Adapting the Ruth Stout method for clay soil.

Hey guys, welcome back. I hope you're doing good to see me. Well, here it is It's just the first week of October, but I'm already Getting started on preparing my garden for next year And so I've decided to do something that I've never done before what I'm going to do is a no-till deep mulch method and I've picked out a spot right here behind me then I'm going to try this and After doing a lot of reading and I even watched a few videos and stuff. I've decided to try The roost out method, but I'm gonna kind of do a variation of that for a Very specific reason and I'm going to show you everything That I'm doing and explain why I'm doing it. And so As I said, this is this is my first time trying this so I would love to hear what you guys have to say in the comments Well, let's go ahead and get started All right. So let me explain to you why I have never done a no-till deep mulch garden before Okay, so when you dig down the first few inches in my garden The soil doesn't look all that bad It's it's what I consider halfway decent soil But here's what happens when you go just a little bit deeper Okay. So once you get down below that five six inches and you start digging down there This is the kind of soil that I have and It really starts turning into you know that that clay and There's there's not a lot of tilth to it. You know, it's just it's just you know hard for roots to get down into this when it's it's it's so hard and So for the last several years, I've been doing something to try to correct this. So let me explain Okay, so let me start out by saying this because I don't want to Unintentionally mislead somebody you cannot make clay soil better by just tilling it You will make it worse Okay. Now what I have been doing over the last several years is I've been putting organic matter in different ways in My garden and then I'll till it in whether I'm doing sheet mulching or I'm just killing it in in the fall however, but You cannot you cannot break clay soil up by tilling it and think that it's that's a permanent fix it is not and You take it one step further. I do not know any way of amending clay soil Without using organic matter You can use fertilizers and stuff to make the plants grow But you're not going to change the composition of your soil in my opinion The only way of doing this is to add large amounts of organic matter now the reason why I picked that what that soil that I showed you over there is where I'm going to Do this roost out variation is because I really haven't Amended it a whole lot. That's kind of a newer part to my garden and I've planted pumpkins there So I did amend parts of it, but I really haven't spent a lot of time changing the soil So that's really going to tell me How this you know, I hate to say experiment but how doing this you know no till is going to work out because I Really believe from what I've read and everything that I'm going to have to do this for several years You know before I see any change in that soil, so let me show you what I'm getting ready to do Now if you have watched this video and you liked it and you found value in it, please consider subscribing I really would appreciate it and as always it is free now this part roost out never did And I'm going to show you what I'm getting ready to do and why I'm doing it So if you watch my channel, you probably already had this figured out but I am going to put some manure down before I add the hay and this is some really good aged pig manure And I don't think it matters What kind of manure you use and I don't believe it matters Whether it's aged whether it's fresh and I'll explain that here in a second. But what I'm using this has probably been on the ground since Early spring late winter and it It is breaking down pretty good. And so I think it's going to work really good for this rest out method Okay, so if you're wanting to try this Depending on when you're going to plan you you could probably go ahead and use very fresh manure Here in West Central, Indiana. It's October and I'm not going to plant anything where I'm going to put this until probably April probably May even and so that's going to give even fresh manure plenty of time to break down You know pig manure chicken manure. I I don't want it anywhere near my plants unless it has been aged at least Five to six months, maybe a little more for chicken manure So I've got plenty of time for this to go ahead and break down Alright, so before I put this manure down I want to show you the size of the bed that I'm going to use for this no-till and kind of the Condition that it is in right now So from these posts You can see that one all the way back Down to here where I've got a little space in between these these garden beds, so to speak It's about right here. That's about 20 foot and so it is about 15 foot wide And you can see I didn't till it There I just mowed it down and there's already, you know weeds starting to Come back up. And so that's what I'm that's what I'm looking at Trying to amend with this no-till all right, so Actually for a 20 by 15 foot area It took me six wheelbarrow loads of manure, but I did put it on kind of thick now I Don't know why Ruth Stout never used manure Maybe she just didn't need it. Maybe her soil is better than my soil I'm not here to argue with you know, the wisdom of Ruth Stout. She was an awesome gardener But this is where I think I can amend my clay soil And if you have clay soil doing a no-till this is going to help you Okay, I can't till this in like I normally would like I talked about at the start of the video So I'm going to need some help. And so that help is going to come into the form of microbes microorganisms all that and worms okay, so The worms are going to come up and they're going to eat this manure Well, they're going to create tunnels channels, whatever you want to call them and as this manure breaks down All them nutrients are going to hopefully get put down into that soil Down into that clay part that I was showing you where you know when I plant Them roots can go down in there and it's soft and they get those nutrients And so that is where I think I'm going to kind of help amend that clay soil, but there's more to it than that When I put this hay on here You know, that's going to break down. Hay kind of tends to break down quick anyway, so the part that is touching the Manure and the microbes in the ground touching the manure all that in eight months that should break down Really well and that's going to create nutrients for my plants And so you can see that obviously that layer of manure is not even you know There's highs and lows in it. Well, that's another thing when I put that hay on top That's going to create air pockets and what you know when I put it on there thick It's going to keep the ground warm. It's going to keep it from freezing There's going to be warm air there so those worms and those microbes are going to work a lot more Doing it this way. They're going to have a lot more Warm time so to speak through the winter then like my traditional method, not traditional, but my method of tilling it in You know, it's just going to create a warmer environment so that's going to be a plus to using this manure Well, how much hay am I going to use? How much am I going to put on top? Well, let me show you. All right, so to answer the question how much hay am I going to use a lot a lot and What I'm going to do I'm going to take a wheelbarrow load and do exactly that Across this whole area now. I am at an advantage when it comes to hay Okay, so to be a little more definitive on how thick I'm going to put that hay down I would like to have about 10 to 12 inches now. Here's the advantage that I have Okay, I've got one two three big bales of hay and I've got that partial one over there. I can buy more Because it comes right here from this field. I know the guy that bales it. He does not spray it You know, so I know everything is organic So I'm fortunate in for that reason now. I did make a video I think it was last January about two big considerations if you're going to try You know a roost out or a back to Eden gardening about how much materials it takes Even with all that I could not do a deep mulch The whole area of my garden so that is one big thing to consider if you're going to try you know to do this a no-till deep mulch make sure you have enough material because This hay this 10 or 12 inches of hay is what's going to be Hopefully my weed barrier. So you really want to stop and think about that Okay, so what I'm going to do over the next couple of days is I'm just going to keep adding More and more hay to this and then I will probably the next time I clean out my chicken coop I'm going to put that on there because they'll still be plenty of time for that that chicken manure to break down Now as this goes through the winter, you know, it's it's going to compress and hey Like I said, it does kind of break down Fairly quickly, so I'm going to have to add more to this, you know, probably throughout the winter But this isn't you know, probably just a one-time experiment from everything I've read next spring I might not do as Good because it really all these organic materials really haven't broke down as good as they could have You know, the soil is not quite as amended as it could be and so I think you're going to look at year two and Three for something like this to see how good it works. And so I'm planning on doing it really for three years anyway, just to see but you know, it's kind of an exciting thing and if somebody has a Good idea on what to plant that first year, please share it in the comments I've got my ideas, but um other than that, you know, just let me know what you think Well, that's the video and you guys have a good evening. I'll talk to you later. See you