permaculture

["Primal Parent" <primalparent@hotmail.com>]

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
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Can’t afford to quit your job? – Earn your AS, BS, or MS degree online 
> in 1
> > year.
> > 
> http://www.classesusa.com/clickcount.cfm?id=866145&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.class
> > 
> esusa.com%2Ffeaturedschools%2Fonlinedegreesmp%2Fform-dyn1.html%3Fsplovr%3D8661
> > 43
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> > -go to the above link to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list-
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> -go to the above link to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list-

_________________________________________________________________
Download Messenger. Join the i’m Initiative. Help make a difference today. 
http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=TAGHM_APR07