My never-Fertilize Eternal Yield Garden, taking care of Soil like they used to

I have not put an ounce of commercial fertilizer or manure on these test gardens in 10 years.

For the past 10 years I’ve been conducting a home garden experiment on eight 24 by 24-foot gardens. I started after a discussion with a soil scientist and agricultural researcher at our state university. Part of his job was to analyze trends in the food and dairy industries and to predict what was coming next. What he forecast scared me.

“Farmers aren’t taking care of soil like they used to,” he said. “Almost everywhere we are losing topsoil rapidly. We’re wearing out and wasting in a few years what nature took hundreds of years to create. We want to get paid now, and have people in the next generation get the bill.

“People are depending on chemical fertilizers which quickly could become unavailable or too high-priced to buy. It’s been cheap and easy for years, but it may not be for long,” he noted.

“Also, there’s the aspect of technology and specialized sciences. Dick, you wouldn’t believe some of the things going on in laboratories right now. The simple act of growing food in a garden may someday be a lost art. Consider all the people we have to feed, and consider all the good land being taken for business and housing. You can understand why there’s a frantic effort to come up with new sources of food.

“Someday, Dick, all your protein and vitamins— maybe your whole meal—could come in capsules.”

My friend’s thoughts are routinely voiced by experts these days, but 10 years ago they had a great impact on me.

I immediately began working on my 24 by 24-foot gardens, an ideal home-garden size for many people around the country, especially those in cities. I had a feeling then—and still do—that the small backyard garden is going to be important in the food picture as the years go by.

I did complete soil tests on each plot and limed them all to bring the soil p1-1 close to 6.8, an ideal pH for most vegetables.

My goal was to plant different sequences of green manure crops to see if they alone could provide all the nutrients food crops need. My guidelines were simple: don’t add any fertilizer, compost, or manures to the soil. As for organic matter, till under only the crops that grow on the plot. Do not bring in any outside material—no leaves, no mulch, nothing.

The number one crop rotation

In the test gardens I planted different green manure combinations and tested them by growing sweet corn in alternate years. Sweet corn is a heavy feeder. It takes a lot of nutrients, especially nitrogen, from the soil. So I included it in all my rotations to create a drain on soil nutrients.

Our best soil tests and best sweet corn have come from the plot which has recently had the following rotation schedule:

First year: Green manure crop of peas, followed by snap beans, followed by annual ryegrass.

Second year: One crop of sweet corn, followed by annual ryegrass.

Third year: Repeat first year rotation, and so on.

The local extension agent has often visited my “no fertilizer” test gardens and has handled the soil tests for them. Every time I get a report back on this “number one” plot, he says, “Dick, whatever you’re doing is working. Your soil test looks great again.” So far I’ve been able to keep this plot fertilized and replenished with organic matter grown right on the plot. My Eternal Yield garden experiments add weight to my belief that we home gardeners can provide for ourselves. I hope this method helps more people counteract the serious problems of soil, land, and fertilizer we’re facing.

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