No-till gardening has many benefits, from improving the soil for more vigorous plants to lessening the workload of the gardener. Jesse Frost, a farmer and the author of The Living Soil Handbook, is my guest for this week. He will explain the benefits of ditching the tiller and what else can be done.
Joe Lamp’l, 287-No Till Gardening, and The Living Soil Handbook with Jesse Frost, 287 No Till Gardening, and The Living Soil Handbook with Jesse Frost
Jesse and Hannah are market farmers who own a small organic farm called Rough Draft Farm in Lawrenceburg. Jesse has hosted the No-Till Growers YouTube channel for many years. He also authorizes “The Living Soil Handbook: the No-Till growers guide to Ecological Market Gardening,” which shares principles and farm-tested practices of no-till farming and gardening. Jesse believes the key to raising crops is to create the ideal conditions for photosynthesis. He says that all they do is manage photosynthesis. “Farming” is what we call this.
Before I continue with Jesse’s conversation about no-till and living soil, let me remind you of my new book, “The Vegetable Gardening Guide: Your complete guide for Growing an organic edible garden from Seedling to Harvest.” It is chock-full of further information and insider tips that will help you improve your gardening skills and overcome challenges.
Organic Vegetable Gardening, my new Online Gardening Academy (TM) Premium Course, is scheduled for release in 2023. Register for the waitlist.
How Jesse Frost Became Farmer Jesse
Jesse’s interest in plants began when he was young, and his mother grew some pepper plants. They are still one of his favorite plants to grow. He remembers cayenne peppers and how he enjoyed picking them up and placing them in the mason jars his family kept above their fridge. “I don’t think we used them, but they made excellent decor,” he says.
Jesse read the book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” when he was between 18 and 19 years old. It inspired him to quit college and work as a chef in Louisville, Kentucky, where he grew up.
He moved to New York City to further his cooking career, but he says the city distracts him with too many things to do – like drinking. After a month of figuring himself out, he got a job at a West Village wine shop, where he fell for unrefined wines that were funky and more natural. He then moved to another wine store specializing exclusively in affordable boutique wines. He also had the chance to visit winemakers in France, Austria, and other countries.
Jesse said he enjoyed meeting winemakers, who did not want to show him fancy tasting rooms and wineries but wanted him to smell, taste and see the soil of their vineyards. He also read about soil biology, biodynamics, and their effect on wine. He was curious to know why natural wines appealed to his palate. He says, “They tasted and felt more alive.”
Jesse became inspired to see agriculture from a new perspective. This and his love for food and cooking made him think he could become a farmer. He returned to Kentucky to continue farming. In 2010, he began a full-season internship at Eric and Cher Smith’s 3-acre biodynamic Bugtussle Farm. The farm had a small CSA clientele.
Jesse says, “The main farm, Eric, showed us trees and taught us different wildlife. He taught us about plants, trees, wildflowers, and forests. “We would learn about all of these things and different techniques.” It was a crash course that was simply amazing.
Jesse says that even though he had done a lot more running and pushups in New York than ever, his body wasn’t ready for the tasks he faced on the farm. I can’t believe anyone does this. He thought, “This is wildlife,” during his first two to three weeks at the farm. After that, I could not imagine doing anything else.
He says that there was no turning back once the switch was flipped.
Jesse met Hannah Crabtree during his internship.
Jesse, now a proponent of no-till farming, did his internship on a farm that practiced tillage. The fields were tilled once a year to cover crops and then again to prepare the soil for planting. He says that they did use tillage but in a responsible way.
The farm also practiced Dry farming – farming without irrigation. He uses little irrigation on his farm today, as Kentucky receives a lot of rain.
Jesse was also taught by Bugtussle Farm the importance of composting and spreading compost over fields.
Find a mentor and do the work.
Jesse says he learned the importance of a mentor as a chef. He explains that it is common for people to buy land, then search for a mentor to help them learn how to farm. But it should be treated as any other business, with the first step being to learn the craft and then consider turning it into a profitable venture.
Jesse stressed the importance of having a mentor, doing the work, and being physically and intellectually engaged. This includes reading books about the topic. He dives in when interested, consuming the best books about the subject.
How to solve problems with tilling
Jesse says tillage is either the removal of all roots by ripping them from the ground or the tilling into the soil to allow the soil time to digest and absorb the sources before planting anything else. However, he also notes that it poses several issues.
Tilling releases soil carbon by breaking up beneficial mycorrhizal soil fungi. Adding oxygen to the soil encourages oxygen-loving microorganisms to consume organic matter. This, in turn, emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Rough Draft Farm adopted the methods promoted by Eliot Coleman, the market gardener and author of “The New Organic Grower.” Rather than deep tilling the soil, Jesse said the farm started using a Power Harrow, which is gentler on the ground and digs deeper.
Jesse remembers: “We still had to fight a lot of weeds, and we still got a good amount of disease.” “And we thought there had to be a better way.”
The experiment began by not harrowing their 15-by-50-foot tunnels. Tractors were too heavy to fit under them. Instead of using a machine to harrow, they ripped out the spent plants and raked. They succeeded when they replaced the plants they had ripped out with something else.
Jesse had thought that deep compost mulching was too heavy on nutrients. He then heard a podcast hosted by Chris Blanchard and featuring Elizabeth and Paul Kaiser from Singing Frogs Farm in Sebastopol.
Jesse: “It all just clicked into place – like I could see the potential.”
He realized he needed to add a layer of mulch, as he had not been leaving roots in the soil when removing plants. This would maintain the soil’s biology and carbon. In early 2018, the farm began experimenting with no-dig in its fields. By the summer of that year, they were so pleased with the results that they became a no-till 100% farm.
