Why you SHOULD No-Till/No-Dig on clay soil as long as you heavy mulch!

hello everyone welcome back to Starkey Farmstead today's video why are we going to cover the soil and can you no-till on red clay all right here we go you guys see this this is what I am no-tilling on look at that that is nothing but red clay all right so yes you can't no-till on red clay in fact I highly encourage it when my husband and I started this we could not get a shovel into this soil okay it was baked so hard but after doing no-till for eight months you can come out here and put a shovel anywhere you want but I'm going to show you something we just untarped this area and I noticed that I had some drainage issues because my yard is on a slope and it does go down to a pond right here and up here so basically it had moved my mulch which is a heavy layer of trash hey if you want to know about hay as a mulch we have other videos in our no-till playlist please go reference those we talk about it extensively but do you see this you see this cracking you see that dryness guys if this is what you think your soil should look like when you Garden you are sadly mistaken this is unhealthy soil in fact all it is is dead dirt with this sun in Southeast Louisiana baking down even though we're in the last day at February 80 something degrees out here look the little the tarp has been off of this area for less than seven days look at the soil cracking look how hard it's starting to become okay I had light in it look how beautiful it was a mending beautifully and that's cracking it's drying out the clay is separating back into chunks you couldn't grow any look at that hear that you can't grow anything in that so when people say I can't no-till I have Clay in my soil and it doesn't work it does work in fact I'm here to tell you that if you will heavy mulch which is what I'm doing today you see the new mulch the new hay areas I'm putting that right over where the water had come through and I'm covering the soil let me show you why move to an area that has been covered this entire time look at the difference look at the difference you just saw me look at that look at that earthworm look at that there's life there's life in the soil I'm gonna tell you why it's covered instead the sun can't bake it if you think gardening is a bare soil activity that this is what your garden should look like with a plant sitting in that guys this is why your plants you keep having to go look at that look at the difference I almost can't get through it so I had to get it covered today but I'm telling you this is why so many of you are putting so much money in the fertilizers pesticides because your soil is dead there's no life in it How can there be life when the sun is baking it to death look at the cracks in that you know water would hit this and just run straight off very little of it would ever make it through that hard pan of clay once it finishes hardening up so today here at Starkey farmstead one goal only cover these areas up get them covered up and you can see where I just stopped right here but I wanted to show y'all because that's what's happening to my soil as soon as the sun hit it it's like a rock so no I couldn't no-till and that you'd have to put a tiller in it right I mean you literally would have to put a tiller in this to grow food unless you had the mulched use anything you can there's no wrong answer I've got pieces of cardboard I've got newspaper I have areas covered in leaves areas covered in Hay areas that the hay got low and it broke out with like a low-growing ground cover right here I'm Gonna Leave This I'm Gonna Leave This it's not gonna get any taller it's not going to hurt my production and vegetables but it's got my soil covered this is why you keep getting so many breakthrough trash plants in your garden what we call weeds because your soil is bare so you look out into the yard out into the woods there is no bare soil their soil is dead dirt I hope that this helps you guys understand why I keep telling you can no-till on Clay I'm doing it but you must cover that soil with a heavy mulch so you guys be blessed get out there today get something done in your garden this is our quarter acre here at Starkey Farmstead you guys have a blessed day thank you for rowing in our boats and letting us ruin yours

Channel: Starkey Farmstead

Views: 269

Keywords: No-till, No-dig, Clay soil, Clay, Heavy mulch, Mulch

Id: _ROF8-5Gad4

Length: 5min 53sec (353 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023