Grow Food Everywhere: No-Till Gardening & Farming with Cardboard, Tarps & Cover Crops

If you have always wanted to start a garden but don’t want to do a lot of backbreaking sod-busting or rototilling, come learn a better way! NOFA MASS brings us this exciting webinar, with host Ricky Baruch, the originator of the ‘Cardboard Method’. Join Ricky to learn about how to use three simple tools—cardboard, tarps and cover crops—to open up a new garden and maintain it without fossil fuels and pickaxes.

Ricky perfected his method of no-till small farming using cardboard at Seeds of Solidarity Farm in Orange, Mass, a forested hilly area with thin, rocky and acidic soil. By covering the soil with waste cardboard, compost and mulch, he invited worms to come and multiply in the safe, moist darkness, blend the compost and subsoil, and create rich earth perfect for growing crops.

“The Cardboard Method is the first of three techniques that comprise our no-till toolbox that has evolved over two decades—by necessity, and with many lessons from nature… these methods build organic matter, promote beneficial soil microbes and mycorrhizal fungi, reduce weeds, conserve water and labor, and respond to climate change by helping to keep carbon in the earth. With these techniques, I am now able to manage several acres of intensively planted crops largely on my own.” [Excerpt from Making Love While Farming: Field Guide to a Life of Passion & Purpose by Ricky Baruch and Deb Habib]

After opening a new garden with cardboard, tarps and cover crops are used to keep the soil covered, healthy and weed-free. The future depends on our ability to “Grow Food Everywhere,” (the Seeds of Solidarity motto) not just in prime agricultural areas. These methods will help new and experienced gardeners alike create beautiful healthy soil with less work, even with naturally challenging soils.