Jack Somerville

Thank you everyone for the thorough answers! I'm very interested in all the techniques metioned. And especially interested in Marco's methods. I forgot to look at which zone you're in (I'll check right after this reply). I'm also going to snoop on past posts to see if you (Marco) have some pictures showing any of what you're describing. I'll have to re-read and see if you mentioned anything about overwintering or how reseeding works the next year.

Thanks a lot,
Jack

Ontario, Canada. ZOne 4b.          THe aggresiveness of clover is one of the big advantages as far as I can tell, it will outcompete taller weeds with longer roots. But i do think that part of the situation has to be to cut them back around new plantings to give them a head start. I'm very curious about it all and would love to find someone who uses living mulches to find out the actual logistics of it. Theres a lot of theoretical positives and theoretical negatives. I'm hoping to get to the bottom of it all.

Also, how does using clover as a living mulch work into crop rotations since you would always have legumes in all beds?

I'm weighing all of my options are far as ground cover in a new (ideally no-till)garden plot I am making. I've considered hay, the concern would be slugs, straw, the concern is persistent herbicides and compost, the concern is having a flat viable seedbed for seeds being blown onto the area (strong winds and unkept pasture surrounding plot). I am now looking into living mulches for the pathways and beds, specifically Dutch white clover. Does anyone have any experience with living mulches of any kind? How did it work out for you?

Do you have to kill back the mulch when you plant seeds or seedlings? Is choking out new plants an issue?

What about adding fertility each year?   The clover will fix nitrogen but what about other nutrients. Could/should I lay compost on the plot each year and reseed the clover on top?

thanks,
Jack

I live in Ontario, Canada. Zone 4b. I've been looking into these two methodologies of no-till gardening and my concern with the deep hay mulching (Ruth Stout) is slugs. Which has led me towards using compost as a mulch (Charles Dowding). The soon to be garden plot (for use in spring 2018) is completely surrounded by tall grasses and 'weeds'. I've hacked away and mowed the area that will be used and will be layering on top of it to choke out the grasses and prepare the area.

My question is about using compost as a mulch, I had never heard of this before, thinking of compost only as a soild additive. Are weed seeds blown in from the top not a major concern? wouldn't it be a perfect spot for grass seed to germinate? (which my garden plot will be surrounded by).

Basically anything that anyone can tell me about compost as a mulch would be of great interest to me.