MULCH IT!

As we tend our prairie crops, one of our team's most difficult task is keeping out unwanted plant competitors(WEEDS!). Last year, we tilled another large area of land, and we thought we'd experiment with different mulching techniques. 

Mulching is the act of applying a layer of material on the ground with the intention of one or all of the following: improving soil quality, soil moisture retention, weed growth reduction or visual appeal. A person can use a variety of materials as mulch. Some of the most common mulch choices are organic and permanent like bark chips, leaves, and grass clippings. Other temporary barriers include man made products like landscaping tarp or industrial grade, black plastic(very common in large scale, organic fruit and vegetable farming). 

Since we happened to have a large amount of wood chips on hand, we chose it as our mulch.  Unfortunately, as most wood chip mulchers might already know, it doesn't take long before grasses and other undesireables make their appearance through even a thick layer, so we decided to add an extra twist to our mulching adventure. Late last summer, we mulched almost an acre using two similar techniques that had very different results! 

Pictured above are three separate growing rows. Each measured roughly 4.5ft wide and 80ft long. In between each row is a two foot space used as a walking path. From left to right we have the corner of our control row that received no mulch, the middle row that received 4-5inches of wood chips directly onto the soil, and the third row which a layer of cardboard was placed onto the bare soil and then 4-5inches of wood chips on top of the cardboard. The entire area was lightly weeded before all of the applications, but many cool grass seeds and other large plant seed heads were visible as we layed the mulch. The walking paths received 3 inches of mulch directly onto the soil.

As you can see, the cardboard was a remarkable difference maker in this weed inhibiting experiment. There were a few plants growing in the walking paths of the cardboard-mulch areas, and a handful of little  guys on the rows themselves, but not nearly as many as there were growing in row two, the direct mulch to soil area.

Our next organic mulching experiment might involve the use of large amounts of leaf matter as a barrier. The worms would really like it, and I think certain nutrient loving plant species would thrive here as well!

PERSONAL BLAB:

I don't hate the strong, fast growing, quick to reproduce species of this world, but since I'm in the business of nurturing the growth of specific("GOOD") species and not others, I discriminate. Such discrimination is a headache most days, and I sometimes question if these native beauties of the tallgrass really even need much of my help anyway, as they HAVE competed without human intervention for a very very very long time.  However, if only one tenth of 1% of native Iowa tallgrass prairie remains, then helping certain slow growing food sources of butterflies, birds, and other animals germinate, grow strong, and move on out into a new yard or field just as quickly as they were removed from these spaces is moral, and I am good just like my best friend, Laura, implied in the tenth grade when we played Native American naming rituals, and she bestowed upon me the name Sarah Good Girl. :) (Laura called herself Laura Lots-o-Beaver.)