Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>]

> Well, I started this list to learn more, to have my views challenged 
> or improved, as well as to spread what's out there on the Internet. 
> You guys have tossed out the conventional wisdom on wood in soil and 
> apparently your results speak for themselves. Good. My limitation is, 
> (at my age) I have to plan in terms of soil building for *this market 
> season* - not the following seasons. Which means fast composting. That 
> is, learning and passing on techniques many people can do to get 
> growing right now, typically with little space and funds, as food 
> hazards multiply and unemployment keeps spreading.  ~Paul

Of course wood ready to return to its "home" belongs in/on the soil. Why 
do you suppose Somebody gave fungi a place in the world? But there are 
practical considerations, especially as you noted re the extended breakdown.

Don't know if anybody's suggested it in this thread, Paul, but if you 
don't have time for any composting process that doesn't pay off *this* 
market season, and if you don't have the space to devote to the slower 
breakdown of ligneous materials, consider this: Surely you provide paths 
to work the garden. If these paths are permanent, you could cover them 
with as much wood chips as you can get your hands on. All the benefits 
of mulching, doesn't matter how long decomposition takes, but once it 
does, just scoop up the resulting "compost" and spread into adjacent beds.

Another likely benefit (speculating here): Big boost in mycorrhizal 
fungi, which partner with many crop species.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

A person dependent on somebody else for everything from potatoes to opinions may 
declare that he is a free man, and his government may issue a certificate granting him 
his freedom, but he will not be free. He is that variety of specialist known as a 
consumer, which means that he is the abject dependent of producers. How can he be free 
if he can do nothing for himself? What is the First Amendment to him whose mouth is 
stuck to the tit of the "affluent society"?  ~Wendell Berry