Jhansi Bobba

Thank you all. I had mulch pile sitting over a year on concrete and it became almost powder when I moved it with bunch of red worms at the bottom which I transferred to my garden beds.

We spent all day yesterday scraping mulch in the field to remove the top layer which is probably more than a foot at some places and piling bucket loads on top of hugelkultur beds. Now that needs to be spread out. I have lot of hugelkultur beds in the pasture. The bottom layer is all composted mulch and it doesn’t look like mulch.

The problem here is not fire department or fire fighter. Some years I had wood chips  piles sitting in the lower pasture when fire dept do their fire abatement inspection. I was never cited. I have been doing this since 2015. What feels like the department wants to please the people who complained and his question was I am still going to keep getting mulch. Thad is the concern here of the neighbor she doesn’t want to have me keep spreading wood chips across my property. My goal is to do the whole property and keep topping it off.

Here is what fire fighter said when I asked can I just spread soil on top of the mulch and he said that is how fire started at two places. I really doubt fire starts once organic material is decomposed thad is all the leaves are decomposed.

The field looks beautiful dark brown once we scraped off the top layer. Last week I had the strip outside the fence stripped and throw the composed mulch inside the fence area. That mulch looks like the mulch companies are selling these days composted mulch all natural beautiful

Fire fighter literally put his finger at the edge of the mulch saying this is more than 3 inches after we stripped. I told him at some places it is less because of the machine removing it and now humans have to go with rakes and spread.

University of california agriculture and natural resources website recommends 4 to 6 inches or more deep to suppress weeds. I didn’t go on arguing with fire fighter with all the information where I can clearly see he is there because of the complaint of a neighbor. When he drove in he saw lot of people have mulch piles in their yards. I asked him what is he going to do about that, all of them would be notified. Let’s see. He willl not go inspect everyone’s property especially the person who complained and he can’t even see their property because of the high fence they installed.

Sorry about the ramble. I see the goodness in what I am doing and it is frustrating to see all this stress I have to deal with. It is lot of hard work. Fire fighter asked me why am I doing this as it is lot of hard work. I said I believe in helping the world in a smal way I will grow agaves and they reduce carbon dioxide.

Thanks again.

Update:

So neighbor complained to fire dept and he came to the property today. He wanted wood chips no thicker than 3 inches.
I had to scrape up bunch of chips and the bottom is so good very much composted

Is it even reasonable to think that the chips can be only 3 inches deep. Deep mulch gardening?

He wants me to disk in the mulch in the pasture.

Thank you

Another quick question here. I was talking to a neighbor today and she mentioned she sees this smoke coming out of mulch piles concerns her that might start fire. I am under the impression that the organic material is breaking down in that pile and that creates the heat, heat is coming out but when it is cold outside the smoke shows. we do always spread the mulch piles but I did keep some in the yard where neighbors can not see and the mulch breaks down much nicer.

Does the fire start in the piles? With hay stored in the barn, if there is moisture in the bales I heard it starts the fire.

Thank you.

Thanks Nancy. I will definitely post updates on the project.

William: Clover and alfalfa would that attract deer, need to look into that. I need drought resistant ground cover as I am not planning on watering the pasture.

Thanks Josh. Yes the bottom line is they built this castle with a 7ft wooden fence all around with lots of trees for privacy and they think my property is ugly because I spread mulch do things unconventional. Their adjacent neighbor right across me planting a lavender farm and those lavenders more fire hazard than the mulch I am spreading. The tree surrounding her property lost leaves in fall and winter, so she can see my pasture through her window and it is ugly.

I would love to create swales on the hill I have and let the rain water flow through my property slowly and absorb as much as possible before running off into the creek across the road.

I am happy to be part of this community.

Thank yoiu.

Hello everyone

I have all these tree rounds that tree companies drop off as they save money by not taking to the recycling place. I have been thinking about creating some sort of deer fencing with these rounds piled up in any shape and drop soil on them like hugelkultur beds then with small t stakes tie fishing wire. Do deer climb the hugelkultur bed that is say 4 to 5 ft tall and then jump over fishing wire?

outside of hugelkultur bed I will plant cactuses agaves not appetizing and on top of the bed plant something I would like to eat. Would this work

Thank you

Thanks Jon. I love mulch and it does wonders to soil. The tree companies fight over to drop the mulch for us here and also the rounds. It is a great idea to buy bulk seeds and throw them on the beds to see if they sprout. I am thinking about using hose pipe on a time and small sprinkler on beds so it gets wet slowly and  waters down the logs. there are many gaps between the logs since we have not arranged them manually. Hoping to push the manure into the gaps when time permits.

Thank you all. Is there any ground cover that grows on mulch. I can throw seeds on top and they grow their roots into the mulch. I weed in the mulch and there are some weeds that grow their roots so far.

I am attaching few hugelkultur beds pictures I am building

Thanks everyone. I am happy to receive the replies and ideas. Hope to answer all the questions and ask more.

Our zoning is Agricultural rural and we have right to farm. The neighbor who is complaining is not next to me or across me. She is one house away from the house across me. I don't border her anyway.

I am building hugelkultur beds leaving space between fence and the bed. I am also building in the pasture. I get so much wood from one company, second company not as much. I give away plenty firewood to neighbors every year. This year I am planning to cover up with manure and soil. I totally believe in mulch. The clay becomes beautiful soil over time with manure and mulch on top of that.

I wish my neighbors can see how natural this is, repurposing the natural materials and doing good to the land to grow beautiful plants whatever they are. I have noticed once their helper washing the trunks of the trees in the driveway. we are all on well water.

Since I am doing this in such a big scale, I don't have bandwidth to arrange each bed. Is there anything I can do to accelerate decomposing of wood rounds. My goal is to plant agaves and cactuses on these beds. We have deer rabbits squirrels and gophers. I am fighting a war with gophers as they are devouring agaves.

Thanks again.

Hi

This is my first post here. I do enjoy reading the forums.

for the first 5 years after moving into our ranch of 12 acres, I have raised cows, sheep, goats, chickens and pigs. then next 5 years didn't do much on the ranch. July 2023 started planting Agaves (americana, artichoke agave, blue weber and other varieties). I started spreading mulch everywhere and goal is to do it the whole property.

Also i have tree companies drop off the tree rounds to create hugelkulur beds and goal is to create them like a berm along the fence line. Yesterday one of our neighbors started complaining about how mulch is fire hazard and duraflame logs are made from mulch etc. I have told her this is tree mulch over the time it decomposes and soil becomes wonderful (we have clay). I explained to here all the logs will be covered by soil and the fire can't reach to the logs under the soil. She said this looks ugly. She threatened to call the county.

Granted I have lot of tree rounds 10 trees worth of logs not covered and bunch that are covered. She basically doesn't like the look of my property because of the mulch and logs.

Did anyone spread mulch in their whole property? I am in northern california zone 9b.

Thank you.