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Summary
part 2 of a 2 part podcast
Paul continues the discussion on soil tests
Continuing the story about Paul's friend, he'd been mowing the lawn short and removing the clippings, thus removing fertility. Samantha agrees that adding organic mulch is the fastest and easiest way to improve dirt and make soil
The next topic is back to Eden gardening. This uses woodchips 3-8" thick, which is high-carbon mulch but there are a couple of caveats.
1) If the woodchips are on dirt rather than soil, it takes years to get started.
2) Woodchips could be contaminated with persistent herbicide. Woodchip can be done but it's hard to get right.
In a tropical climate, woodchip could break down faster. But in general the best advice is to avoid woodchip - especially, cedar woodchip which is great at killing everything else.
Clay says when he's used woodchip he saw a lot of pill bugs. Samantha comments that in some areas woodchip could be easier to get than organic hay. Paul maintains that he wants people to avoid woodchip.
The next topic is "building rich soil when mulch is not available". Paul asks Samantha and Clay how they might proceed. They discuss keyline plowing which is a technique that can work. Clay suggests planting any plant which might grow. Paul agrees: he'd try to get any nitrogen fixing plant which has a taproot. Having adequate irrigation is a big advantage.
When Paul suggests deep mulch, people point to an inch of material and claim it's mulch even if he specifies at least 6-inch thick. He asks Samantha to comment on what she regards as deep mulch: he answer is deep enough that you change the environment on the surface. Clay also suggests that light shouldn't penetrate.
Lastly they talk about chop and drop. You need extra land to supply enough material to do proper mulch.
Relevant Threads
Soil forum
Mulch forum
Back to Eden Gardening documentary
Podcast 344 - Keys To Building a Healthy Soil - Part 1
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
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