Robert Werth

Thanks, all, for this extremely useful information. Looking forward to building our fungal communities...

Rob

Leigh Tate wrote:Our Leyland cypress wood chips took about a year to completely decay. We got them from the arborist who was cutting back around power lines for the utility company. It was a mix of leylandii leaves and branches ranging from fine pieces to large shreds. Before I spread them on the ground, I first threw down a cover crop of wheat, oats, winter peas, Daikon radishes, and crimson clover. Then I covered the seed with aged manure from our old goat barn. The chips covered that. Our cover crop began to sprout a week later. The chips were mostly decomposed when I planted the next fall cover crop. I just went out to check and can find no trace of the leylandii chip mulch 16 months later.

@Leigh Tate - This is really useful, and sounds like a great plan. What was the approximate ratio of chips to manure?

(It's a little late for me to put down a fall cover crop (daytime temps typically 45-50, nighttime often 30-35) so I might just have to rely on whatever is on the ground now. Fortunately we have ladino clover on much of the target area already.)

I've recently received about 10 cubic yards of leyland cypress wood chips (from a free chip drop from an arborist). I've been spreading wood chips to build my soil, rehabilitating about 1/2 acre of nearly-pure clay, and I was excited for the big chip drop until I started reading about how slowly cypress breaks down (one site says "more than one human lifetime", though it's unclear if that refers to chips or logs). Three questions,

1. Does anyone here have experience with breaking down cypress chips; how long did it take?

2. Any tips to speed decomposition? Previous posts suggest adding nitrogen (yep, I pee daily) or mushroom spawn. Any specific mushroom species you'd recommend?

3. Given the source (residential area in NC) the cypress was probably afflicted by cypress canker disease. Should I be concerned about this spreading to other tree species? (The wikipedia article on cypress canker suggests only cypress, cedar, and juniper are affected, but wanted to verify if others have had adverse experiences with disease from free chip drops...)

Thanks!
Rob

I have a lot of sawdust from some recent stump grinding. Probably on the order of 10-15 cubic feet of sawdust. I've gained a LOT of information from this forum (and some extension pubs) about C:N ratios, how they work, why I don't want to just mulch with fresh sawdust because the microorganisms will tie up soil nitrogen and plants won't be able to access it until the bacteria die off.

I still have a few questions that don't seem to be answered by the posts I've found so far:

1. Some of the sawdust is from a mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin), a nitrogen-fixer. The tree was probably 15-20 years old (unfortunately, it was half dead). Can I trust that the C:N ratio in this sawdust is lower? Any idea what it is?

2a. If I use a very thin layer (say, 1/4 to 1/2 inch) of sawdust sprinkled on cover crop seed as a top mulch to retain moisture for germination, will this have the effect of binding nitrogen and inhibiting germination or plant health?

2b. If the answer to #2a is yes, what about if I add some slow-release nitrogen fertilizer at the same time, so that now I'm top-mulching cover crop seed with a mixture of sawdust and fertilizer that has a C:N ratio of (say) 30:1?

3. Can I plant nitrogen-fixing herbaceous plants directly into fresh sawdust? Say, ladino clover? (my theory is no... but I thought I'd make sure.)


Thanks!
Rob

Great. Thanks! Also, re chop and drop as cover crop cover, the more I read the more I see this is a fine way to do it. So, kudzu, here I come.

I'm on a long term project to turn my sandy clay backyard (~0.33 acre) into good topsoil. This fall, we're planting our first cover crop (daikon plus PV Budget Soil Builder mix, which is bell beans, field peas, vetch, and oats). All well and good, but I'd like to lay some mulch over the cover crop seed in order to improve growing conditions and to substitute for a more traditional soil cover.

The plan is to broadfork (over the entire 1/3 acre), then broadcast the seed by hand, and then lay down a thin layer of finely chopped dead leaves and grasses to cover the seed. I don't have enough grass and leaves, though, and I'm thinking of harvesting some kudzu from a neighbor's yard, letting it dry, then running over it with a lawnmower a couple times to chop it up some. Questions:

1. Overall, is this a workable plan - to broadcast my cover crop seed and then cover it over with a thin layer of leaves/clippings rather than soil/compost
2. Are some types of leaves/clippings better than others
3. If I chop up kudzu pretty well, might it re-sprout in my yard?

I'm in Durham, NC, USA (zone 7b). Right in the heart of where kudzu is taking over, and we don't currently have it in our yard, and we'd like to keep it that way...

Thanks!

Thanks, John and Dave. Yes - over 120 feet I have about a 3 foot drop. A couple of permie friends had suggested swales, so I was going down that path. But if you've done fine with RR ties, retaining walls and a French drain on an 8% slope then that makes me more optimistic about using those methods. Thanks for the tip on getting chipped brush - there are a lot of trees in our area so with luck we will find a tree trimming service that will provide chips at low cost. (Any tips on finding such a place - or just call around?)

I am pretty sure I'll use oats + hairy vetch in the fall. From what I understand I can plant hairy vetch a bit later in the fall than crimson clover, and the extra 2 weeks will make a difference in how much benefit we can get from the summer cover crop (cowpeas).

I have a back yard about 120 ft square with a slope of about 2.3%. I'm considering manipulating the topography to help accomplish two goals: first, I'd like a large flat area for kids to run around in (ideally with an edible ground cover that takes foot traffic, but that's a question for another forum). Second, I'd like to retain topsoil and control erosion. There seem to be two main options:

1. Import a large 3-D triangle of topsoil and grade so that the yard becomes mostly flat. Then, near the edges, build some combination of diversion ditches and French drains to divert water away from the house and also channeled nicely in such a way as to preserve our topsoil and not create erosion problems for our downhill neighbors.

2. Build a couple of swales on contour and plant them appropriately (with a combination of water-loving plants). Probably import some topsoil anyway, to reduce the slope, but not all the way to level.

I'm not averse to importing topsoil anyway because 95% of the topsoil was removed 12 months ago (before we purchased the property) to clear out a massive bamboo infestation (fence to fence, 25 feet high, 120 feet square, no rhizome barriers). What's left is sandy clay with very poor nutrient content and very low organic matter. We are putting on cover crops to build the soil and reduce erosion, but we may well import some compost and topsoil into this system to increase organic matter content a bit faster. This question is more about what we should consider as we choose to build swales on contour, versus a diversion ditch + French drain, given our goals.

We are in Durham, NC (Zone 7b) with sandy clay soil. In our not very scientific percolation tests, parts of the yard drain pretty fast (less than a minute) and other parts much more slowly (1-2 hours).

In addition to general advice about considerations, I would love to be able to look at some swales and earthworks constructed by other permaculture growers, in our area (Durham / Raleigh / Chapel Hill, if there are growers on this forum who would be willing to give us a brief tour. (Or I also travel quite a bit between NC and Connecticut, so anywhere close to the I-95 corridor could work well also.) I've been studying permaculture off and on for >10 years, but this is both the first time I have land of my own and also the first time I've tried to garden in clay soil, so I'm feeling unexpectedly out of my element.

Many thanks!
Rob