Tilling The Soil

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
Red Doe

Tilling The Soil

Post by Red Doe »

I just discovered there are archives to your old site here! :D :oops:
A quick glance through them and one topic caught my eye...that of what happens to the land in a post-SHTF scenario, if there is no oil to run tractors and other farming equipement.
That has relevance for me, because I`m on a croft. At the moment, due to finances, it isn`t a working croft, which means my land is basically going to waste. I let a neighboring crofter graze his sheep on the fields, and scythe the long grass down in autumn to dry out for bedding for my flock of hens, but right now, that`s it.
My OH is disabled so can`t do much manual work, I have health issues too, so digging over even a quarter of an acre by hand is unfeasible.
So essentially, I`m in that post-SHTF place. ;)
Does anyone know of any techniques or equipment for folk like me, with limited physical capacity and budget, on managing to make croftland productive?
motorcycle man

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by motorcycle man »

a couple of things spring to mind: 1. you could use raised beds, no digging involved or 2. how about getting a pig? natures tractor!
smileyt

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by smileyt »

Advertise a 'working holiday' and get people to come and pay to dig it?

You could try covering part of the land with black plastic and leaving it for a couple of years to kill off the weeds, and then try planting through the plastic. It all depends what kind of weeds you have growning there.
preppingsu

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by preppingsu »

smileyt wrote:Advertise a 'working holiday' and get people to come and pay to dig it?

You could try covering part of the land with black plastic and leaving it for a couple of years to kill off the weeds, and then try planting through the plastic. It all depends what kind of weeds you have growning there.
oooo, that reminds me, check out
http://www.wwoof.org.uk/

friends of mine had some woofers, not sure their land was classed as organic but, by god, they got the work done.
the-gnole

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by the-gnole »

The "old" ways are often the best ways.

When it was a manual job to till the soil they had the land in strips, and each strip was a persons job to look after, they might have more than one depending on the size, they only had simple tools so only did simple tilling, then simple follow up care, weeding etc was all part of the daily toil.

So if struggling with a big area have a go at splitting it down into managable squares, rectangles or circles, a few feet in dimension is better than seeing a huge expanse and thinking "I can't do ALL that"

Square foot gardening is also a thought.
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diamond lil
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Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 1:42 pm
Location: Scotland.

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by diamond lil »

Following on from this - where would I learn more about enriching poor soil in an organic old-style way? I know you can grow manure but is it feasible for a medium-sized back garden ? My soils is very poor and I dont want to have to keep on buying fertiliser.
the-gnole

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by the-gnole »

diamond lil wrote:Following on from this - where would I learn more about enriching poor soil in an organic old-style way? I know you can grow manure but is it feasible for a medium-sized back garden ? My soils is very poor and I dont want to have to keep on buying fertiliser.
Have you got any stables near you Lil? they might be happy to drop a load off for you :mrgreen:
Red Doe

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by Red Doe »

Many thanks for the responses, food for thought here. :)
Lil, if you are near the coast, a few bag loads of seaweed is fab for enriching the soil and is what they used to do up here for the runrigs. :) Just bag it home, dig it in and leave it to work.
the-gnole

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by the-gnole »



You'll like this,

Protect and survive, Runrig :mrgreen:

Always wondered how they got their name :roll:
Red Doe

Re: Tilling The Soil

Post by Red Doe »

I love Runrig, gnole and have been a fan of theirs since the early days when they sang everything in the Gaelic :D
Still missing Donny Munro from the band though, but they`re still good. :)