While attending the 3^rd annual Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa, Kevin and I listened to a man named Paul Kaiser from Singing Frogs Farm in Sebastopol, California. (http://www.singingfrogsfarm.com/Home.html)   He practices - No Till Gardening - and gave a wonderful talk on the subject.

The act of tilling the soil releases nitrogen and carbon into the air adding to green house gases. These are two elements that we desperately need in our soil. His approach is to disturb the soil as little as possible and to grow as many different species of plants as is practical. By keeping living plants in the ground it keeps the soil covered preventing the it from being baked by the sun and drying out and from becoming packed down from rainfall as well as helping to shade out weeds.

Paul, his wife Elizabeth and two children have owned their 8+ acre farm for the last 7 years. Of this, he farms 2 acres with the help of three full time employees. According to Paul, the average farmer earns roughly $2,000 per acre, per year. At Singing Frogs Farm they are earning around $100,000 an acre, per year. This is unheard of in traditional farming and made many in the audience take note. And yet he uses no conventional or organic pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. The reason for this is that even though the organic chemicals don’t harm humans, beneficial insects are still killed. By the way, he also has virtually no weeding to do.

This is achieved by starting his plants in seed trays, then transplanting them out. This is not done for seeds that have 35 days or less until harvest – those are still direct seeded as well as crops that require straight roots like carrots. By transplanting his crops his soil isn’t kept bare allowing weeds to grow, or allowing the sun to bake the ground dry. He inter-crops as well. For example, large broccoli has lettuce planted in between which are harvested just 30 days after being transplanted. The broccoli provides a windbreak and shade for the lettuce.

Paul also uses hedgerows around his property. These are perennial, native and woody. They are pollinator friendly, allows a habitat for gardener snakes which take care of any gophers and provide a wind break to keep tender plants from becoming tough. I was amazed to see how many butterflies were around the property. There are also a number of bee hives which helps keep the crops pollinated.

We were invited to the farm for a tour and jumped at the opportunity to see it for ourselves. One of the first things Paul talked about is his compost; he is very particular about his compost. He’s only able to create about half of the compost that he requires and must purchase the rest. The compost has to be rich, and dark. He almost lost his farm once due to purchased organic compost which didn’t supply his seedlings with the nutrients they needed. His seeds sprouted because of the stored energy in the seeds, but then shortly after died before he could transplant them to the fields. Each seed is planted in rich compost then goes into the field which has 1 – 3 inches of compost on top. This is never dug in, never turned over into the soil. Instead the compost is just added to the top. Not only is it easier and takes less time but it also doesn’t release the nitrogen and carbon into the atmosphere, but keeps it where it’s needed in the ground.

Paul tells us that for every 1% of soil organic matter, 16 thousand gallons per acre of water is available to the plants within the top 1 foot. Because of this, Singing Frogs Farm only use their drip irrigation 1 – 2 hours per week. The soil organic matter makes the farm drought tolerant as well as flood and erosion resilient.

The farm is in production year round and produces 3 – 7 crops per bed, per year. Because of the intense growth, soil tests are done annually to ensure that they are maintaining the proper nutrients in the soil and allowing them to know if mineral deficiencies exist. This test is done 12 inches deep, after crops are harvested and before the bed is prepped for the next crop.

The farm is successful in large part by the care given to the farm, but also by the way sales are performed. They have a diversified, direct market with no wholesale. Not only is it important for Paul to provide good food, but it is also important for him to provide his ecological message about where the food comes from and how it is grown in a way that is better than organic. (Which by the way usually tills the soil twice yearly, has empty, dry soil, and allows for organic pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. – but is still much preferred than produce that has been sprayed by traditional chemicals.) He has a CSA with around 14 drop sites as well as some customers picking up their boxes from the farm, he participates in numerous farmer’s markets and he supplies produce to a couple of restaurants.

During the Expo I asked how one would get started in this type of farming or gardening. Would I till the soil just once? What was the alternative? “Cardboard” is the answer. Lay down your cardboard and cover it with compost, then transplant directly into the compost. Before each new crop, add 2 more inches of compost, never tilling it into the soil. So why cardboard? For the earthworms it brings!

I asked Paul if he had a book out. He’s working on one and once it’s published I’ll be running to make my purchase. Earlier in this post I provided a link to the farm’s website. Check out the “SFF in the news” and follow the links to things like “2013 Leadership in Sustainability Award” and “California Farmer Receives International Pollinator Conservation Award”. He shares his techniques freely and I am excited to put his ideas in to practice in my garden.