Re: home grown mulch

**David Smead s*@amplepower.com**

Nicole,

My $.02 worth.  Rarely does any thing that grows in my garden leave it,
except what I take home to eat, and even any waste from that gets returned
keeps rats out of the waste food).  Vegetation that's not part of edible
stuff gets
chopped in the garden and spread about on the surface.  Of course if I
found diseased plants, I'd dispose of them in the trash.

In the same vein, I add other waste such as apple and grape pressings,
spent hops and grains, straw, leaves, grass clipping, coffee grounds and
anything else I can poach.  This stuff goes onto the garden on a year
round basis, and the garden produces on a year round basis.

As Jon Rowley says, "feed the soil, not the plants".  It works, but to
keep the soil healthy, so it will, in turn, keep the plants healthy, you
need to continually feed the soil.  Just like dogs and cats don't like to
go through feast and famine, soil microbes like a steady supply of
nutrients.

-- 
Sincerely,

David Smead
http://www.amplepower.com

On Wed, 30 Oct 2002, Nicole Georges-Abeyie wrote:

> Do any of you use some of your own crop residues as mulch? --pea straw,
> garlic stalk, grasses, cover crops.  I don't mean planting into
> winter-killed growth; I'm wondering about something you'd harvest,
> dry(?), and lay on a different bed.  If so, how do you best harvest it
> for the purpose? And any other tricks of the trade.
>  
> Also, Does anyone have strong feelings for or against using spoiled hay
> (intended for livestock feed) as garden mulch? I guess seeds could be a
> BIG problem.  Are the mold spores detrimental to a garden or its
> gardeners?
>  
> Thanks,
> Nicole Lewis
> Washington, DC
>
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