Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Wood does belong in the soil?

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Wood does belong in the soil?
  • Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:25:13 -0500

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





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page