系统思维的超越可持续发展有机园艺

Tillage and soil disturbance brings one other thing to light – weed seeds. I can’t help but think about weeds at this time of the year since I’ve casually observed plenty of patches of weedy hell just traveling through residential neighborhoods.

杂草会从你离开，如果你不留在他们顶部. That’s just what weeds are consummately equipped to do thanks to their genetic heritage and reproductive strategy – live 几乎, 夭折, and crank out seeds in vast numbers. The seeds then bide their time near the soil surface until the conditions are right to replicate the growth cycle all over again.

The plant species we call “杂草” are really nothing more than plants we have judged as unwanted because they’re the wrong plants in the wrong places. 一方面, they tend to be non-native to the places that are being colonized. 另一, weedy species tend to not encounter built-in biological controls that keeps their population growth in check in their native ecosystems. That means that nothing in their new host environments has learned to exploit the weeds as a food resource…但.

For lack of natural controls to keep weed populations in check, it’s on us to impose that constraint in our gardens and landscapes. It’s late April now in Southern CA and the majority of weeds have set seed. The best time to set the weeds back is just after the first winter rains. 让杂草长大了一点，但然后拉 (deep tap rooted species like dandelion, 野生萝卜, or cheeseweed) 而湿润的土壤仍是他们或割草 (草只) 当他们设定的花 (inconspicuous on grass species) 但不要等到杂草种子集. 就像生活中许多事情, timing is everything. If you’re wondering why it’s not helpful to wait until the plants set seed, it’s because the seeds of some species are viable plant embryos long before they’re separated from the parent plant. 当您等待, you inadvertently add to the weed seed “bank” in the soil.

耕作使事情更糟. Some weed seeds no doubt are killed in the process but the majority are just “warehoused” by tillage. It’s like putting them in the equivalent of a bank security deposit box. Without tillage, most seeds will remain at the soil surface. 蚂蚁进行一些种源，, earthworms consume other seeds and redeposit them in castings, and gophers and other animals move seeds through burrowing. Broad scale tillage helps foster an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. 肯定, the weeds for that season or that year may be gone but the seeds of their ancestors lie in wait to return with a vengeance.

(銈://加元 空.socialtwist 空.com/0000000000/script 空.js的)

你知道，有更多的土顶脚 7 至 50 倍比下生活 3 1/2 脚? (来源: Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally 罗伯特Kourik, Metamorphic Press 1986). 当土壤耕种或拨, too much air is introduced all at once.

Life thrives in a zone of ‘enoughness’. Now I realize this is a foreign concept to most people, 作为一项规则谁想要更多, 更多, 更多 of everything and then some. (This proclivity has led to such pop culture aphorisms like, “Too much of a good thing is just about right.”) 想想看，虽然: more consumerism leads to more waste and more waste leads to more plastic waste as a proportion of that overall waste stream. More plastic waste leads to larger oceanic garbage patch gyres, of which there are currently five. 但, 我离题. More oxygen in the soil introduced like a shot of steroids does not lead to more life but to less. You may think you’re taking care of one problem – say for instance a pest outbreak – but you’re unintentionally creating a lot of new problems for yourself. You’re also destroying the soil’s structure, especially if you are tilling over and over from year to year. (There are techniques to aerate the soil less violently, but those may be introduced in later posts.)

Imagine taking a whole block of any given urban development – New York, 巴黎, London, 斯科特代尔, 东京, 洛杉矶 – and upending that entire block, buildings, 街道, 和所有. What used to be the tops of buildings are now underground and beneath everything else that used to be above them. Don’t you think that would be quite disruptive, 至少可以这样说?

Turning the soil is no less deadly. Soil flora and fauna tend to live in specific strata in the soil and tillage disrupts this order. 例如, there are some native California earthworms (是的, 它们存在! – 看看这个文件 (銈://万维网 空.treesearch 空.fs 空.fed 空.us/pubs/24154)) that tend to tunnel deeply and other species that live closer to the surface. If you’re smart and letting nature do the heavy lifting for you, the only creatures that are turning the soil the vast majority of the time are earthworms and other ground dwelling animals that tend to tunnel. You may not like the affect these creatures have on the visual appearance of your landscape or your plants, but the truth of the matter is that tunneling mammals have their roles to play in nature. They introduce all-important organic matter, for one thing.

For those of you who grow edibles, especially produce that commonly graces our tables, 你有意识的腐殖质. This is organic matter that has been consumed and altered by soil fungi and bacteria into large amorphous molecules that tend to resist further decomposition. 腐殖质分解，但它没有这样做很慢. The introduction of too much oxygen through tillage burns up organic matter quickly and most of the nutrient value is lost. If you’re a gardener, why would you want to engage in a practice that is counterproductive and against your own interests?

(銈://加元 空.socialtwist 空.com/0000000000/script 空.js的)

Are you one of those property owners who tills? 为什么你，直到? More importantly, 你怎么认为，耕作实现?

Maybe you think that the soil needs more oxygen. 我承认，土壤生活, including the plants, needs a combination of moisture and oxygen to survive, but soil with good texture already has oxygen in it! Soil that isn’t compacted from constant foot or vehicular traffic is just fine as it is.

Imagine a clear plastic or glass container filled with ball bearings. If you shake that container, the ball bearings will settle into an arrangement that minimizes the spaces between the bearings. This is what soil compaction would look like if you could magnify soil particles. But soil isn’t composed of only one particle size! The magical stuff that is soil is composed of varying particle sizes. If you go back to the image of the container with the ball bearings, now picture those ball bearings mixed in with kumquats, 乒乓球, tennis balls, and the occasional basketball. Those varying particle sizes allow for air and water to infiltrate the soil.

(銈://加元 空.socialtwist 空.com/0000000000/script 空.js的)