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| Mulched garden 3 months old |
Since I seem to be hauling grass a lot I thought I'd record where the mulching is at.
I get delivery of grass clippings every other day and I wheel barrow them outback to spread on the garden
I usually mix a few layers with horse manure and throw on some blood and bone occasionally. If I can get it, seaweed (washed up sea grass from the local beaches) always aids texture and ecology.
You have to keep checking back to see what is happening below the surface but the main game is to get the critters of the earth working for you. It is a form of sheet mulching-- lasagna gardening.
Underneath the ground is sand -- porous, nutrient empty, seaside sand -- and the grass clippings layers serve as a growing medium while the business of drawing down nutrients and mixing the carbon is undertaken by worms and sundries.
Grass clippings can be dusty and don't have much substance and texture when they break down so you need to be aware of that if the plants are going to be legging it skyward. Staking is advised while the soil consolidates and creates itself. This is why manure is so useful as it does add bulk to the pith. It anchors the process as much as any other contribution it will make to the soil.
I also make sure I contour the clippings, by throwing on handfulls of grass rather than flat raking, spreading them or patting them down. After three months of this approach to mulching, worm activity is only just beginning to take off. Juvenile worms can be found working just below the surface but above the sand.
For now all the accessible moisture is still held in that top layer and all other precipitation , once it reaches the sand -- the sand as is -- will drain away. But I've been harvesting and planting with abandonment.
