permaculture

["Robert Waldrop" <rmwj@soonernet.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
>That's never been my experience. All the soils that I've deep
mulched,
>whether clay, sandy, or what have you, show an immense increase in
>soil>life, organic matter, and general tilth, down to a foot or more
below >the>mulch.

This is also my experience.  Last week I planted a few plants in some
beds that had been solidly mulched for 2 years.  The soil underneath
the mulch was very "alive", lots of critters, 2 or 3 earthworms per
handful of soil, very black, not compacted.

I've written up our urban forest gardening project and put it on the
internet at http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/2002masterlistplantings.htm
.

The crimson clover is blooming, as is the purple clover (that was
already growing here), and the turnips, grapes, blackberries,
strawberries, aronia, (and as of this morning) sage, dewberries.

Robert Waldrop, OKC