Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pego Rice <firekeeper38@yahoo.com>]

I have to agree that using ties or any kind of treated
lumber is an iffy proposition.  Even when you miss the
short-term affects you have unknown long-term affects.

That being said, it was that ties that have leached
out are safe and the way to tell if the had was to let
them let up on a really hot day, if they bubbled any
tar out after a day or 2 of hot sun you know that they
are still leaching.  I tend to like either recycled
plastic plank or cinder block, though I am currently
using a lot of my downed tree trunks and branches for
low beds.  These have provided a couple of years of
support and also they have provided cultivation media
for a number of fungi and so I have wood-ear fungus
and a number of other mushrooms for food and visual
interest.  Inoculates can be placed in soils, woods
and trees, even in straw-bales, and can provide both
extra crops and soil conditioners.

This is also one of the side benefits of cinder block,
since you can leave those holes open to be filled with
any sort of herb or fungus.  I have a touchy back and
having raised beds that I can sit on the edge of is a
wonderful thing.  I can go out and work with them no
matter what condition I am in and, by-golly, it is
very easy to wrap them for winter.


Yours, Pego



 
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