Unless you have been asleep for the last decade or maybe you're just really out of touch you are bound to heard of the No Till movement that is sweeping the nation in both the farming and gardening sectors of agriculture.  Like the term implies no till is a method of growing crops on both large and small scales without tilling the soil. To those of you that have been raised in what became industrial farming/gardening this idea of not tilling the soil will seem just backwards and potentially a waste of your time.

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I know right….
It’s January and I am already talking about the summer garden.  But if you are a serious gardener like me you need to start planning this early because before you know it the early cool season crops can be going in the ground.
The winter is perfect time to look back on your garden and figure out what you did right what you did wrong and what you want to change before this next season begins.  In my case some things that went right this last summer would be the following,
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• I tried pole beans for the first time and it worked really well.  But I am going to use more fencing and less single poles because it was easier to harvest from the fence beans vs the ones on the poles.
• I also made an A frame trellis and grew cucumber and acorn squash (accidentally) on this trellis and it worked great.  I will definitely be doing that again next year but I am going to move where the A frame is in the garden beds.

 
Things I did wrong…

• I really got behind on the weeding and pretty soon it was too far gone for me to fix without hurting the garden plants.
• I tried growing jack o lanterns in place of pie pumpkins because I figured I would get more pumpkin for my effort and the flavor wouldn’t be too different.  Boy was I wrong the flavor was subpar and I didn’t get enough pumpkins to make up for it.
• Trying watermelon for the fourth time no more will I waste garden space on them.

 
Planning for next year

After you have had a chance to reflect on the previous year you can now plan better for next year.  Things that you should figure out now would include,

• Plan the rotation of plants to break disease cycles cycle nutrient around the garden beds. 
• Selecting new varieties you want to test or getting ahold of old favorites you want to grow again. 
• How much of each plant you want to grow for the next year.
• Planting schedule (i.e. two crops in the same spot at different times such as radishes and pole beans)

So the moral of the story is that now is the time to be planning the next summer garden because planting season will be on you before you believe it especially if you live in the southern part of the United States or any other warm climate.

Building soil organic matter in your crop fields is not a very hard task to accomplish at least when it comes to the methods used to do it.  The hardest part about increasing your soil's organic matter percentage is the time it takes and that the more organic matter you have in your fields the harder it is build even more.  Before I jump into on how to add to the organic matter content in your soil I first want to touch lightly on what causes organic matter to be depleted in the first place.  

When it comes to your soil you can usually never do enough to improve your soils ability to provide you with beautiful, nutritious, sustainably grown food.  I say usually because it is possible to overdo everything if you really put your mind to it.  But with a well thought out plan you can easily and consistently improve and maintain your soil at its peak performance.  I find the best way  to lay out a soil improvement plan is to do it by the season. 

For thousands of years soil fertility was maintained using a natural fertilizer widely available  around the world.

This fertilizer is known as poop.

That's right I said poop.  I know that to the modern sensibilities the idea of using poop to grow food is probably a little uncomfortable.  But when you compare it to the the other option we have been using it really doesn't seem that bad. 

Soil under modern agriculture has been reduced to a being a sponge that is there is absorb artificial fertilizers and pesticides instead of a living breathing structure.  While chemicals can produce a amazing crop with great yields it has been shown that they suffer in flavor and nutrition. 

The growing trend of organic farming has brought about a new interest in maintaining soil fertility without the use of chemicals.  This can be done with two different but very complimentary techniques.