Excerpt: ...vegetation. Year-round mulch produces a number of synergistic advantages. Decay on the soil's surface is slow but steady and maintains fertility. As on the forest floor, soil animals and worm populations are high. Their activities continuously loosen the earth, steadily transport humus and nutrients deeper into the soil, and eliminate all need for tillage. Protected from the sun, the surface layers of soil do not dry out so shallow-feeding species like lettuce and moisture-lovers like radishes make much better ...
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Excerpt: ...vegetation. Year-round mulch produces a number of synergistic advantages. Decay on the soil's surface is slow but steady and maintains fertility. As on the forest floor, soil animals and worm populations are high. Their activities continuously loosen the earth, steadily transport humus and nutrients deeper into the soil, and eliminate all need for tillage. Protected from the sun, the surface layers of soil do not dry out so shallow-feeding species like lettuce and moisture-lovers like radishes make much better growth. During high summer, mulched ground does not become unhealthfully heated up either. The advantages go on. The very top layer of soil directly under the mulch has a high organic matter content, retaining moisture, eliminating crusting, and consequently, enhancing the germination of seeds. Mulchers usually sow in well-separated rows. The gardener merely rakes back the mulch and exposes a few inches of bare soil, scratches a furrow, and covers the seed with humusy topsoil. As the seedlings grow taller and are thinned out, the mulch is gradually pushed back around them. Weeds? No problem! Except where germinating seeds, the mulch layer is thick enough to prevent weed seeds from sprouting. Should a weed begin showing through the mulch, this is taken as an indication that spot has become too thinly covered and a flake of spoiled hay or other vegetation is tossed on the unwanted plant, smothering it. Oh, how easy it seems! Pick a garden site. If you have a year to wait before starting your garden do not even bother to till first. Cover it a foot deep with combinations of spoiled hay, leaves, grass clippings, and straw. Woody wastes are not suitable because they won't rot fast enough to feed the soil. Kitchen garbage and manures can also be tossed on the earth and, for a sense of tidiness, covered with hay. The mulch smothers the grass or weeds growing there and the site begins to soften. Next year it will be ready to grow vegetables. If the...
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Like New. Size: 11x8x0; Composting doesn't need to be difficult! You can learn to compost and feed your garden with the bestEasy Composting for Organic Gardeners will help you get the humus you need to transform your soil and your crops. Don't worry about fertilizer shortages or supply line disruptions.
Before this book, I used to think that "composting happens". It didn't realize that there are degrees of quality among compost that can make a huge difference in the nutritional quality and growth of your plants.
In this book, the author, Steve Solomon, gracefully sums up what must have been decades of practical experience and book research into this truly valuable guide. I've totally changed how I'm composting now. And I have a much better understanding of the critical soil problems we're facing as a society. I've benefited so much from this book, and his book "Gardening When it Counts". I initially started reading "Gardening...", but when I got to the section on composting, I realized I wanted to go more in depth than he could fit in that book. That's when I read "Organic Gardener's Composting". Those two books have completely changed my gardening techniques, and the really amazing things is - it's easier now, and more productive. I'm so appreciative that he wrote these books!
