permaculture

[Patrick McKown <identi1956@yahoo.com>]

Putting a ground cloth under your trees works better than anything I have 
seen.
I have seen tree girth jump and the height increase by 1/3 in one season. 
Playing
with grass is wasting resources. Grass is a thief. The whole design of a tree 
is to 
minimize grass under its feet. It does not want it. So when your starting out 
especially
when your trees are sticks, put a ground cloth down. The cost is not that 
great.
If you measure the cost of hrdware, up keep, gas, labor together + lossed 
fruit production ground
cloth is a bargain. There are other kinds of ground covers that you can use 
under trees.
Nature gives plenty of examples. Here in NA most folks make their 
determinations on
plant life relations in cultivated fields or 100' of the road. So it is not 
surprising that
these adopted planting formulas reflect transitions zones. Where a kind of 
controlled chaos
abounds. 

You can loose money in these 'zones'. It is like building on the shore.

Pat McKown


       
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