Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

EarthNSky wrote:

> Bill Jones wrote:
>  
>
> > But I've had poor results with leaving mulch on and expecting it to 
> > decompose into something useful.  The fact is that it just
> > disappeared, presumably taken by critters to make their nests.
> >    
>
> Taken by critters???
> Wow, it'd take something like Godzilla to remove my mulch.
>
>  
>
> > Ironically I've found the least use for traditional mulch here.
> > There's rarely a need to keep the soil cool, when it's so cold all
> > the time. Intensively planted crops shade their own soil anyway, and
> > a mulch can stop the soil from warming up enough to grow
> > warmth-loving crops, in addition to drawing slugs.
> >    
>
> Mulching is essentially composting in place, at least in my beds.  That
> process produces heat, which warms things.  I suppose mulching is
> different for everyone, but here in the South, it warms the beds in
> early Spring, holds in moisture in the heat and drought of summer, keeps
> the underlying soil soft for root development and earthworms, and of
> course, degrades and puts nutrients back into the earth.  Two sides to
> every coin..
>
>  
Many of these same ambivalent feelings about mulch are echoed by Steve 
Solomon in his book "Gardening West of the Cascades".  I find the 
self-shading leaves of intensively planted crops to accomplish many of 
the same results.

What mulch I've found left after winter, when trying to build soil by 
accumulating it, did not break down all that well for me.  I'd attribute 
it to the stiff north wind that dries everything so thoroughly in the 
summer drought, along with the fact that winters (and spring and fall 
too!) are cold enough to retard decomposition, but without the freezing 
and thawing that helps to break it down mechanically.  With straw or hay 
thus persisting as long as they do for these reasons, it increases the 
likelihood of its being carried away as rodent bedding, I guess.  In any 
case, there was never any indication that the mulch I applied ever 
changed the soil much before it vanished.

Bill
S. Oregon coast