Ronnie Yu

Update: I've been reading on hydrophobic mulch pretty much all day. Now I have noticed that when I dig through my mulch it does seem pretty dry and "powdery" but I didn't think much of it. So when I got home, I sprayed the mulch around some of my trees for close to five minutes. I made sure I really soaked it well.

So I pull back the soaked, top inch or so of mulch and guess what? Bone dry underneath! I couldn't believe it! And everything seems to be covered with a blueish-white powder, which I'm assuming is some type of fungus.

I'm a tad bit worried now! Any ideas?

Thanks all. I'm just a bit confused because from everything that I've read from permaculture types, I've never heard that more than three inches is a bad idea or in any way risky.

As for my situation: my climate is Mediterranean and my soil is heavy clay. I was under the impression that layering more and more organic material on top of my bare, hard, dirt is one of the best things I can do for it. For the time being, I've only accumulated enough mulch to put around some of my fruit trees. Truth be told, I probably haven't gone higher than three inches, but I'm somewhat concerned now that doing so might do more harm than good.

In other words, I was hoping y'all would say "whoever wrote that is off his rocker!"

Oh, my mulch is basically all my yard waste run through a chipper/shredder. Leaves, branches, a lot of pine cones and needles (that drop my my neighbor's two large Ponderosa pines). I also throw coffee grounds on there and whatever other organic material I come across.

Mulch applied too thickly can cause problems. A wood-derived mulch may undergo high temperature decomposition causing it to dry out. The mulch may then be colonized by fungi that create water repellent conditions throughout the mulch. Water is unable to penetrate the mulch and reach the soil and plants fail to receive adequate moisture. Mulching too deeply can also cause the soil to remain continuously wet contributing to root and stem rot problems in addition to depriving plants of needed oxygen. Apply a mulch layer no more than 1 to 3 inches thick.

from: http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/factsheets/tp_05_mulchbasics.html

Is mulching thicker than 3 inches really not advisable?

Thanks for the San Clemente tip, it's only 30 minutes away

Are there laws/regulations that prohibit taking away buckets full of dirt?

I think you're right about the climate. Too bad it only really rains in the winter though! I haven't sent my soil samples in yet, but will post the results here once I do.

I finally got around to digging some holes around my yard to collect soil samples for a soil test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKe9c0oVrKY

90% of the yard is covered in various grasses and sedges (St. Augustine, Bermuda, nutsedge and at least two others). So there's typically maybe a inch of organic material by the roots, but directly under that is a thick layer of reddish-orangish-brown clay, with 1-2 inch rocks scattered throughout. That generally goes down to about a foot, but then past that the soil is more sandy and crumbly (this video only goes down to the clay layer). The hole is about a foot in diameter and two feet deep. I didn't find one earthworm.

Some history: The land here was once part of a large citrus grove. That went on for about 50 years, until it was purchased and cleared by developers. Then in the 80s, the area that is now my back yard was dug up completely and an underground drainage channel was installed (see here for photo: https://permies.com/t/26157/trees/drainage-channel-running-backyard). So the soil profile is probably all screwed up.

That said, all the trees in the backyard seem to like the soil just fine. So long as the soil remains moist I think the trees have no problem growing their roots in and through the clay. I found some grass/sedge roots up to 1.5 ft down.

Thanks fellas, I'll do some experimentation. I guess that after doing a lot of reading, my "vision" of permaculture is that it should be a sort low-maintenance, self-sustaining system (eventually). But I guess that's not very realistic on the small, urban/suburban scale.

Is bonsai something that can be done with trees growing out of the ground? I always thought it involved small containers and a lot of root pruning. Then again, I don't know much about it.

John Elliott wrote:I can answer that question in two syllables -- bon-sai.

It's really a fascinating art to see how they can take a bald cypress, something that can grow 100+ feet in the wild, and make it into a 2' high living sculpture. Take a look at the Bonsai Collection at the National Arboretum in Washinton, D.C. I've been there, and it is amazing at what can be done to prune trees and keep them at a certain size.

And on this page, it says that camphor is a popular tree to use for bonsai.

Is it possible to keep a tree a manageable size indefinitely by pruning it? I would like a Camphor tree in my yard, but I know they eventually can grow quite large.

I recently saw a video with Alex Ojeda where he shows a small olive tree growing in a compact area surrounded by other plants. I don't know how quickly they grow, but won't that tree eventually take over that entire part of the yard?

Thanks for the replies everyone, and as usual sorry for taking to long to follow up!

John, I would like to just lay everything out and let it feed the soil directly, but because of the opossums, stray cats, and ants I only feel comfortable leaving kitchen scraps inside a bin (which sits atop a layer of diatomaceous earth for the ants )