Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

Yes, you have to keep doing it.  Have you checked tree trimmers?  They need a place to dump the shredded brush.  How about municipal trimming and shredding operations?  Neighbors' leaves?  How about growing your own?  I believe the answer is finding the free resources in your location.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: Greg Baka

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 9:33 PM

Subject: [Livingontheland] What to do when the mulch runs out?

Sorry if this has already been covered, but I could
not figure out how to search the archives...

My mulch has almost all broke down into soil, and
suddenly it seems I have swapped a dependance on
composting/fertilizing for a dependence on trucking in
mulch...

In Fall of 2005 I covered my garden space with foot of
spoiled hay, and not loose fluffly hay but compacted
"books" of hay, the still-compacted segments of the
hay bales. This took multiple loads of hay. Some
things grew well in 2006 (some didn't, but that's
another post) - but the mulch was still quite thick.
Now it is 2007 and I only have an inch or two of mulch
left...

The soil is quite nice underneath, but the cover is
thin enough that weeds are easily popping up through
it.

I'm in the city, so except for leaves there is not
much mulch material readily available.

So I'm wondering what sort of treadmill I have gotten
myself onto here. I spent lots of money and time and
effort getting all that mulch in 2005. Do I have to do
it all over again now in 2007, and then again in 2009,
and again in 2011, and on and on?

The mulch did a great job of turning the the lawn into
garden, and the soil seems much improved, but am I
looking at a never-ending project and expense of
trucking in mulch???

Greg in MO

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." 
             Seneca.  3rd century b.c.


      
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