My lot had soil that resembled red concrete when I moved here in late 2022. I found one little area with 1 to 2 inches of lifeless sandy topsoil. I planted beans & peas, okra, sunflowers, turnips and some greens for 2 years and heavily mulched with cardboard, leaves, leaf mold & all my green grass clippings and added some bone meal. I also made small piles of leaf mold and forest soil over little piles of leaves, cardboard and green grass clippings to give the earthworms a home. Mushrooms would grow in these piles. I have topsoil now deep enough to grow some potatoes and Danvers Half-Long Carrots and the earthworms have migrated and improved the surrounding area. I did this under my fruit trees too.
How do you keep the leaves from blowing away? I'm in OKC and I had 2ft of leaves. Most of them have blown away. Some areas are still deep, and some areas are bare 😢
I can personally attest to my tomatoes thriving in the deep mulch with nothing other than water first two weeks of transplanting and rain No fertilizer Sadly i have no lawn clippings to add Wish i could get more but i dont want to start mowing my neighbors all grass lawn Think i would be over collecting at that point Probably need to change to a pushmower that is electric with a mulching blade and a grass catch so i can shred and leave it or collect it as desired Presently she hires the work out So maybe win win for both of us
My lot had soil that resembled red concrete when I moved here in late 2022. I found one little area with 1 to 2 inches of lifeless sandy topsoil. I planted beans & peas, okra, sunflowers, turnips and some greens for 2 years and heavily mulched with cardboard, leaves, leaf mold & all my green grass clippings and added some bone meal. I also made small piles of leaf mold and forest soil over little piles of leaves, cardboard and green grass clippings to give the earthworms a home. Mushrooms would grow in these piles. I have topsoil now deep enough to grow some potatoes and Danvers Half-Long Carrots and the earthworms have migrated and improved the surrounding area. I did this under my fruit trees too.
Mulch is awesome. Thank for sharing and stopping in for a visit.
How do you keep the leaves from blowing away? I'm in OKC and I had 2ft of leaves. Most of them have blown away. Some areas are still deep, and some areas are bare 😢
I go over all my leaves with my lawn mower this really helps keep them in place.
@deeT02 I've seen some people put the leaves in a barrel and use a weed eater to break them up into smaller pieces. A lawnmower can do this too.
I can personally attest to my tomatoes thriving in the deep mulch with nothing other than water first two weeks of transplanting and rain
No fertilizer
Sadly i have no lawn clippings to add
Wish i could get more but i dont want to start mowing my neighbors all grass lawn
Think i would be over collecting at that point
Probably need to change to a pushmower that is electric with a mulching blade and a grass catch so i can shred and leave it or collect it as desired
Presently she hires the work out
So maybe win win for both of us
The small effort now makes the summer easy for sure. Silver lining...no mowing. Thank you for the continued support.