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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Mulch Producers.

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  • From: Loren Davidson <loren@farwalker.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Mulch Producers.
  • Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 08:32:07 -0800

At 07:39 AM 3/25/03 -0800, James Erbes wrote:
I am interested in planting some mulch producers. Some
plants that produce extra mulch that I can use in the
garden or around fruit trees. I have a lot of branches
I could chip but chippers are expensive. Any ideas of
good mulch producers? I am in El Dorado County
California zone 7 - 9.

I've had a great deal of success with comfrey, both in the Bay Area and in Butte County (zone 8). In the Foothills, the comfrey does best with a bit of shade in the intense heat of the summer, so plant it in your understory, in partial shade - within the drip line of your fruit trees is a classic guild association.

Once you plant it, you will always have it - the stuff grows back from even the smallest root fragment. So place it carefully. You can hack it back several times a year and use the leaves in your compost or just shredded and placed under your straw mulch. It's a deep-rooted "accumulator" plant that brings up minerals from the subsoil as well.

If you can get your hands on some, try tagasaste. I put some in and it's growing shrub-like at my place in Butte Co., with some summer irrigation, and surviving handily - one of the bushes is in full bloom right now. It's a legume, IIRC.

Question for the list: Does tagasaste need special rhizobacteria to fix nitrogen, and if so, where do we Yanks find 'em? I got my plants from a fellow permie as seedlings, so I have no clue whether they already had some of the right rhizobacteria or not.

Build soil,

Loren


Loren Davidson Earth steward, healer, singer/songwriter
loren@farwalker.com http://www.earthspring.org/loren/
AIM: loren334 ICQ: 65291610
Loren's album & music info: http://www.lorendavidson.com
"In gentleness there is great strength." - Sun Bear




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