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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 16, 2011 9:45:27 GMT -5
I'd use pine needles anywhere except for where root crops are growing. I had too many potatoes grow around pine needles when I was living in a damper environment.
I am not currently keeping animals because my nine garden sites are begged, borrowed, or rented, and are far away from home so I can't keep a proper watch for predators. I have a fantasy about a pigeon coop out in the desert, designed to thwart predators.
I'm feeling more settled these days though. I'm planting perennials now, but only along an edge of some fields.
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Post by paquebot on Apr 16, 2011 11:32:08 GMT -5
Pound for pound, leaves are better than any farm manure for micro-nutrients. Oak leaves even have more nitrogen than horse manure. And pine needles are a cheap acidic barrier when planting potatoes in ground where common scab exists. I used to use strictly oak leaves for mulching potatoes since they contain all of the nutrients that a potato plant needs. However, they are not acidic enough to ward off scab. Now I use a mixture of leaves plus fine-shredded pine boughs. Works quite well.
Might also add that most of the work of getting them into the soil is not done by worms. I have no epigeic (top) or endogeic (middle) worms. I have introduced nightcrawlers (anecic) many years ago but they deposit all of their castings on the surface. Thus most of the decomposition is accomplished naturally by bacteria.
Martin
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Post by seedywen on Apr 17, 2011 10:41:57 GMT -5
I used many of the mulching materials and techniques already described. The soil here has high clay content and the winter/spring water table is close to the surface until nearly June.
I avoid mulching the early direct vegetable plantings or even early transplantings largely because heavy mulching basically provides a perfect enviroment for thousands of slugs and sow-bugs to happily live and nip out easily to snack on succulent young plants. So the vegetable gardens are kept mulch-free until early summer then large quantities of manure-hay mix are applied generously over cardboard around plants or between rows.
Also I use copious amounts of large pieces of free black plastic reinforced with threads obtained from the dumpster behind the local Rona store, that formerly was used to cover loads of lumber during transport. Holes are cut through the plastic for transplanted tomatoes, peppers etc. Or laid down flat at the edges of all the gardens to prevent the encroachment of blackberries, horsetail, couch grass, alder trees etc. that always seek to reclaim this small homestead in the coastal forest.
However in the perennial strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry, currant, horseradish, asparagus rows and beds, I apply deep mulch all year. Here is where the bulk of my goat bed and rabbit dropping enfused hay and sawdust goes to slowly break-down and feed the plants over the year. Each fall I rake up copious amounts of maple and walnut leaves and mulch the perennial flower and herb beds. This is their yearly fertilizer except for the addition of manure teas.
AND....I've been known to drive after municipal and private crews, clearing and chipping the shrubs, and trees at the sides of roads to ask them to dump their full loads on my farm. Two months ago, they dumped such a pile of wood chips, leaves and needles, it's just this week that I've finally got the pile dispersed on the perennial beds.
This mulch looks lovely. And within a year or a couple, the mulch will gradually disappear into the topsoil. Plus it's always my hope that this prior mulching to the growing season cuts back on weeding and watering in the summer.
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