05/20/2026
This year’s no-til squash planting is underway. This planting is part of what we’re doing to improve the soil and manage an infestation of Canada thistle. In 2024, this section was tilled and planted with beans and peas. Yields were relatively low, especially in the beans, for a number of reasons, among them Canada thistle. Last season, I took this field out of production. We covered it with silage tarp during the heat of summer to kill the Canada thistle. We then removed the tarp, added okara (soy pulp waste from a local organic tofu factory), tilled the beds to loosen the surface and sowed an overwintering cover crop of fall rye, crimson clover, tillage radish, vetch and winter field peas. The cover crop came in nice and thick and by spring, when the Canada thistle on other parts of the farm was just starting to elongate, the only Canada thistle I could find in this section was along the edge where this section borders a perennial herb bed that still has Canada thistle. Rather than til in the cover crop and create a massive opening for any surviving Canada thistle to break through, we flail mowed the cover crop, keeping the roots to break down in the soil and allowing it to mulch the surface, and are planting the squash into planting holes. So far the cover crop looks like it’s breaking down nicely. Last year we tried a similar experiment using a crimper instead of a flail mower. You can read about that in the March/April edition of Small Farm Canada magazine.
