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  • From: "E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] What to do when the mulch runs out?
  • Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 10:55:06 -0500

Of course, Harvey is right, but don't forget that you have to return as much (hopefully more) as you remove in the form of crops.  Edible forests can provide a lot of their own mulch in the form of litter, but it takes a long time  to achieve stasis that way.  In the mean time you have to atone for past sins against the environment.  Also, a perennial/tree garden makes more sense for a (youngish), landowner than for a older gardener and/or renter.
 
The work of Ecology Action provides more information than you can ever fully implement.
No-till is less labor-intensive, but works better if your soil is in pretty good shape and, to a degree, it trades labor for space - a trade-off that makes sense to me every time I try to double-dig.
 
E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] What to do when the mulch runs out?

> . . . 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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