I've got five acres of... Sagebrush!!! And cactus. We're in southern Utah, so that's the standard out here....
My neighbor just mowed down five acres of his own Sagebrush (seeing five acres of barren land without a plan to cover it makes me cringe, but that's another story).
Sagebrush seems to be the most abundant free resource in the area, and it's often heading into the landfill. When my neighbor mowed his land I told him to put the detritus on mine. Now I'm wondering what the heck to do with it. It didn't cross my mind at the time that Sagebrush means creosote... And I'm wondering if my initial instinct to compost it is going to work. I was like... "I'll make a thousand square feet of hugelkultur beds with this!! But now I'm wondering if that's a fools errand.
Anybody have experience composting artemisia?
I found this on the interwebs and it made me panic! Allelopathy didn't cross my mind before
"Heads up, I’m looking for info on how to compost sagebrush, you need to know sagebrush has compounds in the plant that stunt growth of other plants around it. If you shred and compost it, you could be harming what you put sagebrush mulch around."
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