I visited Eastern Oregon this week with work. We were a couple hundred yards from the base of the Blue Mountains surrounded by thousands of acres of dry land wheat and peas. One of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and peaceful like you cannot imagine.

We were doing some work with several different plots a few of which were “No Till”. Being as I am an amateur sustainability geek I like the idea of not discing land over and over destroying it’s natural structure and saving the organisms that help to feed the soil, but I have no knowledge of how or why it is done commercially. Here’s what I learned from my encyclopedia of a boss.

In both dry land wheat and peas (no irrigation whatsoever)  the No Till acreage does not produce as much as tilled acreage. BUT- in years that are dry, the no till acreage far exceeds that of the tilled acreage. Why, you might ask? I did and here is the reason.

Tilling  allows the moisture held in the soil to evaporate. The plants start off with a huge disadvantage by being started in dry as a bone soil, while the no till acreage uses the retained moisture to germinate the seeds and get them off to a strong start. The first rain is used for growth instead of germination which gives the no till plants a huge head start and allows it to withstand periods of drought.

Cool, huh?

I wonder if No TIll can be used on a small scale to conserve water in the home or market garden. I will be looking into this. I’ll report back if I find anything interesting or useful.

Peace.

Honey built these for me. The next step is adding benches around each bed. They are made out of Redwood which we purchased at a great price (90% off clearance). The next project is adding drip irrigation to each, then we will find a ground cover to fill in between the beds. I will keep you posted with pictures as it progresses.

This yard is going to be a work of art when it is finally finished.

The Daylillies are going strong. They will need to be seperated next Spring.

Do you know what this is? A newly emerging Rhubarb leaf. It sort of puffs up as it grows. Kind of cool huh?