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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Mulch
  • Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:23:40 -0700

I've used black plastic to obtain great melon results too. But it's only fair to point out that Ruth Stout actually mocked the idea that black plastic would warm the soil (well, at least certainly the air right above)..

When we moved here we decided to abandon all preconceptions about the right way to garden. The only exception is our avoidance of chemical products. I had already gardened my whole young life in S. California with Miracl-Gro and such. There's nothing much interesting to say about it, except that you have to keep applying it religiously, and unless you use the most expensive brands or mix your own, trace mineral deficiencies can result. I like the idea that I can load a bed with imperfect compost and soaked alfalfa pellets, and set it and forget it, so to speak, and yet know that all the nutrients that plants need will be provided.

Still I've always been fascinated by the idea of composting in the bed. When I went to my first Biodynamic meeting I shared a brilliant --if sophomoric-- idea that I'd been nursing: why not just leave crop residues and grass from around the edges to decompose right in the bed? The consensus was generally that there might be a problem from the slugs that come to feed on the mulch. At time I was new to it all, so I didn't understand that there exist two very dognatic schools of thought in gardening, one saying you should never till and always mulch, and the other saying that you need to dig, even doubly, and keep the soil bare (the Biodynamicists tend more toward this latter doctrine, as I now realize, which could have colored their answers).

Our latest experiment in sheet composting uses a 1.5" layer of live dormant hardwood (apple) twig chips inoculated with some mycelium from hardwood duff (maple), tilled into the top 2" of soil. Slugs sure won't find any cozy spaces here. I was fascinated to notice that the soil was much warmer as a result this morning, only days later. This time I ground up the mycelium in the utility blender before distributing it. It will be interesting to see what summer legumes will become the first colonizers of this medium: alfalfa, asparagus pea, kudu, fenugreek, and of course, the native springbank clover (Trifolium wormskjoldii). The first chip bed started last fall is sporting a handsome stand of favas.

Bill
S. Oregon coast

tonitime AT juno.com wrote:

I have found this to be true in my beds as well, Bev. Yes, there is
always alot that barely starts to decompose atop by the return of the
cold weather . I either toss some soil atop it after the crops are gone
(really decomposes then, by late spring) OR put it into the compost heaps
( where it has a head-start then to finish breaking down for spring). If
some lingers into another year or season - no big deal there. One gal
cannot ever "finish" a garden like we have - always things undone
unintentionally!!
Some things that especially do well in hotter soil, i use black plastic
mulch for. These beds are usually about 4 out of 40 growing areas. While i do not like to use ag plastic, it has made things such as melons,
some peppers, and okra do fantastically better here.........and for just
one season we get weed reprieve in those few spots!
Toni


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..

Bev

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