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

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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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: Thu, 31 May 2007 12:42:25 -0400

When you don't bring organic matter in, but produce it on site, how do you
assure that all the minerals are present and being replenished in sufficient
quantity? Periodic soil tests?

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore

Grow lots of comfrey (and other dynamic accumulators--but comfrey is one of the best). Comfrey's roots grow 8-10 feet into the soil, tapping into reserves of minerals that may not even be present in the top of the soil profile, and making those minerals available to more shallow-rooted plants.

I am propagating comfrey to the maximum I have the time to do so (it's extremely easy to propagate)--I have far more of it now than a couple of years ago, when I started the big push to fit it in along the borders, under fruit and nut trees, out on the poultry pasture (where the birds can self-harvest it), in every nook and cranny. A couple of days ago I harvested a dozen wheelbarrow loads or more to mulch my potatoes.

~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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