MULCH... dont dig!

[The Bling]

So its been awhile I've been hard at work saving our species...learning to grow fungi collecting chanterelles and such...

this is all about MULCH and NOT digging holes for ourselves.

For a long time the young avid gardener I was ALL ABOUT deep holes big holes double digging triple digging. 3 foot deep holes filled with high quality soils. 4 foot deep holes .... and finally 7 foot deep holes...then one day my buddy says....

"WELL SEEMES TO ME THEY WANT TO GROW OUT WITH THE ROOTS NOT DOWN."

SO THERE I WAS AT IT AGAIN

7 food diameter double dug holes I was the man!!!



then one day another friend says "MULCH DONT DIG"

wtf

so i tried it NOW YOU CAN CALL ME THE LAZY MULCHER

what i do is pick a spot lay down an inch of compost then i plant

favabeans, oats, rye, vetch, alfalfa, milk thistle, and stinging nettle. (any suggestions here I have herd but not tried mustard)

then when they all start to flower/go to seedi gome through with a push mower or weed wacker and chop 'em down.

then i let it sit and rot in the sun for a bit it may start to grow up again in patches just mow it down again.

then comes a nice 6 inch layer of straw, rabbit litter gets thrown in and some dried cleared brush usually mustard, thistle and ceanothus some oak mulch

then on top of all a 12+ inches of finished compost then on

top of that cardboard as much as you can get I go about an inch thick. i Go to any place that receives bulk goods on pallets they have big 4'x4' pieces

then stones to hold the cardboard down.


tell me what you think this may not work where there are cold winters but it never freezes where i live so conserving water is my primary goal!

doing this means you never mix anaerobes from the sub soil into your aerobic topsoil this is how nature gardens. for reading basically my no till method

 

[pipeline]

Interesting. I think it may be a good idea to review the carbon and nitrogen cycles in the soil. Carbon to nitrogen ratio in materials added has a lot to do with how the materials effect soil fertility. Mulching definitely has a number of benefits... Interesting method. Thanks for sharing with us. check out espoma plant tone....

 

[jaykush]

i think all you need to do is let it sit all winter, then plant in the spring. watch your plants go boom.

if you want to water retention, look up hugelkultur and on top of that biochar. put them together and great things happen.

 

[mugenbao]

look up hugelkultur

Thanks for that. Now I'm off on yet another research tangent, haha

 

[CannaExists]

Thanks for that. Now I'm off on yet another research tangent, haha

Word, me too. Thanks again jay. The little I have read just now has already taught me alot.


This.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Hugelkultur-Using-Woody-Waste-in-Composting

 

[!!!]

pics

 

[simos]

So its been awhile I've been hard at work saving our species...learning to grow fungi collecting chanterelles and such...

this is all about MULCH and NOT digging holes for ourselves.

For a long time the young avid gardener I was ALL ABOUT deep holes big holes double digging triple digging. 3 foot deep holes filled with high quality soils. 4 foot deep holes .... and finally 7 foot deep holes...

UC berkeley botanists did studies in the '80s that determined the vast majority of root action happens in the top 18" of soil. For an annual like Cannabis you never have to go any deeper.

I'm not up to date with the newest series of no-till studies, but as far as digging holes goes, wider is better. Digging deep is an exercise in futility.

Cheers

 

[The Bling]

i think all you need to do is let it sit all winter, then plant in the spring. watch your plants go boom.

if you want to water retention, look up hugelkultur and on top of that biochar. put them together and great things happen.

Yea ive done a few hugel beds im planning on trying one with small diameter sticks and large logs.

I am familiar with bio char

thanks for the positive vibes! I like your quote by the way. Im a permaculture designer so everyone read the book that quote is from
One straw revolution!

 

[h.h.]

Ruth Stout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Stout

 

[mad librettist]

on the right track here.

Remember, the particles we want deep in our soil will work their way down as they are dislodged from larger ones. Then the biology makes those nice micro-aggregates out of those, resulting in the spongy feel and water retention without drowning. The key is balance - never too much food, never too little.

When you dig down and load the area with tons of food to burn, you get a boom and bust cycle of oxygen availability due to all that respiration using up o2 before it can be replenished. Eventually everything settles and squooshes. With a no dig approach like ruth stout's or like Fukuoka-san used , the soil volume relative to mass and resistance to compaction actually increase over time, getting fluffier and fluffier.

under the microscope, you can even see not so micro aggregates, with an organism clearly tying two particles or more together and preventing them from separating further or approaching each other (just like a spring),

 

[MrFista]

I like this method. simple but effective. I love the way compost prepares otherwise hard ground it never ceases to amaze me how a fork buries to the hilt with no effort in the same ground you couldn't get an inch out of 6 months prior.

As for leaving all the worms burrows and other macrolife in the soil intact this is wise counsel. The deep watering a soil with good worms in it can take is massive compared to a compacted site. I watch rain, buckets and buckets of it go into the land but without compost and the creatures it just sheets straight off the top.

Hugecultur - didn't know it had a name, common practise here when building beds - throw some logs and a bunch of wood eating spores in the base of the new bed to build it up fast.

A lt of organic literature talks about the significance of termites in a natural system - we do not get termites - what is analogous? - ants? Good wood eaters, termites, fromwhat I've heard.

 

[trichrider]

tree waste, straw bedding from the chicken coops, leaf waste, table scraps, anything organic gets thrown on. latest addition, sawdust from cutting tree waste.
logs buried to define the perimeter...this a continuous cycle of add, move over, add more, move on.
have been working on this pile for 2 years, must be 1200 sq. feet of compost accumulated.
next years garden feast.