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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Mulch/ was Solar and wind
  • Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2007 20:09:14 -0700

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




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