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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

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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