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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] What to do when the mulch runs out?

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] What to do when the mulch runs out?
  • Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 09:32:21 -0400

. . . 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

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

Greg, you've come upon one of the great dilemmas of sustainable gardening: Where to get enough mulch? It's like Murphy's Law--your need for mulch will forever expand to exceed the available supply!

As Mitch says, you have to get creative to find new sources of (hopefully free) organic materials for mulching. I have a neighbor with oaks who for some reason thinks the fallen leaves are trash, not treasure--she even hauls them to my place gratis. Even city neighbors may have trees generating unwanted leaves.

When I gardened in the suburbs, I used to get grass clippings that neighbors were about to send to the landfill. Grass clippings are not the best of mulching materials, but better than nothing. (Probably a good idea to ascertain how thoroughly those lawns have been abused with herbicides, and when, before adopting the clippings as mulch.)

But adding to Mitch's reply: There are alternatives to mulching that achieve some of the same goals but don't require the collection of materials to put on garden beds. E.g., close spacing of crop plants in the bed helps shade soil, moderating its temperature and retaining soil moisture. (May mean a mixing of crop types in the bed--lettuces or cooking greens closely planted at the base of trellised tomatoes, faster-growing crops like beets and/or radishes filling in the space until more long-season carrots merge canopies to cover the soil.) Undersowing cover crop plants (Dutch white clover is often best for this strategy) under taller crops with a small footprint on the bed (pole beans, trellised tomatoes, maybe peppers and broccoli). Some gardeners have experimented with growing cover crops that can take some foot traffic in the paths between the beds--cut with a sickle above crown level (allowing re-growth) and use the cuttings for mulch in the beds. Weeds removed from the beds can be used for mulch (so you will have lots or little depending on your weed-control strategy).

Another solution to the "gimme more mulch!" dilemma is the "edible forest garden" concept: Replace the conventional garden with a diverse perennial polyculture in three layers. Once the correct mix is in place, there is tight perennial cover at ground level and little additional soil disturbance. (The next issue of Mother Earth News will have my article on starting an edible forest garden.)

You can find more info on these subjects using the search function on my website www.themodernhomestead.us

~Harvey
--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"Earth's plant communities have been doing their job for at least 500 million years; only extreme hubris would lead us to believe we could do a better job through an agricultural science not even one hundred years old." ~Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Lost Language of Plants




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