Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> What do we do when the price of oil  
> causes straw to be so expensive as to be prohibitive?  Isn't there a  
> better way to be approaching this idea of keeping the soil covered?   
> I'm thinking of trying a few beds sowed with a perennial clover next  
> year to see how that works.  Have many of you had experience with this?  ~Uriel

My answer is to cover the soil with whatever you got--any time, all the 
time. Be an opportunist. This fall I've done better than ever before 
about planting cover crops just as soon as I took the last crop off, and 
now I have beautiful covers all over the place. I used a little straw to 
help with germination, but none of the beds are thickly mulched with 
purchased straw. Some of those cover crops, BTW, will winter-kill--a 
mulch grown in place come next spring.

I'm able to get a supply of the big round bales, spoiled and several 
years old, but cheap and thus great for rolling out real thick. Last 
year I put couple dozen chooks on such a mulched plot, and over the 
winter the shredded it into fine, easily applied mulch--fantastic stuff, 
and they did all the work.

I no longer allow cardboard or newspaper to leave the place--I use both 
for various mulching needs.

I'm decreasing the amount of space I waste on "lawn" all the time, but I 
still have some, and I still mow, so all those clippings mulch other 
areas. (Clippings are great for covering the cardboard and newspaper.)

Yes, if you have the space for it, growing a separate area as a 
"fertility patch" or source of mulch/compost materials is a great idea. 
I don't have the space in my garden, but I do use my pasture as a source 
of cuttings for mulch, especially in the spring when the pasture is 
fast-growing and easy to cut. (I much prefer to cut with a scythe for 
this purpose, rather than a power mower.)

Fall leaves, pony poop, chips from tree companies (in certain 
applications), boughs from an evergreen you've trimmed or cut 
down--anything and everything. If it's non-toxic, organic, and will 
decompose, it's a great cover for soil.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern VA
www.themodernhomestead.us