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  • From: "Primal Parent" <primalparent@hotmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Soil Question
  • Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:28:25 +0000

thank you toby and paul-

while i can't remember exactly where we read it, the plastic was to "cook" everything in the pile (?)
and i believe paul might be right in that the grass eaten and passed by the horses sprouted. that would explain the extra-dense-ness of the grass now.

so here is where we are now, we can remove probably 60-70% of the grass roots by hoeing. it is not dormant and there is now growth coming up amongst it. what are the best options for us now?
the grass is really only on the top layer and underneath is absolutely lovely.

it has been suggested that we burn the top off then till the remainder into it.

also our neighbor offered to let us borrow a "grass catcher" that will plow and catch any weeds, etc.

we realize we have defeated the whole purpose of sheet mulching, but since we're in this dllemma we're going to try to figure a way out (even if we have to break a few eggs to make an omlett)

thanks again,
roman



From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: ibiblio list <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Soil Question
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:49:53 -0700

The mistake here was the black plastic. I've never seen instructions for
sheet mulch that say to add that, so whoever instructed you to go that route
has caused a big headache. The soil decomposers need air and free moisture
circulation to work effectively. The plastic prevented the microbes from
getting air and water, and so they couldn't decompose the grass. The patch
probably dried out when the decomposers consumed all the water in their
initial growth spurt, and with the lack of oxygen, too, left you with
mummified grass. If you till it in, (assuming the grass is dead and not just
dormant) you'll at least capture the biomass of the grass, so that might be
better than removal. But either approach has defeated the whole purpose of
sheet mulch, which is to avoid tilling or scalping off the vegetation.

Thanks, though, for the valuable lesson.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



On 4/15/07 8:05 PM, "Primal Parent" wrote:

>
> hello. we have a soil dilemma and hope someone out there can help us out.
>
> two autumn's ago we attempted to sheet mulch a large (future) garden space.
> we laid down cardboard, leaves, horse manure, and straw and then covered
> everything with a sheet of black plastic hoping it would be ready for the
> spring.
>
> over the winter we decided to move elsewhere first and after arriving here
> (a year late) we have discovered the area can be best described as "choked
> with dense dead grass." the landowner removed the black plastic but we are
> unsure if he tried to seed it or not (the only explaination we can think
> of). the actual soil underneath it, however is dark, rich and lush.
>
> so our question is do we till the grass under/into it? or should we attempt
> to remove the "top layer" meaning the grass and whatever roots we can
> manage?
>
> we can't understand why there is a large light-brown rectangle where the
> soil underneath is near perfect.
>
> any advice?
>
> -roman
>
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