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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] improving soil moisture-retention

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Gloria Baikauskas <gcb49@flash.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] improving soil moisture-retention
  • Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:57:38 -0800 (PST)

Do remember that there is moisture even in the desert soil....about 9 inches below the surface...and that that moisture comes up every morning.  If the soil is not mulched properly the moisture goes into the atmosphere.  If it is mulched properly, then it stays in the bed where it came from. 
 
What I have been doing here is an ongoing experiment using that factor, as well as the allelopathy of Johnson grass <weed>.  Because nothing will grow with Johnson grass I have let it grow without removing the roots that resemble white carrots in a way.  Then I go out and cut the Johnson grass right down to the soil level leaving no stubs.  I lay what I cut down on top of the soil and let it decompose as it will.  What happens is that nothing does grow there, except for some Johnson grass which is then cut again and again.  I now have a thick layer of plant material decomposing over which I toss all the kitchen scraps, and where I have also put down some dry molasses.  It is not quite the same as a compost pile.  I don't turn it.  I want it to stay as much like it would in Nature as possible. 
 
I am hoping the Johnson grass will bite the dust with the repeated cuttings as it never gets to see the light of day long enough to give the roots any energy.  That way I won't have to dig the roots out.  That can be a complicated process because once started it can create a hole 4 foot deep and as wide as you go for the roots which meander everywhere.  I don't want to upset what I have created.
 
I figure every weed/plant has its purpose.  Johnson grass is no different.  One day I figure we will figure out what its purpose was and regret all the annhilation of it.  It must be drawing nutrients to the top inches of soil with those roots for one thing.  It grows even in a drought, too.  It must be holding the soil from blowing, too.  I am just trying to use it for my own purposes now. 
 
This bed is over the septic system. It is an anaerobic system where the water is supposed to be cycled through filters and come out clean when it is sent out with sprinklers further back.  When the tanks were put in the ground sugar sand was spread all around and over them.  It is not something most gardeners would add to their soil.  I have amended and amended....and though things will grow there, it is not as good as I had hoped.
 
I first let this bed go to Queen Anne's Lace for 2 years.  Then I cut all of that down to the soil level and let the roots of it rot.  I figure the combination of this and the Johnson grass roots hopefully rotting in the soil, along with the plant material I am laying on top of the soil will give me great compost/humus to grow in in the near future.  I did leave the foundation plants in this large bed.  The bed has a stone path through it, but it became unrecognizable during this for a few years.  Now I can see it again.  The nonwoody perennial plants did not survive the Queen Anne's Lace because it so shaded the soil that no light penetrated it.  They are now part of the decomposing matter on top of the soil. 
 
Still an ongoing process....but I am very hopeful it will not require watering but rarely with all of that plant material there.
 
Gloria, Texas



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