The case for mulch
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The argument for mulch is so overwhelming – it literally does so many things – that the case is open and shut.
Mulching acts like the forest floor in an undisturbed ecology. leaves and branches fall, passing wildlife fertilise the area. The soil is undisturbed but covered and continually replenished from the top. The soil is undisturbed so the biota is …
Mulching performs so many beneficial functions that the question is really: why aren’t we all doing it?
Let’s look at what happens without mulch. When you strip off the living green cover from soil to expose the bare earth too things will happen. In a densely planted situation the plants will try to cover the soil. In a less densely planted situation weeds will sprout. If the patch of soil is large enough, the wind will blow away the topsoil and the patch will become arid and dusty without plant life to support soil biota. Annual weeds will sprout – plants with a very wide set of genetic tolerances that can survive harsh conditions. Then perennial plants will begin sprouting – pioneer plants like acacias in the southern hemisphere or beeches in the northern hemisphere – plants that fix nitrogen in the soil, enriching the biota and creating conditions for other plants to survive. Left long enough, your bare strip of earth will start to regenerate and turn into a forest.
This has happened in two places: the highland in New York and at an abandoned train junction in East Berlin.
At the Highline, the abandoned tracks became an enchanting grassland that so inspired New Yorkers xxx and xxx that they worked to turn the abandoned elevated railway into a park and botanic wonderland. After many public consultations, what people wanted was the wildness that had naturally developed as the railway lay abandoned, so they turned to naturalistic Dutch landsape garden Piet Oudolf to create grasslands, praise plantings and grove.
This 2 mile linear park is a very well known example of how adding nature to urban life enriches the life of the city. People come from all over the world to see the park and the plantings, which high above the city gives residences some peaceful time out fro the pressure of the urban environment.
In East Berlin, xxxx
In yeas past there was a horticultural fashion for soil with a fine tilth - a fine textured soil – with the botanic garden ideal of soil like chocolate that sets off the green of the plants – and lies exposed to the elements. Big agriculture also practices a bare earth policy. One crop is planted and all weeds and soil covering is eliminated.
Without a covering the soil is sterilised by the soil, eroded by the rain and topsoil blown away by the wind. In agricuture, all the money is spent on developing topsoil to a depth of that literally blows away in high winds - to the tune of … The disturbed and damaged soil struggles to perform with the onslaught of ,mechanical disturbance, erosion, sterilisation and an onslaught of chemical to chemically fertilise plants along with pesticides, fungicides and xxxx.
diff kinds
chop and drop
living green mulch - green living mulch e.g. lucerne
regenerative agricuture - native grass
Japanese One Straw Revolution.
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