Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Angus MacLeod <afionnmc@yahoo.ca>]

Has anyone tried hugelkultur? It uses big pieces of wood in various stages of decay and, according to what I've read, promises a payoff for many years to come.

--- On Tue, 11/17/09, Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us> wrote:

From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Wood does belong in the soil?
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Received: Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 11:25 AM

> 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

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