Nob Hill Growers' Market 3 pm to Dusk LAST DAY OF THE SEASON
TODAY DOUBLE SNAP benefits for fresh, healthy, locally grown food for your family! FreshRx Prescriptions from your PRESBYTERIAN Health Care Provider WIC and SENIOR NUTRITION PROGRAM vouchers IN THIS ISSUE AT MARKET THIS WEEK BACK YARD SHEET
MULCHING PART 2 by Michael Reed NEW MEXICO FERMENTATION FESTIVAL THIS SATURDAY at HUBBELL HOUSE |
Saturday - 19 October
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
$5.00 - $15.00
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$15 online Children 3-12 $5
$20 at the door the day of the event
and the
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Fermented Milk = Cheese! 10:15 - 11am
Fermentation Station tent Kate Johnson from The Art of Cheese Cheesemaking School |
Kombucha Basics
11:00 - 11:45am
Culture Station tent
Katlyn Jennings of Kombucha Project |
| | No-Name and Golden Delicious APPLES CAULIFLOWER - BROCCOLI LOCAL HONEY ROASTED CHILE POWDER Green and Orange GREENSSwiss Chard - Kale - Arugula Euro Cooking Vegetable Spread - Honey Hand Crafted Pasta - Stuffed Cabbage - Sausage Cheese Bake - stuffed with ham and green chile Eggplant Spread - Sauerkraut HERBS Oregano - Tarragon - Pineapple Sage - Marjoram - Mint CHAMOMILE TEA FRESH EGGS Power House POWDERED GREENS Le Paris French Bakery Artisan Breads - French Pastries - Baguettes - Sourdough Whole Wheat - Herbed Bread Sweet and Savory Croissants Cookies - Cheese tarts Thundercloud Foods Great tasting pastries, breads and cakes to people who want something extraordinary. |
Basic Back Yard Sheet Mulching Part 2 - SMOTHER AND BUILD
- Begin to build the layers of mulch, with the densest layer first.This is usually cardboard or paper--lots of it--overlapped to prohibit anything below from finding cracks and pushing up to the surface. Old carpeting or clothing can be used if it's all natural material. My preferred base layer is cardboard and old horse feed bags with the plastic lining removed. Magazines are fine, and junk mail also. Put down at least a half-inch layer - and a little more is better - up to about an inch. Keep a hose handy to moisten all the ingredients as you are building. If you're applying several layers of paper or cardboard, be sure to moisten each layer as you put it down. Light rains will not be able to penetrate to greater depths, so it's essential to get the water down there before you cover everything. If you have extra time and a tub or something suitable, soaking the material you'll be using for the bottom layer for several hours is a good idea. (You don't have to soak the rest of the layers--just a thorough moistening should be fine.)
- When you have completely smothered the area with a dense layer, begin to build up the mulch with alternating layers of nitrogen and carbon sources. Since this is composting in place, the same principles apply here as when making compost - about 25 or 30:1, carbon to nitrogen. I usually begin with about a 6-inch layer of horse manure - the fresher the better initially - just to get as much nitrogen down there as reasonable to assist in the processing of all that carbon on the bottom. If you have a source of chicken manure, that's even hotter so you'd only need an inch or two. The idea is to put the hottest stuff at the bottom when you are first building the sheet mulch, to accelerate the initial decomposition process. When the system is established and working like it should, you will put the freshest manure on top, as occurs naturally, so that it's semi-decomposed and no longer hot by the time it has worked down to the soil surface and the root layers.
- On top of your nitrogen stratum, add a good amount of carbon.There should be plenty of that in the form of dried materials from the garden, weeds, leaves, spoiled hay or straw-brown stuff except manure (which is considered "green"). Continue alternating green and brown layers, keeping in mind the C:N ratio. In autumn and winter, you won't be able to find much green material to work into your mulch beyond kitchen scraps and London rocket, unless you have livestock, but during the growing season I recommend adding a blend (in thinner strata) of green--weeds, cuttings, grass clippings--alternated with brown material (dry, not manure)--hay, straw, all the weeds you've raked up from the vacant lot, leaves - to at least 6 inches deep. Chop or not, as you are willing.
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Remember to moisten each layer thoroughly as you add it.
- Add another 3-inch layer of manure. If you have a plentiful source and really want to accelerate the initial decomposition, the best approach is to build the whole thing in about 6-inch alternating layers of nitrogen and carbon. But most people have to be a bit dear with their poop, so I generally suggest sandwiching bottom and top, with lots of carbon in the middle. Put kitchen scraps as deep as possible if animals will be a problem.
- A 2- or 3-inch layer of leaves on top, well moistened when applied, will help keep the subsurface layers from drying out (since leaves tend to cling together and bond when wet) and appeals to some people's notions of tidiness. This is entirely optional, but leaves are fairly easy to come by seasonally, when entire neighborhoods are filling garbage bags which shouldn't go to waste. Remember though that the beneficial effect of creating a somewhat coherent layer that retains moisture below is also tending to repel penetration of moisture from above, so check periodically to be sure that it isn't all drying out (see #2 below). If the weather has been warm with little natural precipitation, you might need to add water.
Part 3 - Maintenance - next week. Want to see the whole plan in one document? Click here.
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BACK-TO-BACK EDUCATION ALL DAY WITH THE EXCEPT |
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