DN writes: Over the last couple of days we have been happily tilling away with our shovels and have discovered all the muscles that are needed for this "exercise". Haha! It's a great change up from my usual computer work sitting indoors...

We've completed tilling our rented backyard garden plot of 20'x24' in our neighborhood (walking distance from our childrens' school) and we have completed tilling another trapeze shaped plot of about 420 square feet (narrow side: 12' and 16', one long side: 30') at the co-housing location (5 miles from home) with more to come. Even hooked up with a volunteer from the co-housing for some weekend work...

During this tilling we have come across questions that I would like to run by you:

Q1. We've noticed on the co-housing land that the soil color changed about 2/3 of a foot down from pretty dark to a more yellowish (clay/sand) color? Are we supposed to till down into this "secondary" soil (for a lack of a better word) or not? Currently we've been tilling a shovel blade deep and therefore into this secondary soil.

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Yes, you dig down as deep as possible. What you are noticing is a soil horizon. For further reading, we highly reccomend Soil Science Simplified, by Milo Harpstead, Thomas Sauer and William Bennett, illustrated by Mary Bratz, first edition: 1980. While lacking in soil microbiology, the basics of soil science are well covered in this book. The dark layer is the "organic" layer - it is what plants eat best, where most life lives. Here, it should naturally go down dozens of feet. However, through mismanagement, it can disappear entirely. The clay will be repaired and become more "organic" as you till more and more. Whatever the soil starts out as, it always gets better with tillage and weeds.

Q2. We've come across some white fungus (?) in some patches in the co-housing field about 6 inches down into the soil. Do you happen to know what this is? Will this be a problem for us and we should avoid those areas (1-2' dia) or not bother?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: There are many fungi that naturally live in the soil, and soil requires fungus to be healthy. Many plants require fungus to live and eat! Many animals also require fungus. One animal, the ant, undertakes agriculture to grow the fungus. While fungi sometimes grows in large patches as you found it, what you have found is more likely an old ant fungus farm. Ant agriculture helps soil long after the ant colony leaves or dies...as human agriculture ought to help soil long after the humans leave or die. Just till in the fungus, and it will help your plants, your animals and your soil.

Q3. How long should the soil rest after breaking up new land before we plant something in it? Is it different from previously under production land?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Soil does not need to rest, so it never rests. Soil - like New York City - never sleeps. You can plant into freshly tilled soil, or into hard soil. Plants prefer tilled soil: it is easier for them to eat. We till and plant as quickly afterwards as possible. We then till in the aisles to help the plants eat and fertilize the soil (tillage improves soil fertility by promoting microorganism activity, making the soil easier for plants to eat and by trimming the roots of plants (so they can send out more, and smaller - which are the best at eating - roots in to the fertile soil).

Q4. We would till again right before planting, right? That means, till then plant in the same session?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: while some delay (or great delay) between planting and tilling is acceptable, the benefit of tillage you are trying to capture by planting after tillage is the loose soil.

Q5: What planting bed layout would you suggest for the backyard plot of 20'x24'? We can only enter the plot from one corner as there is a wire or wooden fence around it.

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: We would place an aisle in such a way that you can access it from the gate, and that runs along one side of the perimeter (i.e., the 24' side). Then, we would divide the 24' into 4' beds and 2' aisles that run perpendicular to the access aisle. If you use the 20' side, you may want to monkey with the width of beds and aisles: just make sure that the aisles are wide enough to walk in and till up, and that the beds are not so wide that you can't harvest in the middle. But what if you're planting winter squashes, or something else that you don't need to worry about reaching the middle? You make the bed narrow enough so that the middle achieves as much benefit from the aisle tillage as possible. We have found this effective range to be even as far as 20 feet! However, we limit our beds to something in the range of 3 feet to 10 feet, as we have found this to be most-effective. If you had the time, you could undertake trials to determine what distance is best:

EXPERIMENT

1. Dig a wedge in the hard, unworked land that is 20 ft long, 20 ft wide at one end and 1 ft wide at the other.

2. Plant one seed every foot, until you have 20 seeds stretching along the middle of the wedge, from the 1 ft wide end to the 20 ft wide end.

3. As the plants grow, observe that the plants at the 1 ft wide end never grow so well as the ones at the 20 ft wide end: the ones at the 20 ft wide end have more food: the soil is looser for a greater distance. The roots of plants stretch out dozens of feet in every direction, and when they hit hard soil, they cannot eat so much as in loose soil.

Q6. What planting bed layout would you suggest for the trapeze shaped plot of about 420 square feet (narrow side: 12' and 16', one long side: 30') at the co-housing location (5 miles from home)? Planting beds across the width, seems to make the most sense?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Planting with beds running the short ways across makes sense because it allows easier access that accounts for the variable shape of the short edges (no triangle shaped beds). However, if it works easier for you to have them run the long way, there really is little difference to the plants or the planting area! Ergonomics is the guiding science to laying out the beds: how will it allow you to work easier?

Q7. The backyard plot had anywhere from 6-12 inches of pretty nice soil (used to be a vegetable garden at some point in the past; unearthed some brick borders along the way - that was fun - not) before we hit very hard compacted yellowish soil that we couldn't break up. What impact does this soil thickness have on the crop that can be planted? Carrots don't sound like the right thing to go for in this case...

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Carrots would do fine for two reasons, i) the hardpan you discovered won't stop them from growing, but it will prevent them from growing straight. If you don't mind crooked carrots, they won't mind the hardpan. ii) Through Active Fallow and regular tillage, the hardpan will go away: weeds break it up, your spading eventually will break it up a bit, the ants (and other animals) will break it up. Don't sweat it: within a month or three, you won't even know it had ever been there!

Q8. As the backyard garden plot has guaranteed water (from the house) and is so close by to where we live, we were thinking of planting the more water dependent and labor intensive produce there. Would that make sense? If so, could you point out to me which of the vegetables on our list fall into that category or you would suggest to plant there?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Absolutely this makes sense! You always put the more labor intensive crops and animals closer to the farm residences, and the less labor intensive ones further away. It's like setting up a factory floor: conserve labor, conserve transportation of goods, conserve energy and you earn more profit. As for which of the crops are more labor intensive than others, and which require more water...we hate to admit it, but we lost the list that you showed to us earlier and you'll have to send it to us again.

Q9. How much should we plant of the produce on our list or any additional candidates you would suggest to us? E.g. 10 broccolis, 20 peas, etc. The goal would be to replace our store bought produce with our self-grown produce plus some extra for the landowners (10%).

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Well, you can estimate the yield and then attempt to grow only what you'll eat plus 10%, or you can plant all your seeds and have a fun time trying to eat it all. We reccomend the second: if you have surplus, you can always either sell it or donate it for a tax break. If you're trying to estimate the yield, you have to take each crop and perform the following calculation:

% of how many seeds will germinate and fruit (X) number/amount of fruit per plant = expected yield.

To learn how much each plant will yield, you can either research it (by asking your local farmer (us), your extension service, asking the seed company or even looking on line. Broccolies will yield one large flower, and perhaps a handful of secondary flowers after the first is cut. Cabbages yield one flower (the "head" you eat), poatatoes yield even nine times their weight...and all these are dependent upon the climatic conditions and the health of the plant.

Q10. The co-housing land should always have some water available, even some ditch water in the summer. They even mentioned that we could flood our field if we wanted to but that didn't sound like a good idea to me considering everything that creeps and crawls in the field...?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Flood irrigation is rough on the critters in the field, but sometimes it is the only way to irrigate that you can afford. Don't worry too much about the other animals: they will survive and deal with the temporary river. That said, impulse sprinklers, hung over the crops, in our opinion, provide the best irrigation. Few crops truly require flooding (not even rice does). The ones that do you probably won't be growing (such as cranberries). Flooding is a bit rough on the soil, too, but with tillage and weeds, the soil will be resiliant. If you put your impulse sprinkler 3-6 feet above the ground (higher for taller crops like corn), you'll be doing what we do. The way you do this is by putting a pole in the ground, and tieing the sprinkler to the pole.

Q11. They would like us to use a water timer to keep track of the amount of water that we will be using. Sandy will have one for us to use. A watering schedule will be worked out because they had problems in the past that everybody wanted to use the water more or less at the same time and there was poor water pressure available. If I had a choice, what would be the best time to water our field? Mornings before...? Or evenings after...? I assume during the day and heat it's not the best time for watering?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: There are many theories on this. Some say that mornings are best so the plants can be ready for the heat, others say water in the heat to relieve the plants, others say water in the evening when the evaporation is low. We water either twice per day (morning and evening) or for long periods (8 hours or better) once per week. Can you water more than once per day, or use up all your hours at once? If you have to choose one time or another, we would reccomend not being too picky: the weeds will insluate your crops so that you have less evaporation (even if you water midday), the weeds will retain the water and release it to your crops when it is needed. The only rule we advise is: it doesn't matter when you water, it matters how much. It doesn't matter if you water at the "right" time if you don't water enough at the right time. Check on your soil regularly, and if it requires more water, you can, perhaps, ask for more. If we were you, we'd take the times nobody else wanted: this might help you get enough hours of watering to ensure that you are getting enough. In Colorado, there is rarely a time when you are watering too much! Maybe you should invest also in a soil moisture gauge so you know how dry your soil is (in case you can't tell with your hands)?

Q12. The backyard owner has dripping hoses available for our use. Is that the way to go for the plot?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Any free hose is good hose, but dripping hoses are not our favorite form of irrigation. It is little better than flooding: it pools water (even if it is under the surface) and encourages anaerobic microorganism activity. If you have the resources, we'd invest them into a sprinkler: you can get a hose for about $20 at ACE or Lowes, and a sprinkler head for about $5

Q13. What irrigation system would you suggest for our odd shaped (trapeze) co-housing plot that is pretty much flat (no noticeable grade) and starts about 120 feet from the water source away?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Again, hoses and impulse sprinklers, suspended above the crops. Gilmore makes a great one that works with low pressure http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=216744-306-993NSGF&lpage=none

Q14. Would you happen to have any free seeds available for our use? You've already sent me the web links to the seed companies you are using and we will check them out as well.

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Yes! Just let us know what you'd like.

Q15. Have you ever considered using working boots instead of hiking boots as they provide you with a steel shaft and/or steel toe so that they are more resilient when working that shovel?

COASTALFIELDS ANSWERS: Yes, but the hiking boots are more versitile, and, what's more, neither of us mind the shoveling: after a while, your feet get stronger and you don't hurt so much after working all day. That said, if asprin or advil is not the solution, you can attach foam to the shovel where your foot makes contact with the blade, or attach foam to your shoe and this will reduce the impact on your foot. If no foam is available, you can also try an old towel or shirt. We reccomend switching feet and arms when you shovel: shoveling should be done as much with your legs as with your back and arms (as demonstrated when you came out to visit).