Timothy Norton

Another year, another pre-freezing mulching of my growing spaces that are bare!

My strawberry patch gets straw, but I am experimenting with wood shavings in another area to see how they fair by springtime. The straw can get raked up out of the strawberries rather easy so it simplifies handling. I expect the shavings to be a little trickier but shouldn't cause too much issues.

Thank you for the heads up Tereza, it makes total sense!

For regularly utilized recipes I tend to print them out, hole punch them, and put them in a three ring binder that lives in my kitchen. The original intent was to have a physical recipe so I don't have to fumble with my phone while I cook but inadvertently keeping the recipes on physical media prevents losing them to "the cloud".

I like having a barrier around my garden beds to act as a buffer area against all sorts of creeping plants.

I primarily utilize arborist wood chips to setup these mulched walk areas but will top them off with whatever I have on hand. Old chicken bedding, autumn leaves, junk hay/straw or any other carbon-rich material I have on hand. Sawdust does a wonderful job if areas get 'thin' with mulch and weeds start popping through.

Speaking of weeds, they do appear every once and a while but they are easily plucked out of the ground with enough time having mulch on the ground.

The only constant is the slow approach of creeping Charlie if the mulch isn't retopped off after a while but is easily solved with a quick rake/replenishment.

This is my third year in a row where I score free hay/straw bales after the completion of the Halloween holiday. Many people, in my neck of the woods, put up displays utilizing bales and pumpkins/squash to get in the holiday spirit. At the completion of Halloween, many of these are disposed of is some form or another. I started my search by searching along streets to see if anybody is putting them by the curb for disposal. This year, I posted on local social media sites asking if anyone was getting rid of any with an overwhelming response in return. With Straw bales going for around $10 a bale, getting even a couple for free is delightful. I have scored 14 bales in one day after asking.

Cautionary Statement
I advise everyone to take general caution, depending on what you are going to use the bales for, because you may not know if there is toxic gick in the bales. I'm using them as potential mulch/compost (carbon) material so I look for sprouting bales intentionally. Use at your own risk.

I think we have seen the pendulum that I previous stated swung pretty hard last night. Full control of Congress has been given to the Democrats. While we may not see much policy come out of the federal system in the next two years, I believe we may see this as a correction to what we have experienced from the previous election.

The political power pendulum is always swinging, and I think/hope that we may see some moderation come to the House which will act as a check on the Senate and Executive. We may be setting the ground for a lame duck president to serve out the rest of his term.

Joao Winckler wrote:Nice to see an actual four year before and after, that comfrey looks like it's doing a lot of the heavy lifting now. Does the log rot out eventually and get replaced by the plant roots, or do you keep topping up with fresh timber every few years?

My intentions are to primarily
A. Stabilize the bank from excess erosion
B. Reduce the degree of slope.

Once the logs rot out, I may need to place another log further down the slope as a second phase of restoration but hopefully I can just leave the built up soil as-is. Maybe put a layer of mulch on top of it while more plants take root?

I'm still in the observe and act stage even with this being a multi-year project.

This is a before and after over a period of around four years. The log is still pretty stout and hasn't slid down the hillside at all even with all of the organic material I have uphill of it. You can see the Russian comfrey I planted to assist in soil stabalization.

An example image of a log erosion barrier from the USDA Forest Service. This figure shows a log, pinned with stakes, with a shallow swale behind it with packed dirt against the log itself. This would be placed on contour and allowed to capture/intercept organic matter. The swale is intended to primarily capture sediment. Studies have shown that while these log barriers retention abilities may be overcome by large storms, they do well with 'regular' rain events over seasons.