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I’m trying to cultivate various leafy greens (Lettuce, Napa cabbage, Malabar Spinach, and Arugula). Has anyone used the seed ball technique with these seeds? I know the technique has traditionally been done with wild flowers and rice. Anyone try this method with other seeds. I live in the Bay Area in California. Things grow pretty well here (zone 9).

Hello everyone, I’m in a bit of an idea pickle here. So I’m starting terraced beds on top of a limestone mesa in the high desert of SE colorado. The idea is start rain catchment at the top with swales and reverse wells and zuni bowls/and sunken beds, so the little precipitation i get seeps in and falls down each limestone layer into the alluvial plains below. However I’ve hit some limestone slab that is nearly impenetrable. I know soil builds up but the roots have about 2-6 inches of “top soil” (top soil is close to just being zone b). Because sunken beds and bowls are a big part of high desert ag to block wind and pull condensation from the air in unforgiving climates, I’m flirting with buying a jackhammer to make wells and let roots access moisture below as well as give access to deep root miners…or should I just build the soil up? None of the existing juniper and piñon pine roots have made it through the slab either, they just run across the top.

I got a little… overzealous with the garden bed as this is the first year I have had total control at my house. I talked to fried who recommended cover crop in the early early spring + mulch. I added a bag of compost, put down some cover crop, and then mulched overtop. Fast forward and now I have starts in the bed with mulch and cover crop growing like crazy. I think I played myself!!! Now what??? How do I mitigate without causing too much harm to the soil? I’d like to practice no till here. I have a few other beds that I didn’t cover crop but mulched and they’re much more manageable.