Gardening Year Round

The Practice of No Dig Gardening

Cody, Wyoming

Like all farmers, Zach Buchell worries about the weather, pests, costs, profit and loss, and having enough hours in the day to accomplish all his work. There is little room for error when it comes to what to plant and when.

Zach’s property lies between Cody and Powell, Wyoming where the growing season is about 120 days. The area is known for high winds, severe hailstorms and minimal rainfall – which contribute to the variables against him for successful farming. Yet, he perseveres, and his business, FarmTableWest which grows dozens of vegetable varieties in a massive garden and four greenhouses, all on a half-acre, is doing quite well.

It’s hard to start something like I’ve done. Farming is a grinding lifestyle. Not many people will want to do what I’ve done, but hopefully they will get excited about buying their food locally and growing their own. We need to decentralize our food system.

Using a method called “No-Dig or No-Till,” Zach’s soil is rich in nutrients. Unlike traditional tilling and breaking down the soil, No-Dig gardening builds up the soil with heavy mulching using thick layers of organic matter. With this farming technique, Zach maximizes production in a small space and utilizes the same ground for several plantings. His business plan allows him to grow fresh vegetables outside well into late fall and year-round in his four greenhouses. He plants crops three times a year on a staggering schedule and supplies fresh produce to not only retail customers, but several restaurants as well.

“Doing succession planting keeps something in the ground all the time,” he said. “If I harvest one crop, another goes in the ground, and it keeps everything from being ready to harvest at once.”

Zach is continually researching and testing new ideas and implementing what is successful into his program. He’s knowledgeable of which crops thrive in the region’s conditions, what customers prefer, and how to best grow each vegetable. He’s also become adept at necessary trades like plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and mechanics.

“I’m becoming a reliably good gardener with each passing year,” he said. “There is real skill in determining which crops grow well together and how to maximize the yield of every crop, and I continue to learn. Every year is a little different.”

Now in his seventh year of farming, Zach started out at nearby Shoshone River Farms before he ventured out on his own, and he remains good friends with the owner, Scott Richard.

“We’re friendly competitors,” he said. “Scott’s done a great job with his farm, and he taught me a lot.”

In late September, at the Billings, Montana Farmers Market, Zach set up his pop-up display and filled attractive wooden boxes with colorful produce. This was his first year in Billings and his booth became a crowd favorite early in the season as customers lined up to buy the freshly picked vegetables.

“This market has been a game changer for me,” Zach said. “It was a gamble, but it’s become my best-selling location.”

In addition to vegetables expected at farmers markets, Zach also offers more unusual choices. His cilantro, arugula and celery sell out quickly.

“Celery is my favorite crop,” Zach said. “The flavor is off the charts. It keeps for a long time because it’s full of natural preservatives and it’s something that people typically can’t find at other booths.”

By early fall, farmers market season is over. Gone are the juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, snap peas, and herbs as fresh produce becomes a faded memory. But, while most people are cleaning up their summer gardens and resorting back to grocery store produce, Zach is busy planting winter crops.

Using all four greenhouses, he plants spinach, carrots and microgreens the first week of October. Spinach is also planted outside as it can withstand temperatures close to freezing. The winter crops will be ready just in time for the holidays. Once the crops have matured, Zach covers them with frost blankets, and they go dormant.

“That gives us the opportunity to offer fresh produce in the middle of winter,” he explained. “People love that! Once the crops have gone dormant, they are harvestable for several months.”

When the farm has harvested the last of the winter crops, the next big push is March through May.

“That’s when I plant seeds that will be my starter plants,” Zach said. “I’ll transplant them later in the season.”

With the constant planting, harvesting, and staggering of crops, Zach stays busy. He has two, full-time seasonal employees and in the next several years, he hopes to build two more greenhouses on his property and have enough business to keep his help year-round.

“Good employees are a big deal,” he said. “I now have two that have become well skilled at what we do, I can take time away from the farm and work on other things.”

Those “other things” include the production of teaching videos Zach has developed. He’s passionate about teaching viewers to garden in small spaces and, in fact, offers an online seven-hour course on growing $1,200 worth of vegetables in a 250 square foot garden.

“It’s also No-Dig and really fairly easy,” he said. “I hope to teach as many people as I can about food security. With my design, people can count on high yields of vegetables with very little work. They can expect to yield 50 pounds of carrots, for example, enough to last through winter.”

True to the way he instructs maximizing space in his gardening course, Zach’s big on maximizing available space on his farm, and plants vegetables that complement each other’s growing space. He stakes his tomatoes to grow high instead of wide and trains his cucumbers to do the same. Even while both crops are producing, radishes and celery grow at their base.

“If a plant takes a long time to grow, I plant a side crop. Tomatoes are much slower growing, so a smaller plant that’s planted at the base will be mature and harvested before the tomatoes are even ready. Beets and Bok Choy work well beside tomatoes,” he explained.

Beyond the small space gardening course, Zach’s You-Tube channel has several videos showing his farm, his crops and offering advice on feeding the soil, adding nutrients and proper harvesting. Some of his videos offer encouragement to those who may be struggling, not only with gardening, but with life choices as well.

“It’s hard to start something like I’ve done,” he explained. “Farming is a grinding lifestyle. Not many people will want to do what I’ve done, but hopefully they will get excited about buying their food locally and growing their own. We need to decentralize our food system.”

Zach is proud of his vegetables and loves visiting with his customers about different varieties and what to do with them. He seems to have found his niche at FarmTableWest and expects sales this year to reach $100,000. That equates to roughly 33,000 pounds of produce - enough to feed approximately 300 people.

“I hope to keep growing,” he said. “Farming will always be a learning curve. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance on a crop, and things don’t go according to your plan, but you keep going and figuring it out. All farming is hard, but I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I didn’t like it.”