Luckyfarm77 practices no-till vegetable growing without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers.  The foundation of our growing is making soil.  As Vandana Shiva says: "Make Soil Not Oil."

Our garden soils begin with the extensive use of card-board that we collect from the village of Sointula. 

Cardboard Beds

To build the gardens, we lay down the cardboard on the grasses and then add dirt from our property.  The cardboard composts the grasses below and then eventually decays leaving behind the beginnings of our soil.  To this soil we add sheep manure, leaves, seaweed, and grass clippings, all from local sources on Malcolm Island.  This makes a fertile soil for growing nutrient-rich vegetables, fruit, and berries.

We also have an extensive composting program.  In addition to our own compostable matter, we collect food scraps from homes and businesses in the village of Sointula every Saturday.  We have simple compost bins made of used pallets where "green" nitrogen-rich food scraps are layered with "brown" carbon-rich soil, cardboard, or leaves.  This system produces about 15 wheelbarrows of black gold twice a year in the spring and the fall.

In the orchard, we have planted 24 trees -- apples, pears, cherries, plums, figs, and hazelnuts.  Based on the methods of the ancient "Coltura Promiscua" and the forest gardens of Robert Hart, we have inter-planted blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and asparagus among the trees.  We also make extensive use of cardboard in the orchard to build up our beds and to suppress grass and weed growth among the trees and berries.

Please see blog at https://luckyfarm77.blogspot.com/ for more detailed information about seasonal garden development over the past three years from 2020 to 2022.