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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Re: Branches and small diameter wood

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  • From: Loren Davidson <loren@farwalker.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re: Branches and small diameter wood
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 10:46:19 -0800

At 11:17 AM 3/26/03 -0700, Scott Pittman wrote:
I am fortunate to have a landfill that will chip my trimmings and reload it in my truck gratis. I use these chips for walkways in the garden and to mulch fruit trees. I am concerned about bringing home disease or bugs from someone elses' garden, but, knock on wood, hasn't happened yet. It takes a few years for this to break down further even tho it is in the wet zone of our kitchen garden, worms seem to prefer it under the walkways of chipped wood to the straw mulch of the planting beds. The soil under the walkways is richer than the beds after three years, but we are not mining the nutrients of this zone with plants. Perhaps I should rotate the beds and walkways.

Why not just plant right next to the walkways and let your plants send roots underneath to mine the nutrients? It seems like a logical extension of the gardening practice of growing heavy feeders like tomatoes next to a compost pile/bin. If you use Zone 1/2 plants, particularly edibles, you create "food walkways" and improve placement of things needing care this way. The only downside I see is if you use plants that require a lot of pruning to keep from overgrowing your walkways...but you could just plant those a little bit further back.

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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