permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

> would just like to add here that we use moldy hay and silage and 
> wet straw to create pathways so that you don't loose your wellies 
> by every step you take. It only takes 2-3 inches of fibery hay or 
> silage to keep from sinking in. 

Yes, that is a good idea.  I use whole or coarsely shredded branches to cover 
muddy pathways with.  Woody material usually takes a long time to decompose, 
but the mechanical action of walking on it combined with whatever happens 
when it is worked into the mud will make it decompose much faster.  That is 
composting by treading.  When the soil on these pathways is dark enough from 
the added OM, I can use it for vegetable beds since I don’t have many 
permanent pathways.  I have heard from a particularly poor region in Spain 
where they use this technique for fertilizing the fields with cistus 
branches.  On those barren hillsides, cistus is about all that will grow.  
They cut the plants and then use it to cover the roads on which cattle are 
driven from and to the village.  Each family apparently has the right to a 
particular stretch of road.  The action from the hoofs of the animals crashes 
the hard woody parts, which is than kneaded together with manure
 and mud by the following animals. 

Dieter