How best to process virgin soil in the country. How to master the virgin land without much difficulty

They ask me about how to develop a virgin area new dacha, it's a pity to write so much in the comments - I'll take it out in a separate post.

Firstly, if the site has been launched for a long time, it is ... no, not a complete weep ***)))) This is a great happiness! After all, during all this time the earth rested, was "fallow", plants grew and died, overheated, they were eaten by all sorts of microorganisms and the soil improved from year to year. See what kind of grass is in the meadows - and who feeds and waters it? Natural balance. When ennobling the site, the main thing is not to break this balance, let everything grow like that - of course, only instead of wheatgrass - carrots. :)

When developing virgin lands, from a lack of experience and knowledge, I did things that I now consider my mistakes. What I would do now after receiving a piece of "wild" land:

1. I bought an electric motor cultivator
2. I bought an electric lawn mower with a grass catcher
3. I bought a good thick wire, from which I would independently make an extension cord (so that it is enough for any point of the site)
4. I bought the thickest black agrospan: for strawberries with a width of 1.2m, for beds of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage - 0.8m
5. Hose for irrigation and a reel on wheels to it, plus a gun nozzle with switching irrigation mode
6. An empty barrel of 200 liters for fertilizer infusion (herbal)
7. I would never buy any chemical fertilizers, except nitrogen for the lawn
8. I almost forgot about Fokin's flat cutter - buy it!
9. I would find it on the Internet and read it "Smart garden and smart garden"Kurdyumova

Land processing.
1. I would not plow the land with a tractor - never
2. I would not plow the entire area with a motor cultivator, except if there was wheatgrass
3. I would draw the beds in a north-south direction, I would make them 50 cm wide, and row spacing - from 80 cm to a meter wide.
4. I would develop narrow beds, and simply cut the aisles - perennial weeds in the beds will die, and the aisles will turn into a good natural and very resistant to trampling lawn.

Why did I stop on the green paths? Bare ground has some disadvantages:
1. Pulls moisture from the beds
2. After watering, it turns into an earthen swamp - do not step on
3. Dries quickly and cracks, becomes dead concrete
4. Overgrown with weeds and they need to be weeded

What about live tracks?
1. Always clean and beautiful
2. Turf keeps moisture
3. They don't get hot in the sun
4. Plants live in a natural natural environment(bare land in nature occurs only in barren areas)
5. They cut it with a lawn mower and covered the neighboring garden with mulch - very convenient!

A lot has been written about the advantage of narrow beds on the Internet, I will not repeat myself, only very briefly:
1. Most strong plants are always on the edge of the bed, so we make beds where everyone is extreme
2. This happens because, in addition to nutrition from the earth, they take a lot from the sun and air.
3. It is better to plant 10 plants and take 100 kg from them than 20 plants and take the same 100 kg from them (exaggerated)
4. It is convenient to work with such beds, especially to step over them))))

So what would I do next.
1. I would mow the whole area, put the grass in a pile
2. Marked with twine and pegs places for beds
3. I would remove the sod from the first bed - I cut it with a sharp shovel into squares and folded it to the side
4. I dug a trench deep on the bayonet of a shovel
5. I put the turf there with the grass down
6. I would lay the cut grass on top, almost filling the trench
7. I would lay the earth that I dug out of the trench on it

It turned out a beautiful warm fertile bed.
It remains only to sow it with green manure - for example, mustard. When it grows up, just cut it down (no digging! Its roots will die and are an excellent fertilizer) and leave it in this place - to rot. The worms just love her.

If there is not so much enthusiasm, you can make it easier: plow the place where the garden bed is planned with a motor cultivator (no deeper than 7 cm). If the soil is dry, water in the evening - cultivate in the morning. And sow green manure - rye, for example. Let the weed choke. Chop it up later and leave the green mass in the garden as mulch. Can be cut with a lawn mower.

If you are not in a hurry, you can cover the places of future beds in several layers. cardboard boxes or old linoleum - I did that. During the summer without light, any perennial weed will die. In the spring, anything can be sown on the cleared land. Lay it straight on thick grass - everything will die and the worms will grind into fertile layer.

Plant seedlings, trying not to dig the ground once again. Cover the beds with mulch - sprinkle mowed grass, for example, leaves. The bigger, the better. Water does not evaporate, weeds do not grow, and plant nutrition is in abundance!

You can cover the beds with black agrospan and cut crosswise places for planting. This mulching material does not transmit light - the weed does not grow, does not give up water (water less than once every five).

Life tells us that It's time to return to our lands. The number of people who have decided to resume communication with nature is increasing. However, it is often necessary to take on the virgin lands on which they grow meadow grasses. The question arises: where to start? What to do? Dig up and choose the long roots of wheatgrass, dodder, sow thistle? But you can still meet hogweed, and horseradish, and comfrey, and tansy. How much time and effort do you need to spend on such work?

For those who do not want to waste their energy in vain, I suggest that you think in advance about what would you like to grow on your land, plan the beds with plants and divide the area into smaller parts. If the plot of land is more than 10 hundredths, then do not rush to process everything at once. Gradually, piece by piece, you will master it by organic farming technologies. I offer one of options, How can I do that.

Step one. Prepare the area where you want to plant something next year (best to do this in May, when all the seeds have already germinated). Mow the grass and leave it there. Make a solution: 100 ml EM-A ( effective microorganisms) per 10 liters of water and pour them over the cut grass and the ground. Or, “salt” the area well with EM bowls (this is important to do after rain so that there is enough moisture).

step two. Take black tape. Cover the prepared land. Press down the edges with stones so that the film remains in place, despite weather. Instead of black film you can use a transparent one, but it is necessary to put a material impervious to the sun on it (a layer of straw, sawdust, peat, hay or mowed grass).

Step three. In the fall, remove the film and use a flat cutter to fluff the top ball of the earth. Watch what happens under the film. Worms, ants, mice loosened the plot instead of you, and the roots of the weeds that you wanted to get rid of turned into food for them.

Step four. In early September, you take green manure and, after loosening the earth with a flat cutter, sow the plot. Cover with damp earth and mulch with a thin layer of grass, hay or straw to retain moisture and allow the seeds to germinate.

Step five. We leave the green field to winter without mowing. For what? Thus, we save our time, and the sprouts will perfectly retain snow and moisture. Roots structure the earth - and about digging you are on long time forget.

Step six. At the beginning of spring, as soon as the snow melts, with a flat cutter without extra effort loosen upper layer land and make rows for sowing early cultures- carrots, radishes, green onions. Add compost or biohumus, and along with seeds - EM-bokashiki, sprinkle with earth, tamp for good germination.

Step seven. If possible, the sown area should be covered with white agrofibre (spunbond). This will increase the temperature by 3-4° and protect the plantings from pests, ensure faster seed germination and an early harvest.

I recommend to reconsider Club Disc #5 "Weed Control", where the example of a virgin area shows what results can be achieved. Viktor Ivanovich Nemchinov shares his experience, who mastered a plot of 50 hundredths with just such a technology - with horseradish, bindweed, wheatgrass, tansy and other plants.

Oksana Sokolan
Club OZ, Ivano-Frankivsk

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Alexey Smirnov 08/12/2014 | 13725

With the acquisition land plot the owners want to short terms master it. For this, plowing, harrowing, herbicides are used. How to treat the area correctly? Find out from the article.

Tillage in large areas

If the site is large enough, then they resort to a proven method: for the winter, the site needs to be plowed as deep as possible so that the weeds freeze out during the winter. In the spring, when the earth dries out a little, the site is harrowed, leveling it and breaking up clods of earth. Further processing land requires careful maintenance. To create a beautiful lawn, weed roots should be removed manually, otherwise the ubiquitous wheatgrass, quinoa, wood lice, and dandelions will spoil the look of the lawn.

If you use herbicides, you will have to select weed roots two weeks after spraying and compact the soil. After spraying again, you need to wait for the weeds to sprout, which are again shed with a solution of herbicides. You can sow grass seeds no earlier than a month after the last treatment. These two methods - manual removal of weeds and with the help of herbicides - are quite laborious.

You can plant vegetables on the site after autumn plowing and spring harrowing. It is necessary to level the land and form ridges, while removing the roots of weeds, after which fertilizers are applied and seeds are sown. It is recommended to plant corn, potatoes, beans, which will help to cope with weeds, because caring for them involves repeated weeding, hilling. Mulching will make the job easier by minimizing the growth of annual weeds.

These tillage methods are suitable for large areas, and require considerable physical strength so that uncultivated virgin soil turns into fertile beds.

Land cultivation in small areas

First of all, it is necessary to mark the area for the beds, mow the grass. A small area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe earth is covered with thick cardboard or plain paper, newspapers in several layers. The cut grass is evenly laid on top, organic fertilizers are applied and evenly distributed fertile soil or compost (at least 10 cm). On such a bed, vegetables grow well that do not require deep embedding: zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkin, beets, carrots, beans and others. You can plant seedlings in a garden bed, covering it with agrofibre, in which cross-shaped cuts are made. Plants are planted in the holes, adding soil or compost if necessary, not forgetting to generously water them with water. Peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, cabbage will grow well, because agrofibre not only protects against weeds, but also from cold, overheating, keeping moisture in the ground.

In autumn, it is enough to dig such a ridge, the unripe remnants of paper, grasses will completely decompose over the winter. On the next year the ground will be fluffy, light, perennial weeds will not grow in this place, and you will be able to grow your favorite crops.

Using this method, it is possible to develop not such a large plot of land, but the beds are high, and thanks to a layer of grass, organic fertilizers plants receive enough nutrition for the whole season. This method is convenient for low areas, because by forming raised rows, it is possible to level the area.

In the absence of fertile soil or compost for the top layer high beds often use weeds after weeding. Weeded weeds, on the roots of which there is always a little earth, are laid on a bed of cardboard, mowed grass, and organic fertilizers. Having covered the garden bed with agrofiber and making holes for planting seedlings or seeds, you need to add a little earth at the places where the film is cut so that the plant starts to grow. Weeds under agrofibre will pereperet, planted crops will have good conditions For development and fruiting, it is only necessary to water them regularly.

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green squares

Life now is such that you have to plant a lot, otherwise you won’t survive. Only having time to conquer new peaks! Near my site there is land abandoned many years ago, overgrown with wheatgrass and other weeds.

Sod - you can’t drive a shovel! There are two other complicating points.

The first one - at developing virgin lands, I decided not to use herbicides. The second - we have everywhere on the sites different thickness of the arable horizon, where there is more, where there is less, and under it there is chalk in the form of large (and not very) pebbles. So I had to approach the matter creatively, as the people say: just in case - your own custom.

I eventually found a way.

It is very efficient and moderately labor intensive. But the wheatgrass does not have the slightest loophole. However, I want to warn you in advance: do not immediately take on a large piece of land - first evaluate your strengths and capabilities, try it, see how it goes.

So, I mark the strip according to the size of the future beds 1.5 m wide and 10 m long (see fig.). I cut out a square of sod (B1) on the bayonet of a shovel and carry it to the end of the proposed ridge. Nearby I cut out another of the same square and put it there. Then I go deeper as far as the arable horizon allows (A1 and A2). I clean up the earth at the very end.

I perform such an operation across the entire width of the bed, it turns out I have a small ditch. Now I cut out a square of sod (A3) and lay it with a turn on the bottom of the moat (in place of A1). Then I go deeper into the shovel bayonet (VZ), but I lay the excavated soil on top of the previously laid sod, and so on across the entire width of the bed.

And it turns out that I'm burying the turf. Having reached the end of the bed, in the same way I lay the earth that I brought there at the beginning of work - the turf to the bottom (with the turn of the layer), and the pound on top. And at the end of the event, I carefully level the resulting bed with a rake. This is the general picture. And now the nuances.

How to remove wheatgrass ...

Buried turf is alive. And it has a lot of pupae, eggs, pest larvae. Therefore, if there is an opportunity and desire, a week or two before digging, it would be nice to treat it with a strong solution of urea or ammonium nitrate(which will accelerate the decomposition of the buried sod and reduce the number of pests). When the fertilizer takes effect and the grass turns yellow, you can start digging.

Now specifically about the solution. I take 500 g of fertilizer and dissolve it in a bucket of water. I spray with a spray bottle in sunny calm weather, after the morning dew has disappeared.

Therefore, before processing with urea, you need to look at the weather forecast. Don't splash before the rain!

And then one day after a downpour, the dried grass again hit my growth. I had to use a different solution, since there was no more urea (as well as the opportunity to buy it): I took 150 g of vinegar (9%) for 2 liters of water and added 5 tbsp. l. salt. I note that vinegar treatment is considered an environmental remedy, since it quickly decomposes into carbon dioxide and water. Of course, it is also necessary to cultivate the land with such a solution only in dry weather.

And one more nuance. When digging, especially if it is autumn, you need to put old newspapers between the layers of the earth (A and B). During the winter, they will rot, and for pests and weeds this is an additional obstacle.

Cover for the garden

Now about how I solved the issue with different thicknesses of the arable horizon. In June, when the grass was still juicy and the weeds were just gaining strength, for the first time I treated the proposed digging site with a strong solution of urea. After that, I dug up a shovel on a bayonet with a reservoir turnover. It is impossible to go deeper - chalk. It is this moment that is captured in the photo, a withered wheatgrass is visible from behind. He leveled the bed with a rake and covered it with what he could - with pieces of cardboard, slate, linoleum and black polyethylene, pressing it all broken bricks and boards.

And in August he removed the cover, with a chopper he made wide, 15-20 cm furrows along the entire length (with a width of beds of 1.5 m, it turned out 5 pieces each), poured them abundantly with water and densely sowed rye. By itself, it perfectly suppresses any enemy vegetation, but here by autumn it has grown violently and has become bushy. In this form, and went into the winter. In the spring, she grew even more, and in the tenth of May, I cut her to the very root with a chopper. Then he dried it (it turned out to be a wonderful straw!), He raked it to the side.

I dug up the bed finely, broken down big clods shovel, carefully leveled the ground with a rake. When the threat of frost passed (after May 26), he planted tomatoes, mulched all the free space of the garden bed with straw.

Then, during the season, I put a new mulch on top of it - weeded weeds. So the wheatgrass had no chance, and the tomatoes were spoiled for glory!

If there is no opportunity (or desire) to deal with rye, then this advice: do not remove the cover in the fall from the garden, and sow corn or sorghum in the spring.

And if this does not fit, plant on this bed white cabbage, it will cover the entire surface with its burdock leaves, inhibiting weeds. By the way, in the photo in the background you can see tomatoes and cabbage planted in this way (corn simply did not fit into the frame).

The main thing in this struggle is not to lose heart and strictly follow the plan drawn up in advance. detailed plan operations codenamed "Liquidation". And methodically, systematically, systematically, step by step to go to the intended goal.

You can also (this is checked!) Plant peppers, but then the mulch layer should be at least 10 cm. In general, more enthusiasm and creative approaches! As one of the classics of agriculture said, there are no bad lands - there are bad owners.

TWO Hundreds of Virgin Lands and a BAD SUMMER

Agree, this is impressive - when in the first year on an empty, abandoned land, and even in a disgustingly rainy summer, it ripens good harvest. What is it - an accident or a well-deserved success of a summer resident who has thought through all the nuances in advance?

I had two acres of undeveloped virgin land: a thick carpet of turf on loamy soil. Along the edges of the site lay sheets of polycarbonate Brown color- from the old fence. The grass did not grow under them, but the mice worked - they loosened the ground. On the advice from the magazine, I planted potatoes in this place, planted them without digging, in grooves, followed by a small hill. And she cut the edges with a shovel and laid the turf on the turf - it rotted, and loose soil was obtained.

In August 2016, after I dug up potatoes, I planted strawberries in two rows in the vacant place, mulching the roots with everything that was at hand - grass, black plastic bags. Before frost, it all developed well and partially even bloomed, although the variety is not remontant. Overwintered well and gave an excellent harvest. I have never had so many strawberries, although the variety is not very successful: the berries are very wrinkled. But again, thanks to the advice, I grew strawberry varieties such as Baron Solemacher, Ruyana, Koketka, etc. from seeds. But that's another story.

And last spring, I decided to plant the second, not yet developed part of the site with pumpkins and zucchini. Usually they are good for me, but the spring and the beginning of summer that year in our suburbs turned out to be simply terrible: it rained endlessly, it was cold and there was very little sun. I sowed these crops several times, planted with seedlings, covered with cut bottles, and ... And I did it! Moreover, taking into account the fact that I freed the ground from the turf in small squares, and covered the remaining turf somewhere with a black film, where with cardboard.

No matter how terrible the abandoned site looks, virgin lands can be mastered without digging. It is enough to mow all the weeds, and then proceed to create high beds (in southern regions) or trenches (in the northern ones). Weeds should be isolated by covering the soil with several layers of cardboard, newspaper, or black opaque film.

When the pumpkins and squash grew (and in August it suddenly became warm, 25-28 °), they closed the entire territory up to the fence and did not

let the weeds grow. The harvest turned out to be very good for that extremely unfavorable year: I collected 65 kg of pumpkin and almost the same number of zucchini.

And as an experiment, last spring I planted two rows of potatoes along the strawberries on both sides, and mustard and oats in the aisle between the rows of green manure. Mustard, followed by embedding in the ground, ennobled my virgin lands very well, and oats threw out spikelets with seeds until late autumn, which I tore and dried. But as a green manure, I liked it less: it grows too much.

In general, last year I received a good harvest of pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes, strawberries and wild strawberries from two acres of virgin land, winter garlic and leeks of the Kara-tansky variety (planted with seedlings for the first time).

I was able to start developing the site only in the spring of 2017. It was a piece of meadow. According to local residents, the last time corn was planted at this place was during the time of Nikita Sergeyevich. Then they cut the grass for hay. Well, after the collapse of the collective farm, the field slowly overgrown with maples - birches - pines. And also - rare bushes of viburnum and chokeberry. A few kilometers from the village Soviet time gardens were planted. Until now, there are thickets of wild old apple trees, pears, chokeberries. Apparently the birds brought the seeds to our field.

During the winter and spring, she grew a huge (for me) amount of seedlings. And in April, in front of me in all its enormous growth, the question arose: where to put it? I had no one to give or distribute seedlings to: I had not yet met my village neighbors, and among my city friends and acquaintances there are no enthusiastic gardeners.

Not particularly bothering, I moved all the seedlings to the village. She was hardened and hardened by life on the city balcony. Those bushes that froze, I threw out without regrets, knowing that I definitely wouldn’t have conditions for reverent care this year. So everything that was planted on the site has already passed the preliminary selection for survival.

In April, I was able to dig up only 3 beds measuring about 2.5 m by 0.8 m. I reserved one for my beloved tomatoes. On the second planted onions and carrots. On the third green. All other plants and seeds had to be attached somewhere.

When I just started digging virgin soil, I realized that I couldn’t dig a lot with a shovel. I did not want to dig with a tractor, as many suggested to me. Firstly, the site is located on a rather steep slope and I was afraid that thawed and rain water will wash away the fertile layer of the earth. Secondly, I was not going to plant all the land at once. Well, you had to live there in order to understand where and what is better to place.

During the winter, theoretically savvy, reading about the most different ways landings, organic farming, permaculture, high and low beds, container gardening, etc. etc. Immediately make a reservation that my authorship is not in any way. Everything is taken from books or found on the internet. I got a lot of ideas from the books of Pavel Trannua.

The only thing I want to add is that you need to make sure that the top grass layer does not dry out. If necessary, water more often.
I planted pumpkins and zucchini seeds in grassy heaps, seedlings of cucumbers. Everything was growing and fruiting wonderfully. To be honest, I did not expect such an effect with such low labor costs. Next season I'm going to grow all three crops in this way.

2. Grooves - pits in virgin soil. The place where you are going to plant or sow should be mowed, leaving the grass as short as possible. (It was more convenient for me to press with a sickle). Sharpen the chopper sharply. And with the angle of the chopper, punch a groove in the sod. The depth is to which the seeds need to be planted. Plentifully shed a furrow. Plant the seeds. Close the seeds with a chopper with those pieces of turf that were formed during the laying of the groove. It is no longer necessary to water the closed furrow on this day.

If you are going to make several grooves side by side, then the distance between them must be left greater than when planting on ordinary beds.
Then you will need to regularly remove (cut) weeds with a chopper and loosen the ground next to the grooves. And at the same time, each time try to expand the loosened strip. Watering is standard, in accordance with the requirements of the culture. Herbal supplements are recommended. In addition to containing useful material, they reduce the acidity of the soil.

In late summer or autumn, after removing the plants, you will get an excellent loose bed.
So I sowed beets, cucumbers, beans. Watered normally. I fed 1 time with herbal infusion. Regularly cut weeds with a chopper and loosened.
For beets and beans, the method is excellent. I thinned the beets. I planted it in a similar groove, made next to the main one.
Cucumbers did not grow well. Then I transplanted them into grassy heaps and it worked. In August there was a harvest.

Holes in the sod are made in the same way. The first step is to carefully mow the grass at the planting site. Then, with the angle of the chopper, a hole of the required size is made in the turf. It spills well. A plant is planted there and covered with pieces of turf.
In this way I planted strawberries, sweet and spicy pepper, marigolds.

The strawberries have grown wonderfully. Also completely unexpected for me. We even managed to eat plenty of berries. Watered regularly. Loosen and remove weeds very rarely. Didn't feed.
Marigolds have grown normal. Not too fluffy, but not sloppy either. But there was no care for them, except for watering. True, I mowed the grass and loosened it a couple of times during the summer.
The pepper is all gone. Rather, he did not die, but froze in development at the level of planting seedlings. main reason- complete lack of care. Not only did not cover, but also did not remove weeds. Mowed twice in just one summer. Stupidly did not reach the hands.

Type of holes - planting potatoes "under the stake". A hole is made in the sod with a stake. Potatoes are placed in it. Fall asleep with hay. Watering is normal. According to the rules, you need to loosen and hill up. I didn't do either of those things. She only watered and sometimes mowed the grass with a sickle. But the harvest, albeit a small one, was received. I ate it with pleasure. And she also got a bed. The earth on it, although not fluff, is no longer virgin soil, it digs easily.

3. Heaps of sod. When you prepare a bed on virgin soil, you have to cut off the top layer of sod. These pieces of turf are laid on the ground with their roots up in several layers. Spilled with any nitrogen fertilizer. And it stays that way for a few weeks.
When I was digging the beds, I laid the cut sod on a dedicated piece of land. It turned out that an area measuring approximately 1.5m by 1.0m was covered with three layers of pieces of turf. Spilled with sodium humate. Three weeks later, she sowed the seeds of cosmos there. Just sprinkled on top and poured from a watering can. And then I watered it too. I tried to plant nasturtium seeds. But you can't just put them on top. It was necessary to dig holes in the sod. In short, I did not plant nasturtium.
Watered during the summer. But she didn’t fertilize so that the kosmeya would not begin to “fatten”. Despite the lack of top dressing, huge bushes of curly greenery with rare flowers have grown. By August they were taller than me. And the trunk is such that I had to cut them down with an ax in the literal sense of the word. I didn’t have the strength to break or tear out of the ground.
In general, by the fall, a bed free of weeds was obtained. But with fairly solid ground. Well, after all, they never loosened it.