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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Leaf mulch bad in the garden!?
  • Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 00:41:51 -0800 (PST)

I have been using leafs for mulching our vegetable garden
for years, because we have a plentiful supply of dried leafs
from an wooded area (mainly madrone and cork oaks) on
our land.
 
However, lately I have been having second thoughts. Placing
seeds for cork oaks in the ground last fall, I was surprised
to find earthworms wherever I opened the ground, even in very
poor soil on sloping land where tilling under previous owners
has left only rubble and a bit of clay. On the other hand, in
rich soil on the wooded part of our property that hasn’t been
disturbed for decades, I didn’t find any earthworms at all.
 
Could it be that earthworms cannot digest dried leafs? If that
is the case, a mulch of leafs may cause earthworms to migrate
to other places. This would be a strong argument against the
use of leaf mulch in the garden.
 
Regards,
Dieter Brand, Portugal


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