The Value of Mulch can't be Overstated

[George Collins]

[matt walker]

Cool. The oak tree story is a great illustration. I do worry in my mild climate about the mulch harboring pests over winter. After last season I am convinced I need to either remove my mulch late in the summer, or switch to something other than straw. I lost a LOT of carrots, beets, and the like to rodents who safely cruised the garden under the mulch and ate all my root crops at their leisure. The flipside is that in this mild climate, if I do use straw, and somehow the rodents don't get to 'em, those crops can stay in the garden all winter and hold up well.

[George Collins]

I've too have noticed the occassional rodent scurrying about the mulched area of my garden. They've also moved into 1 of the 3 huglekulture beds. I read somewhere recently that putting up boxes for barn owls to nest in might help with rodent control.

Might any others have any insight into Permaculturesque methods for rodent control?

[Lollykoko]

I'm wondering if you fellows have given the snakes a good spot to hang out? I'll admit to not having seen any rodent smaller than a chipmunk around the camping area, but we do have a family of garter snakes that lives in the cottonwood clump between the firepit and the outhouse.

[matt walker]

No snakes here, at least not any that eat rodents. I count on the birds to keep 'em at bay, but when they have an underground network in that luxurious straw I lay down for them, they get pretty complacent. I think a different type of mulch would go a long ways towards stopping 'em. They can make perfect tunnels in the straw, but wood chips or cardboard might be different. On the other hand, I could just be less lazy and dig a proper clamp, or even a root cellar, and bring the roots in in the winter instead of tempting the local rodent population. I don't have any real problems during the regular growing season.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I can agree with George that you can mulch anytime wet or dry and it will work. I think Rocco's point was that if you mulch when it is wet you have the mosture in the ground and you won't loose it. If you mulch when it is dry the mulch will eventually hold mosture and draw mosture and the ground under it will be wet, it just takes a bit of time. Rocco goes with the no work therory of gardening, he will be 80 this summer. He lives in his Grandmothers home in town, 60' X 120' lot. During the depressen every inch of the yard was garden, and they raised chickens too. That is how his family survived those years. The ground has been gardened for 100 years. Rocco is the only guy I know that put rocks back into his garden because he wanted the minerals and his family had worked for years and taken every rock out. I enjoy talking with him alot, he is a very interesting fellow. I have learned from him. I seek out old gardeners and try and pick their brains. They are not always right, but I have learned alot from them over the years.

[matt walker]

This story came back to me today Guy. Thinking about a little patch of dirt, producing for that long. I am really sort of in amazement at the idea of replacing the rocks. Not that it's unheard of to leave rocks or add minerals, but more a sense of wonder that we can learn and change and progress and all that. His story is a wonderful illustration of that, and a neat legacy for his family. I will be thinking about him this spring as I'm forming new beds, for sure.

[dave brenneman]

[lonv166]

First, I agree with Lolly. We don't have garter snakes here, but we do have a very similar type, it is called a house snake due to it wanting to be near (or even in) houses. We had a small problem last fall with rats, but now the house snakes have moved in, no more problems.
In the Philippines, it is terribly easy to grow certain things. I needed to fence off part of the property as cows had decided my plants were edible. I cut some limbs of a very common tree, and stuck them into the ground as posts. Three months later I had trees growing.
The average Filipino throws seeds over the ground. Some, will dig a hole 2 inches wide and place the seed there. There is no tilling as we know it, there is no watering as we know it. While the Filipino will dead-head flowers, they do not see a reason to dead-head other plants.
Ultimately, it works for them, the no-work approach. Land is so fertile here, things grow even when you don't want them to do so. I am now planting tomatoes the first of every month. Got lots of them, but the local market is crazy about beefsteak (I am the only one who has them). Our dirt is virgin, no one had ever (in living memory) tilled this land. In fact, no one would come to the land as it was deemed dangerous, filled with spirits and snakes. A Filipino jungle.