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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
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- From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
- To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: [Livingontheland] Mother's Wise Watering piece
- Date: Sat, 26 May 2007 21:10:10 -0600
Sound familiar?
In Mother's Wise Watering piece on p.58
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
"Every garden will benefit by using permanent beds and paths, rather than
tilling the entire garden every year. Using permanent beds allows you to
concentrate water and fertilizers where they are needed and keep paths
dryger and mulched to prevent weeeds. Perhapsmost importantly, by never
walking on the beds you avoid compacting the soil.Use dense laning in the
beds as a hedge against water loss in dry weather - when a god cover of
leaves shades the soil, surface evaporation is cut by more than half.
"If you live in a climate with high rainfall or dense claysoil, use
*raised* beds to improve soil drainage.Drainage is critical for most food
crops, because roots in waterlogged soil are deprived of the oxygen they
require. Raised beds also allow soil to warm up earlier in spring.
"But if you live where rain seldom falls, you should make *sunken* beds,
rather than raised ones. This thousand-year-old Zuni Indian method is
sometimes known as waffle gardening. .."
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paul tradingpost@lobo.net
- [Livingontheland] Mother's Wise Watering piece, TradingPostPaul, 05/26/2007
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