut - it’s better to lie aside for a year: they are too rich in aggressive tannins. Under the foliage, the beds overwinter well (Fig. 17).

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All this organic matter gradually decomposes, is eaten and dragged into the soil, where it feeds both microbes and plants, and eventually becomes humified. For nitrogen-poor wood, straw and leaves, this is a very slow process - two to three years. Personally, I'm in no hurry. But you can double the speed of eating mulch. In two ways: by giving starting food to local microbial fungi, or by introducing new, especially effective ones. However, they also need starter food. I can't help but dwell on this.

How to speed up the decomposition of organic matter

Firstly, with the help of EM - various effective microbes. We are well known for Baikal-EM-1, Vostok-EM, “Shine” (BakSib), Stimix, Embiko and others. Extracts of vermicompost, manure and compost enriched with microbes also work: Fitostim, Gu-mistar, Biovita-agro and all your homemade barrel infusions. “Shine” – dry preparations, applied by powdering. Liquid EOs and extracts are applied by watering from a watering can, spraying on mulch and leaves.

This is in theory. In practice, everything depends on the quality of the drug. For different “EMs” it has long been unpredictable. Now I can only vouch for “Shine” and STIMIX. The first ones are dry, and therefore are stored without changing the microbial composition. Their effect has been tested and retested many times (Fig. 18). The second is a recent breakthrough, a new biotechnology with special effects, stored for up to two years in liquid form. There is a special conversation about them.

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Note: in addition to microbes, all working solutions contain the initial food for them - sugars and amino acids.

Secondly, you can rot the mulch faster using ACC. Aerated compost tea. The topic is very fashionable in the USA and Europe. And it's really smart! Why buy foreign microbes if you can breed local ones? Take a kilogram of your old compost, fill it with a bucket of water, add a glass of sugar (molasses, molasses), insert an aquarium aerator and turn it on at room temperature. The next day there is a cap of foam in the bucket. After a day, maximum two, the tea is ready. According to the Rodale Institute, all microbes, protozoa and even fungi, including the aerobic saprophytes we need, have multiplied 200,000 times. It is impossible to store the finished AKCh - immediately filter it, dilute it ten times and water it and spray it (Fig. 19). Gennady Fedorovich Raspopov, a naturalist from the Novgorod region, has long described his experiments with ACH.

Thirdly, coarse organic matter is eaten by specific cellulolytics - fiber destroyers. The main ones are hay stick and fungus trichoderma. Therefore, trichodermin, baktofit, subtillin, rhizoplus, flavored with a handful of nitrogen fertilizer in a bucket of water, will happily eat your straw. Nitrogen is their “fuel”. Like sugar, we note again.

So fourthly, just feed your microbes and fungi so that they multiply. All bacteria love sugar, and all cellulolytics love nitrogen. Give them a mixture of a glass of sugar and a glass of urea (saltpeter) per bucket of water. Simply dampen the straw on top. A week later - again. More is possible. You will see the effect within a month and a half.

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In general, root feeding with sugars is a long-tested stimulating method, widely used in floriculture. And now more and more “cocktails” are appearing, where sugars are mixed with amino acids and proteins. This is food not only for microbes, but also for roots. But direct assimilation of organic matter is a different matter.

For those who are especially keen, there is also higher mushrooms And mycorrhiza. The famous Altai gardener Alexander Kuznetsov has been creating “chernozem” in his garden for many years, layering fresh pine sawdust and maintaining its moisture. There are a lot of his articles about this on the Internet. Its sawdust mulch is eaten by fungi (Fig. 20). And not just mushrooms - the richest fungal community, mycocenosis. Three dozen species of lamellar “tree eaters” such as honey mushrooms and russula live here, and there are even rare oars. Such a society of eaters does not care about any resins.

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They eat sawdust - you can hear the crackling behind your ears! Many fungi cooperate with plant roots to form mycorrhizae. For example, with raspberries (Fig. 21). Plants say a big thank you. But such mycocenoses are a phenomenon of cold climates. In the south this is hardly achievable: it is too dry and hot.

Soil improvers

Any plant improves the soil simply by living. In nature this is the case always and everywhere.

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As already said, fertility is cycle of consumed organic matter. The plant grew, died, fell to the ground - and fed itself to worms-fungi-microbes. The roots remained in the soil, they died and left thousands of channels - homes and food for soil living creatures. Fungus-microbe-ciliates-amoeba EAT the organic matter of the plant, then each other, secrete organo-mineral “poop” - and thereby FEED the plants. Animals and insects eat the plant and turn part of its body into valuable feces, rich in nutrition and microbes - they also feed the plant. Other microbes eat root secretions and in exchange fix air nitrogen and release potassium and phosphorus, sulfur and magnesium. And they protect the roots with dozens of antibiotics. THE PLANT FEEDS EVERYONE – AND EVERYONE FEEDS THE PLANT TO CONTINUE TO BE FULL. And all this is sewn into all the genomes of all living things.

But a plant is not just food, but also a creator of conditions. First, plants optimize the microclimate: they slow down the wind and shade the soil. As a result, the soil heats up several times less and dries out less, and the plants themselves evaporate 4–5 times less - the moisture is used productively. In wetter soil, fungi and microbes flourish longer, and eating and nutritional processes are more active.

Then the plants structure the soil with their roots - creating a complex channel architecture, turning the soil into a working mechanism. Dew constantly settles in the channels, oxygen passes through them for roots and living creatures, and carbon dioxide, a solvent for minerals, descends through them. Channels with organic residues are the best express routes for the roots of new plants, leading directly to subsoil moisture. They are also homes for living creatures and incubators for root symbiont microbes. Structural soil quickly and deeply absorbs moisture from snow and rain. At the same time, the compacted soil mass between the channels is able to conduct and absorb water capillarily.

Having gone 3–6 m into the subsoil, the roots dissolved and brought up a fair amount of mineral elements. When cutting down a young weed, remember: it can still work as a miner! The main thing is to cut it down no later than budding.

When plants drop their leaves or die, they cover the soil with a protective “blanket” of mulch that is porous and breathable, but durable. By all the actions described, plants protect the soil from compaction and petrification, from spraying and blowing away, from erosion and washing away.

Finally, plants become food and fuel for everything in the ecosystem, from deer to butterflies to bacteria. Litters and feces are nothing more than the launch of humification, the start of the organic cycle. This is an enriched food for the soil, an accelerator of the decomposition of plant biomass.

Total: THE MORE PLANTS IN OUR VEGETABLE GARDEN, AND THE LONGER THEY COVER THE SOIL, THE BETTER. A smart garden is green from spring to frost. Conversely, bare soil means lost fertility.

Organic mulch is an addition of organic matter from the outside, imitation of turf or forest litter. The same thing - adding tops, grass, compost to the beds. But organic matter, at least half of it, can grow here on its own, breaking through the soil with its roots and performing a lot of useful actions.

Green manure

Green manure is defined as green fertilizer. They are classically used like this: grow biomass and plow it in like manure. Of course there is an effect. But plowing is also harmful: it creates a plow sole and destroys the structure. The greenery turns down, and its layer cuts off the moisture of the subsoil. Once in anaerobic conditions, biomass decomposes for a long time, ferments and rots differently, often with the release of harmful substances. That's why advanced natural farmers don't plow in the straw. It is left on the field, and in the spring it is mixed with the surface layer of soil using diskers. In Fig. 22 – corn field in the Topaz agricultural company, Rostov region. A chisel cutter will still pass through it, and it will go into the winter, covered with mulch.

For us gardeners, green manure– a generalized concept. This everything that grows thereby accumulates organic matter and grows roots. First of all, the diversity of all kinds of plants in the beds and between them. Bushes of all kinds of greenery in mixed plantings are our summer green manure. There is no bare soil visible anywhere - this means that the garden is already partially greened. Unless, of course, you threw all the weeds onto the road, carefully picking up every leaf. In Fig. 23 – section of Gali Donovaya, Nazarovo. This is how flowery and green our gardens should look!

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WEEDS ARE ALSO PLANTS. These are some of the best green manures. Indestructible, hardy, with powerful roots, and no need to sow. What, do you like order? I don't insist. My wife loves it too. Even numerous stories that potatoes only grew in weeds have no effect on her. And I love my wife more than my garden, so I don’t grow weeds in the garden beds. But I will show you two ways of consciously cultivating them for your own benefit.

Firstly, the method of the Omsk master gardener Oleg Telepov: weeds are biomass for the passages, and the passages are permanent composters, perfectly mastered by the roots. Oleg is one of the few who has outgrown his fear of weeds. He specially grows them in the aisles. Once they have budded, he cuts them off and gives them to the plants. And he walks along such paths in slippers (Fig. 24).

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Secondly, weed plantations as a type of productive lawn. In Fig. 25 – the first harvest of weed mulch on Andrey Marchenko’s eco-farm near Shostki. Imagine how much nutritious biomass such “plantations” produce over the summer!

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My garden is also all sod, and produces grass three times a season. Turfed wide passages and lawns near the house also provide a lot. I don’t mow everything in my clearing – I leave shade for seedlings and a home for cockroaches (Fig. 26). There is enough food for all the creatures here!

Cereal weeds are also a storehouse of goodness. Already by the May holidays, the grass in our garden is knee-deep and throwing out buds. Most good point harvest: it is still tender, easily mowed and torn. WITH square meter– 3–4 kilos of greens! I put it under bushes, in beds, and press it down with stones. I can’t think of a better feeding and “watering” (Fig. 27).

In general, weeds are not a devil at all cultivated plants!

But this is not enough for rapid growth of fertility. Here we need green manures that extend the season in the beds: early spring and early autumn.

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IN SPRING, immediately after the snow melts, you can sow everything fast-growing, cold-resistant annuals: white mustard, oilseed radish, rapeseed, phacelia. They are not afraid of frost. Before planting, seedlings can have time to bloom - they grow in 35–45 days. But you don’t need to let them bloom.

In Fig. 28 – my beds. By the beginning of May, they had already grown their first crop - mustard biomass. It is good to sow and plant seedlings directly into the green manure, after weeding the holes: here there is protection from both the sun and the cold. This is what I do (Fig. 29). When green manure begins to interfere with vegetables, it breaks out and becomes the first nutritious organic matter. Now you can cover the beds with straw. The worms will have a holiday!

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In Fig. 30 – live mustard mulch in the inter-rows of potatoes in Dima Slavogorodsky’s garden, “Siyanie”, Chelyabinsk. The potatoes will grow with her and under her cover, and then lie under the bushes as nutritious mulch.

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So, organic matter has already been recycled! Now is the season for vegetables and summer mulch. Green manure, organic matter introduced in the fall, and a straw “blanket” are used.

But AUTUMN is approaching. When should you sow autumn green manure? Ideally, a week or two before the vegetables are completely harvested from the garden.

Of course, if these are greens, garlic or peas, and it’s June, then there’s still time - it’s not a sin to sow cucumbers, early tomatoes, late carrots, nigella, and some kind of radish. Or at least radish salads if you're up north.

But here is the end of August - beginning of September. The twists are done, a few peppers and tomatoes remain on the bushes - remove them in a week or two. Take mustard, rapeseed, oilseed radish, phacelia, and scatter them directly between the bushes. Lightly seal with a flat cutter and spray with a hose. If it rains - even better. In a couple of weeks you will empty the garden bed – it will already be green. In this case, from oats (Fig. 31).

When digging potatoes, spread mustard or rapeseed immediately before digging, as B.A. does. Bagel (Fig. 32). All that remains is to level it a little with a rake. Before frost there is a wall - enough for both the soil and the chickens and geese! Siderates are the love of Boris Andreevich. Notice the blackness of its soil.

For information. Professor of the All-Russian Research Institute of Organic Fertilizers M.N. Novikov devoted half a century to green manure and, among other things, proved two important points.

First: both manure and mineral fertilizers are absorbed more fully and work longer if fed to plants green manure packaged. Apply fertilizers to green manure! Then future crops will receive nutrition without loss, gradually and in an assimilable biological form. Otherwise - There is no better fertilizer than the plant itself.

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Second: cereal straw and legume biomass are synergists and help each other. Place straw under lupine - lupine produces a yield of one and a half times and fixes almost twice as much nitrogen. And after lupine, you can safely cover up the straw: there will already be enough nitrogen for its decomposition. A cycle of mutual aid!

Which green manures are better? Honestly, the best are those whose seeds you were able to get. Not everyone is available yet. Sow what you have: corn, peas, sunflowers, substandard sugar beets. If they start to get rough, chop them down. Among the cereals, Sudanese, sweet sorghum, and chumiz are excellent - if cut green. Rye and its hybrids are too allelopathic - they suppress the growth of the next crop, therefore they are not suitable as spring green manure. Important: if in the north even wheat can freeze, then in the south oats do not always freeze, and in the spring you have to tinker with them. Among the legumes in the north, clover and annual lupine (narrow-leaved) are good, in the south - alfalfa and annual sweet clover, sown in the spring under the cover of the main crop.

In addition, new, especially powerful forage grasses have already been studied and developed: typhon, safflower sativum, silphium pierced-leaved, paniculata amaranth, mallow mallow and ringed mallow, and woad. All of them are annuals with huge biomass. For wastelands, roadsides and “chicken pastures” there are powerful perennials - eastern galega (goat's rue), comfrey, eastern sverbiga, Jerusalem artichoke, Sakhalin knotweed. By the way, in 1988, at the Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg, the hogweed variety “Otradnoe BIN-1”, which does not burn the skin, was created but never mastered. The burning, wildly aggressive and hated wild hogweed Sosnowsky left him no chance.

The field farmers strictly ensure that the green manure does not have time to become seeded - then it will come out as a weed. If we are talking about rapeseed or phacelia, this is only for our benefit: there is no need to sow in the spring. But with perennials you have to keep your eyes open. There are plants that are terrible aggressors. The same comfrey or Sakhalin mountaineer. Rule for all “guests”: if it spreads with rhizomes, do not let it into the garden! I started tladianta fifteen years ago and I still can’t get rid of it. But the luxurious Sakhalin mountaineer was removed only in one way: pouring a concrete screed and adding a room. I'm waiting to see if the tile will break through!

All that remains is to show HOW TO SOW SIDERATS. I just throw them in handfuls. But I understand: this is a big waste of seeds. There is a better way! An expert on green manure and a consultant to the Belgorod region on biofarming V.T. Gridchin (now, alas, deceased) showed B.A. Bagel his own branded seeder. I offer it to you too. The main thing is to make holes according to the size of the seeds (Fig. 33).

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I can’t help but complete the topic of green manure by looking at the exemplary box-shaped vegetable garden of Pskovite A.S. Kotlova. In my understanding, such a vegetable garden is a masterpiece of beauty and intelligence (Fig. 34). In addition to green manure, all the grass from the wide aisles goes into Alexander Sergeevich’s beds.

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Manure and droppings

If you have them, you're in luck. The most valuable form of organic matter! Essentially, it is a concentrate of products of microbial digestion of plant mass. Soluble carbohydrates and amino acids, nitrogen and minerals - everything is already prepared, and everything is mixed with digestive microbes. Some of them will also work in the soil.

Therefore, manure, droppings, feces are not just organic matter. This is a starter, a fuse for the “biological combustion” of straw and other nitrogen-poor materials. And this is the “fuel” for free-living nitrogen fixers.

The best manure for the garden is horse manure. It is rich in fiber, porous and free-flowing. Goat and rabbit “jelly beans” are excellent - ready-made granular fertilizers. Cow dung is good only with straw bedding. Pork is the most problematic and unsafe. Nowadays there is so much to be found in mixed feed! If there is no choice, it must be mixed with straw, leaves, sawdust, and composted until the smell stops.

MANURE is applied to the fields in the fall and immediately plowed in to preserve nitrogen. But until April a lot of nitrogen is washed out. But you can’t add it in the spring: ammonia is poison for the roots. Therefore, manure is composted - kept for several months in piles, which are mixed twice. As a result, 70% of organic matter, carbon and nitrogen are carried away by the wind without benefit to the plants. Humus is a pitiful remnant of manure wealth. In addition, plowing means destroying the soil architecture.

I offer two ways to apply manure in the spring and even in the summer for the benefit of the garden.

1. AS A BACKGROUND FOR MULCH - on the surface of the soil, early in spring, in a layer of 3–5 cm, and cover with vegetable mulch on top. In the garden - for currants, gooseberries and raspberries, for tree seedlings. In the garden - for cucumbers and cabbage (but not close to the plants!), and for newly created beds. Under the straw, manure quickly and radically improves the soil.

There are several effects. The soil is especially reliably protected from drought. Under mulch, manure does not dry out and is actively eaten. An explosion of worms and microflora is guaranteed. All carbon dioxide goes into use. Nitrogen, minerals and soluble organic matter seep into the soil gradually, without causing poisoning and obesity. The soil is structured, filled with all sorts of insect feces and coprolites of worms.

2. IN THE FORM OF LOCAL BOOKMARKS. I remind you of the work of V.K. Trapeznikov “Local nutrition”. Be sure to download and study. The point is simple: in nature there are no evenly mixed and distributed food sources - everything there is in the form of clumps. And the roots know this. Having found such a “warehouse”, they accordingly change their physiology - they become high-salt, organotrophic (absorbing organic matter) or aquatic. The plant has freedom of choice And decides what and how much to take. And this is the only way it won’t harm itself.

Under the trees and bushes, under the perimeter of the crown, we dig holes the size of a bucket or two. One hole - for a couple of bushes or seedlings, and for an adult tree - about five or six. We fill it with manure and cover it with straw or some kind of lid. This is where we water. You can also take kitchen buckets here. But from the end of July you need to stop both this and that: let the trees stop growing and ripen for the winter.

You can do it simpler: just put manure in heaps near the seedlings and between the bushes. On top there is sawdust and straw. Next spring there is the same pile nearby. So G.F. turned his sand into good garden soil. Raspopov.

In the garden– we dig a narrow trench from one edge, 20 cm deep. Fill it with manure and not thickly, cover it three fingers deep with soil. Plants again have a choice, and worms have something to do. Over the summer, the manure is composted - but exactly where it is needed, for the benefit of the soil and the crop. After a year, you can dig a trench from the other edge. Then - in the center. Then again from the edge. And so every year.

Trees and shrubs in the garden love to get food through pits (Fig. 35). For an adult tree, 5-6 pits with a bucket, dug around the perimeter of the crown, are enough. This is where the feeding roots graze.

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I can’t help but mention slurry. Essentially, it is a concentrate of ammonia, urea and soluble organics. Previously used as liquid nitrogen fertilizer. Owners of livestock also poured it into their gardens. But they poured it carefully, not at the root, and very diluted, so as not to poison the roots with ammonia.

It is interesting that slurry, apparently, was one of the main components in the agricultural technology of the unsurpassed gardener of three centuries, Efim Grachev. The secret of his forty-kilogram cabbage and other super vegetables has never been revealed. According to eyewitnesses, his entire garden was fenced off with wattle fences, and between the raised beds there were ditches filled with slurry. Undoubtedly, it produced a lot of carbon dioxide. But plants can also absorb ammonia with their leaves - this has been established. So we have something to think about.

Bird droppings

It differs from manure in its higher concentration, primarily of mineral salts. Less organic content. And the fact that there is not much of it. If manure for fertilizing irrigation is diluted 20 times, then droppings are diluted 40 times. Therefore, twice as much sawdust-straw must be mixed into it. Otherwise it applies the same way. But given that it is not enough, it is better to dissolve it in water, use it as liquid fertilizer or as a bioactivator for eating straw and sawdust.

Manure and droppings can and should be converted into dry granules - then they are easy and cheap to transport and apply (Fig. 36).

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It’s been thirty years since Russia developed technologies for granulating manure and droppings. In Pushkin, at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Microbiology, Professor I.A. Arkhipchenko produced granulated manure fertilizers - bamil, omug and powder. All their effects were studied in detail by her department. The Bashkir scientist O.V. launched his technology in the late 80s. Tarkhanov - I wrote about his work in “Peace instead of protection”, and now they formed the basis of “The Truth of Our Agriculture”.

The widespread production of manure pellets would make it possible to return ALL THE COUNTRY'S MANURE to the fields and obtain huge benefits. Alas, none of the leaders of the agricultural industry are interested in this.

"Human Gold"

Previously - about 150 years ago - public toilets in the cities there were peat. Feces were called “human gold”, and toilet workers were called gold miners. It was believed that our “manure” was an order of magnitude more fertilizing than animal manure. This is not surprising: it actually contains an order of magnitude more sugars, amino acids and other digestible components.

Perhaps some people find this disgusting. This is not to say that we were not at all disdainful. But since we acquired a peat dry closet, these problems have disappeared. Peat quickly absorbs unpleasant odors. The liquid fraction leaves through the drain hose, the contents are compacted. An almost odorless clot remains. In the fall, I put it locally under bushes or in beds, cover it with soil and mulch - and there is no harm except benefit.

“Tea”, “coffee” and other “compotes”

One of the first compost extracts to appear on the market was humisol. Then an extract of worm biohumus appeared - humistar. Now there are many such drugs. There is even "Vermicoffee". They are all good. I saw a vegetable garden on poor sandy loam, where instead of manure they fed it with gumistar and were happy. But I think it’s best to make your own teas, coffee and compotes. I have already mentioned AKCH - tea with air, read the articles by G.F. Raspopova. Let me remind you of the recipe.

For a 200-liter barrel (bath) we throw: a bucket of compost, a bucket of fresh grass, a liter of ash, a glass of nitrogen fertilizer, a couple of liters of any cheap sweets. If something is missing, don’t worry, it won’t be much worse. Only compost and sweetness are required. Sometimes we stir.

Cooking time is no more than 5–6 days. It floated up and smelled like “kvass” - we wait a couple more days, then we dilute it in half and water the plants. Or we strain and spray. These are “wild EM”. I don’t think they are worse than “cultural” ones. The main thing is that there are enough microbes there.

Em-silo bagel

The master of the self-made garden, Boris Andreevich Bublik, brought the idea of ​​“compote” to perfection - he prepares “compote with fruits”, in his transcription - “EM-silo”. Everything is the same: ash, sweetness, only the barrel is filled to the top with grass, weeds, green leaves and twigs. And at the beginning of the season, he adds EM for priming.

Once it has fermented and gurgled for about three days, he takes out the grounds and places them under the plants. The remaining liquid is diluted 1:3 and poured under them. But not all of it - he leaves a couple of buckets in a barrel for sourdough. And again fills the barrel with herbs, adding sweetness. And so all summer. The mulch is super nutritious. This “compote” takes care of and lifts even bushes poisoned by rye.

Mineral fertilizers

“Well, finally about fertilizers! Entire textbooks have been written on agricultural chemistry, but here is only the last tiny chapter. Or is the author not interested in plant nutrition?..”

This whole book is about plant nutrition, but not about fertilization. Don't confuse these things! From good nutrition plants thrive; Fertilizer can kill you. The plants feed themselves, as needed. We fertilize at will. To want to eat at all, the plant needs everything optimal conditions for growth. We don’t ask about them - we are only interested in the dose. To nourish - you need knowledge, observation, and fertility. Fertilize - only money.

To feel better, just swallow some Panadol or inject ketane. But to be healthy... I want to talk about healthy and nourishing plants. And I don’t want to talk about those fed fast food, obese and sick, like a Christmas goose.

Nevertheless, I never called for a contemptuous veto on mineral water, for which I was sometimes beaten by ardent organists. But organics for me is not a religion. There are no extremes in nature, there is no “either-or”. It's all about the goal, the dose and the moment. Understanding this, I try to be honest and not create religions at all. It’s easy to go to extremes - just a tiny feeling that you are smarter than others is enough.

You can criticize hydroponics as the culprit of “plastic vegetables stuffed with terrible nitrates.” But this is just religion. I know: even half a century ago, when there were no chelates and organomineral cocktails, hydroponic solutions selected with skill gave a harvest of tomatoes, the analysis of which did not show any flaws, and the taste was better than field ones.

Agrochemistry does not stand still - salts have long been replaced by complex compositions of biologically active substances. “Doses” are being replaced by express analysis of leaves and phased feeding with fine correction. In fact, agrochemistry has become AGROBIOCHEMISTRY. In fact, it is also busy “strengthening natural processes”, and the line between “chemical” and “bio” is increasingly difficult to draw.

Now, with the advent of stimulating megafols, radifarms, aminocats and other complex cocktails, with the development of aeroponics and controlled lighting, hydroponic fruits from Israeli plantations are of much better quality than those from a Kuban field covered with manure and doused with pesticides. This is a fact, my brothers. And if we continue to criticize “mineral water,” it is mainly because we do not understand its correct meaning and do not want to know the latest achievements in this area.

I'm not advocating pouring mineral water. I myself use only organic matter – I grow a lot of it. But I realize: all our fields will not be purely organic. Organics alone are not always a panacea, and not every panacea, and certainly not a panacea for millions of hectares. And mineral water is not necessarily a substitute for the illiterate. Moreover, modern nutritional-stimulating-protecting-adaptive-anti-stress cocktails.

Manure can feed you, but it can also poison you. The effect of humus is consumed by the costs of its transportation and application. Straw that received 20 kg/ha of urea decomposes twice as well, which is good. The optimal dose of mineral water on poor soil can double the biomass, thereby increasing fertility. Whether we like it or not, but the future lies in the fusion of smart organics and the achievements of agrochemistry. Individually they lose, but in symbiosis they can greatly speed up soil restoration.

The role and place of artificial fertilizers in biofarming was brilliantly expressed by Professor of the All-Russian Research Institute of Organic Fertilizers M.N. Novikov: “Mineral fertilizers should a) correct the shortcomings of organic ones, and b) optimize the development and ecology of agricultural landscapes.” Otherwise: first organic matter and an optimizing landscape, and only then, to improve them, mineral water.

Remember how beneficial it is to feed straw with urea and sugar? We don't feed plants - we help microbes. If you locally feed powerful green manure on sand with nitrophoska, all the fertilizer will go into useful biomass. On the same poor sandy loam, having given the cucumbers coarse organic matter, it is not at all harmful to add a little aquarin to it. When planting a forest belt in dry, poor soil, God himself ordered to pour hydrogel into the hole, and dig a handful of nitrophoska on the side - deep roots will grow faster, the tree will take root faster. As you can see, everything has its own useful role, its own optimal doses and timing.

A striking example– Gennady Raspopov’s garden in Borovichi, near Novgorod. This is the only garden of speakers and compacts in that area. It is alive and bears fruit well for more than 15 years, although theoretically it should have frozen out right away. The soil is former sand. Even the weeds grew small, stunted and few. Now, after 12 years, the soil under the trees is almost black and soft. See, for example, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN4GKT3YjyI.

Let's remember: fertilizers are much more effective in the form of green manure biomass. What did Gennady do? All this time he brought a bucket of manure under each tree. I put it in small holes, and then just in a pile on the surface. But besides this he fed the weeds with mineral water in the inter-rows - grown green manure biomass. I didn’t spare nitrophoska for them! When they grow, I mow them right away and accumulate humus. And saved up. Now weeds grow like crazy even without mineral water - the organic cycle has started. But first he had to help, and mineral water at that time and in those conditions was the right decision.

FERTILIZERS ARE NOT FOOD, BUT MEDICINE for agrocenosis. Do not replace the organic cycle - help it. Don't suppress nitrogen fixers - feed them extra fiber. Do everything so that the biomass turnover provides maximum nutrition, and fertilizers provide only a corrective minimum. To feed not the crop, but those who enrich the soil and improve the microclimate - this is the correct purpose of mineral fertilizers.

Today we will discuss the so-called “secrets” of natural farming, because many gardeners and gardeners have long been accustomed to growing crops on their plots with the help of shovels, hoees and all kinds of fertilizers - both natural and chemical. This method of farming has been established for quite some time and has become familiar to us. Eco-farmers have a completely different approach to gardening, so let's look at the methods of natural farming in the garden in more detail.

All the secrets of natural farming in one bottle

Usually we “help” plants go through the entire growth cycle from germination to ripening, pulling out weeds, hilling the beds and watering them with preparations advertised on TV. And few people think about the fact that natural processes themselves are ideal, and there is no need to invent anything, but only need to “strengthen” natural development in order to get a more abundant harvest, which, moreover, will also be completely environmentally friendly , free of chemicals and pesticides in its fibers.

Therefore, let’s look at nature. No one helps her either by digging or watering with fertilizers. Everything goes naturally. In the fall, plants “die”, their foliage falls to the ground, where it is processed by all “earthly” microorganisms - bacteria, microbes, fungi, and after them - worms. All this results in a fertile layer of soil - vermicompost, and this happens from year to year. Everything that grows returns back to the ground. And the plants themselves decide which nutrients, obtained during natural processing, they need for full growth and development.

It is this cycle that organic matter performs that creates the fertility of the earth, and it is indestructible. All natural processes are balanced. This means that by interfering with them with our blades and preparations, we definitely lose in the quantity and quality of our harvest. Therefore, let’s listen to the natural development of plants and strengthen the natural processes occurring in nature. Using natural farming, you can not only grow an environmentally friendly and harmless product, but also increase the amount of harvest significantly! Let us consider the principles and technology of the natural farming method in order.

Beds in natural farming

Where does any vegetable garden begin? Of course, from the garden. A lovingly created, loosened and fertilized garden bed is the ideal of any gardener. But not in natural farming. In natural farming, nothing is done to the beds - they are not dug up, loosened or fertilized. These plots of land are left in their natural position, as they are! If the garden has just been purchased, or, for example, the location of the beds is not satisfactory, then the only thing they do is mark out the area (for the first time or again). Using pegs, future beds are marked, a passage is made between them using a shovel, and the soil from the passage is dumped onto the beds. After that, the bed cloth is leveled with a rake and that’s it. We will no longer need these tools - a shovel and a rake. If the beds are created, then nothing is done to them at all - they do not dig, do not loosen, do not fertilize, and never - neither in spring nor in autumn.

The only processing point that natural farming allows is slight loosening using a flat cutter. Loosening depth – maximum 8 cm! It is carried out only when necessary.

This is one of the options for organizing stationary beds, but there are other, so to speak, “natural” methods - these are high beds, Rozum beds, trenches, etc. The main thing is that they are constantly replenished with organic matter. And in some cases, for example on peat bogs, to start fertility (at the very beginning) you cannot do without small doses of mineral fertilizers.

The role of mulch and mulching in natural farming

With the help of such a simple action as mulching the soil, we will reproduce natural processes. We will “give” to the earth as much as we want to take from it, and even more.

Fertilizing the soil with organic matter throughout the growing season is perhaps one of the main points of natural farming. After all, this is what increases the fertility of the soil and accumulates necessary nutrients in it.

So, let's look at what mulch is for plants and soil:

1. Soil protection. There is no weathering, leaching, or overheating of the earth.
2. Weed growth is virtually eliminated. Firstly, it creates a shadow in which they do not grow much, and secondly, the high layer of mulch (which we create) simply does not allow any weeds to sprout.
3. Maintaining moisture levels. Mulch prevents the soil from drying out, which means the plants also have a supply of moisture.
4. Loosens the soil. Therefore, there is no need to forcibly loosen it; in such soil, plants develop much more willingly and quickly, since the root system does not need to “break through” to find nutrients.

Fresh grass (both lawn and meadow), weeds, green manure, leaves, hay, etc. are used as mulch.

Mulching begins as soon as the seedlings are planted. The grass is laid on the beds as a sheet between the crops, in fairly large quantities. But there is one caveat - the grass can tightly touch the stems of garden plants, but you can’t put it near tree trunks - it will cause the bark to become warm.

Organic matter should be supplied to crops only from the soil, in already processed form. You need to apply mulch without sparing. Throughout the growing season, as the “mountains” of grass decrease, it will be necessary to report it - approximately once a week, but this must be determined by the rate of its decrease. At first, as soon as you start this process, it will be difficult and long for the mulch to rot and rot, and then, after some time, faster and faster.

Please note that even roses can be mulched. Who will say that this is ugly?

If the crop was planted using seeds, then, naturally, there is no mulching at first - the seeds need to germinate. As soon as the shoots begin to appear, we immediately begin spreading mulch around.

shoots from seeds before mulching
grown shoots with mulch

As for the condition of the grass, it is best if it is fresh and chopped - this will make it easier for microbes, fungi, worms, etc. to eat it. The ideal option is a lawn mower with a chopper. But if this is not the case, then it’s okay - any grass, of any size, is suitable as mulch - from a meadow, from a field, and even ordinary weeds that grow everywhere. But soil organisms eat dry grass quite reluctantly, so the most important rule- This is constant watering of mulch. Yes, the grass laid between the rows must be kept moist at all times. It is advisable to check this condition regularly, and if it dries out, repeat watering. It is important that the layer between the soil and the grass is always moist. Please note that in natural farming the plants themselves are not watered - neither at the roots nor on the leaves. Water exclusively the mulch that is spread around.

On average, water deeply once a week under normal weather conditions. If it rains, then we reduce the amount of watering, or stop altogether, but if it’s scorching hot, then on the contrary, we increase irrigation.

After harvesting from the “natural beds,” as mentioned above, we do nothing with them - we neither dig them up nor remove them. Lightly level it with a rake and apply a thick layer of new mulch - grass and fallen leaves. And in this state the bed overwinters. Another option for preparing a bed for winter is to sow green manure, so let’s move on directly to to the next method organic farming - green manure.

Green manure in natural farming

Here is another almost obligatory point in natural farming. What are green manures? These are oats, mustard, lupine, radish, sweet clover, buckwheat, peas, etc. These crops structure the soil layers very well because they have a very wide and developed root system. Using this system, they create a “breathing” layer for the soil, and it is also saturated with oxygen. Since the roots of green manure penetrate deep into the soil, they extract from there all the necessary nutrients that “cultivated” plants simply cannot reach. In addition, these crops reduce soil acidity and suppress the growth of weeds. And, perhaps most importantly, they nourish the soil with organic matter, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which is simply necessary for our future plants.

We recommend sowing green manure in beds in early spring– this will be the preparatory stage before planting the main plants. Green manure will prepare the soil for planting, and will subsequently serve as mulch. We sow them thickly, scattering them over the area, and sprinkle them with a little earthen soil or compost, otherwise the birds may eat everything. Before planting the crop in the garden bed, about 2 weeks in advance, the grown green manure is simply trimmed (not cut, not pulled out) and left in this trimmed state on the garden bed. Then seedlings or seeds are planted between them.

Very important nuance! We must not allow green manure plants to overgrow, that is, the moment when they begin to scatter their seeds. You need to have time to cut them off before that.

It is good to sow them before winter, as already mentioned, on already harvested beds. After the crop is harvested, instead of mulching with new grass, green manure can be sown in the beds. This is also great for overwintering an organic bed. The main thing is to never leave the ground bare in winter. Green manure crops are sown thickly before winter. Firstly, most often not all of them germinate, since, after all, it is already September, and secondly, by forming their roots, they will not allow the ground to freeze early. After the green manure “dies” it will turn into compost, again improving the structure and nutrient layer of the earth both upward and deep. Many green manures also perfectly sanitize the soil, so this is the safest method of disinfecting soil in the garden.

Perhaps, only rye should be used with caution as a green manure, although it also belongs to this group. The fact is that she completely occupies the territory and does not allow all other crops nearby to grow - she is a very allelopathic young lady. It’s good when this applies, for example, to weeds, but valuable plants can also be affected.

Fertilizers and preparations in natural agriculture

With the natural method of growing food, fertilizers are used only the same “natural” ones. No store-bought drugs, no mineral supplements, under any circumstances. The plant must take all its nutrients from nature! Only organic matter can be used as fertilizers. And this is humus, compost and the creation of warm beds.

In natural farming, diseases and pests, as a rule, do not besiege crops much, because here everything is aimed at prevention. But if this does happen, then you can fight only with folk remedies suitable for a particular case. So look at the plant protection section at the address and choose a safe product.

The role of crop rotation in natural farming

Another point in natural farming that improves soil fertility is crop rotation.

We should not forget that plants not only consume nutrients from the soil, but also give it some organic elements. All crops have different amounts and types of nutrients consumed and released into the soil, which is why there are recommendations about which crops should be planted after others. This alternation allows you to maintain soil fertility and provide adequate nutrition to plants without additional fertilizers.

We have reviewed the main pillars of natural farming. From all this we can conclude that this method of growing food does not require a lot of time and labor; there is no need to dig, weed or loosen, either in the fall or in the spring! You just need to take care of crop rotation, mulching, sowing green manure, plant protection and watering. In fact, these are all the secrets of natural farming, and most importantly, in the end we get not only an abundant, but also an environmentally friendly harvest from our organic beds.

Organic gardening should be considered as an alternative to intensive gardening, which often uses unreasonably large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. Of course, the yield of an intensive garden will be higher, but at what cost? It’s no secret that in order to get a decent harvest, you need to carry out chemical protection measures several times a season. This means that plants are doomed to accumulate compounds that are toxic to humans, and, in addition, cause irreparable harm environment, bees and bumblebees die, soil microorganisms and birds suffer.

The practice of organic farming means that only natural fertilizers are used in the garden - manure, compost, leaf humus and other organic matter, as well as wood ash.

In the fight against diseases, the application of the most important principle of crop rotation has a good effect. Attracting birds and beneficial insects that feed on these pests into the garden helps control them.

Weeds are destroyed not with the help of herbicides, but through competent agrotechnical measures, mulching and proper crop rotation.

When starting to create and arrange a garden, we must remember that the key to success is a respectful attitude towards the land. It should be noted that this is by no means “dirt” in which hands and clothes get dirty, as some people think. Soil is a living organism, the habitat of microorganisms, protozoa, fungi and soil fauna. This is a complex biological system, a storehouse of mineral and organic elements from which plants draw strength to produce a harvest. If treated properly, the soil can maintain its own fertility.

Causes of pollution and depletion of fertile soil layer

Depletion of the fertile soil layer leads to chronic crop failures, problems with pests and plant diseases. Soil fertility directly depends on the presence of humus in it, the main soil component, its organic part, which is formed as a result of biochemical transformations of animal and plant residues. It is in humus, which combines with soil minerals, that all the necessary nutrients for the plant world are found. With the help of saprophytic microorganisms, symbiont fungi and soil fauna, the process of soil formation occurs.

The reasons for soil depletion lie in the fact that, unfortunately, man rather unceremoniously invades the complex processes that take place in the upper soil horizons. Constant digging disrupts the microbiological balance of soils. Unwise use of pesticides kills all living things, including beneficial soil flora and fauna. The constant use of mineral fertilizers leads to salinization of the soil, due to which the plants are eventually unable to obtain nutrients. Pollution and depletion of the soil leads to the fact that practically nothing grows on the site except weeds.

It is well known that organic fertilizers are better integrated into the food chains of microorganisms living in the soil, while supplying plants with all nutrients. To do harm, you have to try hard. There is practically no overdose, the excess is eroded and washed away by precipitation. Therefore, the use of organic matter at all stages of crop cultivation is becoming increasingly preferable.

The basic techniques of organic farming, that is, literally making the land, come down to three main techniques: composting, using green manure plants and mulching.

Types of organic fertilizers in natural farming: they are...

Is it possible to do without mineral fertilizers? To avoid mineral fertilizers or reduce their use to a minimum, you need to use organic matter. All the main elements necessary for the normal development of plants - nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium - are contained in manure and compost. Bird droppings, peat, and bone meal can also be successfully used as organic fertilizer in natural farming. Wood ash has always been an excellent source of microelements. All types of organic fertilizers are safe for both humans and soil microorganisms.

Organic fertilizers include manure, compost, humus, bird droppings and much more. Our ancestors did not have any fertilizers at their disposal, except for stove ash and manure. This universal fertilizer, which not only contributes to increased productivity, but also improves the structure and fertility of the soil, has been used since ancient times in agriculture. He was still taken through the snow, on a sleigh (the word manure itself comes from this) to the fields. But even now no one has canceled the use of manure. You know how tasty and large potatoes grow “on manure”!

What is the best manure and litter for the garden as an organic fertilizer?

What is the best manure for the garden and what are the rules for using this source of micronutrients?

Any manure, except pig manure, is suitable for the garden plot.

The trouble is that the almost complete disappearance of large cattle from private farms to rural areas, the reduction in the number of horses has led to the fact that now organic fertilizer, manure, especially horse manure, has turned into an almost unaffordable luxury. Where there are many gardening partnerships, and farms in the area, it’s happened once or twice, getting a manure truck is a great success. IN last years Private stables have begun to appear in our country, which inspires timid hope that horse manure will finally become more accessible to gardeners.

Bird droppings and their uses. This is a very concentrated organic fertilizer made from manure, so it must be used with caution. Liquid fertilizers are made from clean, dried bird droppings that are commercially available. To do this, add water to 500 g of dry droppings in a ten-liter bucket. When the contents of the bucket turn into a homogeneous substance, this concentrate must be diluted with water at the rate of 1:20 (for example, dilute 0.5 liters in 10 liters) and water the plants at the roots with this working solution (but do not spray them!).

Is it true that you can bring mole crickets with cow dung? Yes, such a threat exists. Cow dung has its own problems. Only rotted manure can be used. If you bought fresh manure, leave it to “ripen” in some secluded corner of the garden, but be careful - mole crickets love to make nests there, successfully winter in a warm environment and reproduce in huge quantities. Therefore, by the time the manure is ready, there is a danger of the mole cricket spreading throughout the garden. To avoid this threat, it is better to purchase and store manure in plastic bags, where it will also ripen perfectly, but is inaccessible to mole crickets.

Which manure is better to use as fertilizer: fresh or rotted?

How to use manure correctly. Manure has three degrees of maturity. It is good to add fresh manure to the beds when digging the soil in the fall. There he will reach the desired condition by spring. Otherwise, you may burn the plant roots. In the spring, it can be used to create warm beds, walled up to a depth of up to half a meter, covered with branches, large plant debris, etc. Slowly decomposing, it will release additional heat, which allows you to grow cucumbers directly in open ground. Manure that has been sitting for a year (no matter in your garden or somewhere else) can already be used in greenhouses, when setting up beds in the spring, when planting potatoes and tomatoes. Therefore, the answer to the question of which manure is better: fresh or rotted, will depend on the goals pursued by the gardener.

Manure aged two years, in fact, has already completely rotted and turned into humus. To keep it in working condition, it’s a good idea to shovel the pile, try not to overdry it, water it if necessary, and be sure to cover it with film. This is done to protect against weeds and maintain a certain humidity. Dry manure loses more than half of its beneficial properties.

Another way to use manure as fertilizer: place a barrel in the greenhouse, fill it halfway with manure and fill it to the top with water. The gas that will be released during fermentation will accelerate the growth of plants in the greenhouse. But keep in mind - the aroma in the greenhouse will be specific!

From a concentrated infusion taken from the same barrel, you can prepare a solution for liquid feeding during the first half of summer. To do this, it must be diluted 10 times (1 liter per ten-liter bucket). Water at the roots, being careful not to get on the leaves. In smaller concentrations (1 cup per bucket), manure infusion is successfully used to combat powdery mildew.

In addition, it is very useful to use manure when preparing compost, layering it with plant residues and kitchen waste folded for composting.