How To Use Manure in a No-Till Garden 

Hey Greg - Awesome pertinent video! Just started my garden layout revamp and building 5 - 4' x 10' beds to replace the hodge podge of beds on the East side of the garden...I am lucky enough to be the recipient of as much aged horse manure as I want! My oldest daughter lives on a horse farm and every year for my birthday she asks me what I want and I respond Horse Manure! So magically about 50 large bags of horse manure appear on the back of her truck - this years shipment arrived on this Sunday past! Plus with all the maple trees I have I am able to lay on about 3 - 4" of mulched leaves on all the beds. So the new beds have a base of cardboard (IKEA cabinet boxes), 3" of leaves, a couple inches of horse manure, then about 2 - 3" of top soil scraped from the beds I am replacing and then 3" of leaves on top of that and I am using your trick of leave bags laid on top. I have a love/hate relationship with fall, I love it because I can get more work done with the lower temps and things like my kale, collards and lettuces are at a premium but I hate it as I know soon we will be in the depths of another SW Ontario winter... Although next spring should be fun as I am retired as of Dec 31st and will have the time to get on to all the projects around here! Anyway, great video, really appreciate your insights and the work you do to make these. Have a great day. Mike :)

I have been listening/ watching your videos for several years, this year more than ever not only have I learned a lot and put my new knowledge int practice but also have found the content therapeutic for my mental state Thanks Greg

For anybody where aminopyralid herbicides are legal, watch out when adding any manure products except from animals you know aren't eating anything contaminated (your own animals if you only feed them organic hay for instance). It can wreck your garden for years!

....you have pretty much nailed my practice. I describe it as mulch and manure, or “The 2M Magic Mattress.” I will lay down cardboard when starting a bed from from scratch, to smother weeds and grasses. I first lay on a light layer of manure, then the cardboard. I’ll leave that sit for several months, then punch holes in the cardboard with a fork. Atop the perforated cardboard, I add a thin layer of the manure and start heaping on the organic mulch. Chopped leaves and grass, plants, yard waste, forest floor scrapings, you name it and whatever I can find. Once established my beds only get the manure treatment and mulching thereafter. I call it the “Mulch Mattress.” In Fall-Winter, I pull back the “mattress of mulch,” lay down some manure thinly and replace the mulch. When spring comes back, I’ll again pull back the mattress, layer a little manure - and this will be dug in as Im planting. Once plants are established the mulch goes back and I never stop adding it. I would do the hugulkultur method, too, but I’m a coward where that much shoveling is concerned. Thanks for your efforts, David S Carolina

I have just found you site and you have taught me a great deal already. I love the idea of using cardboard strips as a weed barrier. I have been gardening for 60 plus years. And you method of mulching etc makes sense. And at my age easie

I really appreciate your videos! This is my second year having a garden and I'm using the no till method. I've learned so much!! My kids and I just built our first huglekulture bed. Can't wait to see how it produces. Again, thank you for all the great videos!!

What a wonderful synopsis of the "wherewithal" of no-till gardening - and how and why everything happens. Great job! Well explained. You are a good teacher :-)

When I started gardening 7 years ago, I heard the words 'no-til', liked the idea, and without thinking any more about it, I started off keeping the plants mulched in the summer, adding a mulch cover in the winter, and adding more mulch in the summer after the winter mulch became soil long about June or July, thinking that I was doing no-til when I was just doing my own thing. I do have to break up the soil a bit when I go to planting because of compaction caused by rain, snow, and settling, and if that's a sin against the no-til philosophy, too bad. My hat's off to the guys with enough compost to cover their beds, but that's not me. Since my only mulch is shredded leaves, I will add chicken manure and other amendments in the fall. I also use bone meal and organic ferts directly on my transplants, and fish fertilizer with compost tea after the plants are up and growing. Yeah, I try to make compost, but it never completely breaks down like it does for the YT video guys, so I end up spreading compost muck on the garden beds along with the shredded leaves and call it good. Anyway, for whoever's interested, what Maritime Gardening is telling you really works. There probably is some nitrogen sequestration with mulch vs pure compost, but not enough to make a difference in my opinion...

great explanation, really helped me out, started no till and rent myself out to till for people who want it...

As always, this video was very helpful.

Awesome topic and content. Thank you for sharing. ❤️🇨🇦👍

Hello Greg, Interesting topic for sure! I believe is a much easier on the body way to garden. I only been gardening edibles, this will be my third Fall I believe. Two years ago a did a huglekulturlast (you are totally correct, it is back breaking). ☺️ I dug the bed just because my property has so much rock, I wanted to get as many rocks out of it as possible. This spring I put potatoes on that bed after watching you do your potatoes. I’m waiting for leaves to fall and I’m going to get 1 or 2 more 3’ X 8’ beds ready for spring. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping all those just getting started, much appreciated!😉

Wow, do t know how I missed this one.

This was such a helpful video . . thank you for taking the time. About herbicides in hay, I bought two bales of hay from a feed store in Nova Scotia last spring and used it mixed in with leaves and grass clippings for spring/summer mulch on my vegetable garden. . I didn't have any problems with the garden so assume that the hay was free of herbicides but I never asked when I bought it. The weeds seem to grown right along with the veg this summer, so I guess that is a good thing! i got another two bales last week from the same store and have spread them for winter mulch, so fingers crossed it will be okay too but it does have me thinking. Next year I will ask more questions and seek out an organic supplier if there is such a thing as organic hay available in our area, I don't know. Using more of the leaves from my yard is probably the safest way to go, but leaves pack down if not mulched and then take years to compost. I don't have a mulcher and the hay mixed in prevents the leaves forming a barrier on top of my gardens. I trimmed some spruce trees and used the boughs on top of the hay to keep it from blowing away this winter.

Great info. I love your delivery style! I love laughing as I work in the garden. I'm even trying some Egyptian Walking Onions, thanks to you. Never seen them before! Not in Grandma's garden, for sure. Lol. I got the bulbs from a local farm here in Moncton. Can't wait to see what pops up next spring! P.s. I am trying Music Garlic this year, as well. We greatly appreciate your hard work and diligence! Keep up the great (covid fighting ) work. We all need an escape ( and exercise). 🤣🤪🤞

*Maritime Gardening* Love it!!!

Great information.... thanks!

Great information. Thank you for sharing. I wish I could get some for my asparagus bed

This year I did Ruth Stout no dig to open up 3 new beds with lots of reapplication of hay is the plants grew. It was a so disappointing an unmitigated disaster! Very poor crop and one bed was slugged and all rotted. I saw an earlier interview with Charles Dowding where her does talk about the near for soft soil and potatoes being in the soil for tubers to spread through the soil. I am reviewing my practice to ‘ minimal disturbance’ and ‘ doing what my soil needs to support the particular plant’. My soil is clay. I am thinking to dig in Manure and possibly sand and mulch on top in Autumn for the root crops. Maybe the year after it won’t be needed. Remembering that Ruth Stout tilled her garden for many years before going to deep mulch. I am starting a ground level garden from virgin soil and I am struggling with the soil fertility even with adding lots of compost. What do you think?

It’s interesting that you don’t compost, which is fundamental to the Charles Dowding ‘ no dig method’. I am finding with my expanding garden I need at least 3 cubic meters of compost every year which is very difficult to find all the resources and fiddly and needs at least one turning. So just mulching is very appealing idea.

1 of my gardens I trampled down corn, squash, sunflowers and weeds put a good 4+ inches of horse manure. if I can get leave raked up I will put on next also leaves from the forest floor and old hey to keep it all in place.

I've just finished my 5th year of no-till gardening. Every year my garden got bigger as I created new beds. I've now stopped adding more beds. My last addition was probably a bridge too far but I think I'll keep the three 4'x30' beds I created last year along with the 10 that already existed before that. In the early stages I mulched super-heavy to build as much soil as possible above the heavy clay base I have here. Now my mature beds that I started with are quite deep (as much as 12" above grade in some beds which is turning out to be a little too far above grade) so I have to learn to back off and mulch and amend more lightly. This fall I topped my garlic bed with a couple of inches of a mix of already composted manure and weeds and leaves and other such "rubbish" before planting. Then I covered that with lawnmower chopped leaves. My other beds have just a couple of inches rotten hay over them. Quite a difference from the 12" of rotted hay I used to pile on. I'm guessing that there won't be as much prolonged composting activity throughout the winter this year because of the reduced insulation provided. Thanks for another helpful and useful video. Shared to the FB gardening page I belong to.

Curious, I just planted a bed of potatoes in horse manure, (a bit aged), with grass hay mulch over. I have more area in this spot, that I haven't mulched yet, and am wondering if corn would grow in a mulched bed like this...

My garlic potato patch I used same method but I also big rotten logs and placed them between the rows. I planted 1 potato 6 garlic 1 potato ect.

Some might need raised beds as I do, 40 inches high. Some of us folks can’t bend, squat or kneel down to work on or close to the ground.

Life is a manure pile. LOL

Hey Greg I agree with everything you are saying with regards to adding mulch on top of raised beds to 1 act as weed suppression and 2 add an organic food source for micro organisms to eat and create nutrients for the new growing season but as you said all of the mulch might only be adding 1/4 of an inch of new soil and so I m just trying to understand if that is enough nutrients for a new season of growing. I guess your results somehow prove it works but you also trench compost or hugelkultur every few years which adds nutrients from under the soil as well. I guess with crop rotation different crops use different nutrients and things stay in balance. I still add 2 inches of compost on top of my beds and lightly till then in before adding my mulch layer in the fall and I get great results. My medicinal plants are heavy feeders and I can't see a mulch layer providing enough food for a new season of growth. I guess it also depends on your original soil when you started the beds. Anyway it's a busy time of year now collecting lots of leaf bags and prepping beds for next year. We are still enjoying lots of salads and greens from the greenhouse but new grow is slowing down there as well especially with the spinach, chard and kale and other greens still looking good. I had some chard in my beds and I transplanted them into pots and put them in the greenhouse as an experiment to see if they will still grow for a month or 2. Transplanting in Kate October, crazy idea!

Hi Greg, I've been hearing a lot about manure being contaminated with aminopyralid herbicide used on hay being fed to the animals producing the manure. Do you know if this is being used in Canada?

If you have hard clay soil, do you have to till it once before starting a no dig bed?

I have a sheltered corner where leaves built up last fall, mostly oak and some maple. When and how can I add these to my garden without making it into leaf mold?

When I use manure, I generally mix it with equal quantities leaf/bark/wood product, and equal part native soil. Sometimes extra bits are added like coco choir, or used coffee grounds. But considering whats going on in the world, im turning more towards sustainable independent primitive permaculture techniques now. I would say consider looking into channels like mine regarding bushcraft and survivalism, in addition to permaculture

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yes fall planted potatoes in northern new Brunswick.

I do deep liter method. Is it going to be too strong in the spring, or just add to my composting bins? I use sand and pine shavings, are they safe?

Half my garden is mulched. Half not mulched yet, I haven't got around to it. Now, I got some manure. Should I take off the mulch or can I just spread the manure over everything ?

Do you make a compost for kitchen waste? sold my tiller 8 years ago.

Great video...very insightful. I have been adding layers of organic material (leaves and green garden trimmings) over the last couple of weeks to prepare my beds for spring. My garden space is brand new this year and it's composed of pretty hard clay soilq so it really needs an infusion of rich organic matter. I am lucky enough to live on some forested land so instead of buying compost, today I added about 2 inches of rich forest soil mixed with humus from an old decomposted log to the top. I also added a small bit of steer manure. Now I'm wondering how do I keep the weeds from popping up before spring? Should I add another layer of leaves to the top as a mulch?

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Great question

Worm castings!!!!

How about rhubarb? I’ve been told by many people that the rhubarb bed needs manure every year... I’ve mulched it with whatever I mulch the rest of the garden with (I use your method so it could be anything)... but I still feel the pressure to buy/acquire manure to put on the rhubarb because that’s what everyone says you need to do 🤔

I wish I saw this video a couple months ago think I might've messed up :(

Tilling is almost zero work. Just make sure you get a self propelled tiller and you can literally hold it with one hand and walk beside it as it tills up and down your garden, you just have to turn it that's easy. So it's a common misconception that tilling is a lot of work. Working compost and manure into v ur native soil is the best thing you could especially if you have clay or a combination of clay which is rich in minerals and nutrients, sand is okay too but not as good as clay, but it's still good to mix the native nutrients, minerals and microbes that are in your area because this forms the base which will never disappear like your compost and organic matter does. If you fill a bed with pure compost alone then you have to keep putting more compost in season after season and it doesn't provide all the nutrients and minerals that are found in the native soil (broken record, I know) TIlling is not as bad as they say it is, I've been doing it for years and my garden is healthy and produces great food and no I don't have tons of seeds and the reason is because I properly prepared the ground before I tilled. I didn't just till in a patch of grass and weeds, I set my chickens in the area I wanted to plant in and they killed the grass and weeds and then I moved the chickens and tilled and planted. A lot of people tarp the area to kill the grass and weeds too, then till, then tarp again to kill anymore weed seeds then plant. I do have some raised beds that I never till but I do fork or turn over with a shovel when I add amendments or compost. I find that it you just put stuff on top then it takes a while for the stuff to get down into the soil and the plant developes roots close to the soil line, so my theory is that if I mix the compost or rock dust etc deep down into the soil then the roots will go deep which is much need in my brutal Texas summers. Thanks for reading! love your neighbor as yourself! The world would be much better if we did!

If its a new garden and your soil is clay, you should till it and amend at the same time with materials lije peatmoss or sand or other organic matters to loosen and aerate the soil until you can garden no-till. Its really simple, just rake in the manure, you don't want to put in seedling on straight manure, and you don't want to seed on straight manure. Its not that complicated and ur not giving rational advice. Don't use hay, nothing but weeds.

So in other words even if you don’t add manure your garden is still full of sh-t...