On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:01, Wally Day wrote:

>> I
>> grow vegetables from the way many others do it is that I mulch
>> extensively: my entire garden is
>> under mulch - there is nothing growing in bare soil.  This is pretty
>> much the paleo way.
>
<snip>
>
>What materials do you use as mulch? I'm pretty much stuck with straw and
>leaves. I don't bag grass when I mow, so that's not available (although
>some of my neighbors And a little compost when it's "ready". Plus,
>cardboard/newspaper for weed barrier.

Just so people don't think this is straying off topic and turning paleofood into a gardening list, I
shold say that, in my view, it is essential that the food I eat is grown as naturally as possible, as it
would have been in its natural state. Better to eat a questionably paleo food (like tomatoes, for
example) grown in natural soils without fertilizers and insecticides, than it is to have undoubtedly
Paleo food (cattle meat, for example) that is grown in un-paleo environment with hormones,
antibiotics, unnatural fertilizers or unnatural feed (grains and animal protein in the case of cattle).

So I see the way to grow this natural quality food as a topic that belongs on this site, certainly as
much as where to buy the stuff.

OK, back to mulch.  I use a few different sorts of mulch.  (1) Last summer I brought in bales of pea
straw and covered the garden with it.  Most of it is still there with my plants growing in spaces I
made in it. (2) Last autumn I collected half a dozen trailer loads of freshly-fallen oak leaves and
spread them out in the hens' run.  The hens loved it!  Now, in summer, I am gathering the partially
broken down leaves from the hens' run and using that as mulch as well.  (3) Last week I bought a
couple of bales of shredded lucerne mulch to spread around tiny lettuce, basil and corriander
seedlings I translplanted.  Shredded lucerne is a fantastic mulch, esp as when sprinkled, the fibres
bond together gently, making the surface excellent in its water retention quality. The mulch can
be placed with the sort of precision I need at the height of summer (55 degrees celsius in the sun
last week - that's 131 Farenheit) (4) plants from the garden that I don't place in the hens' run
(mainly woody weeds, old tomato plants etc.) I compost, scattering a few poultry droppings and
nest-box clearings among them.  These will be next year's mulch.

Keith