On Tue, 10 Aug 1999, Jeff Owens wrote:
>
> Whether it's the end of a spring planting day or the
> end of the gardening season, I just don't feel I'm
> finished if the soil is still bare.
I've tried to cope with this at the portion of my allotment that is
ploughed and tilled annually by leaving mulch on as much of the plot as I
can when I "clean it up" for the fall. I know that within a few weeks of
me doing this the plot will be ploughed, but I still feel better than just
leaving it bare for those few weeks. Unfortunately, it is then bare till I
start planting it in May, although there is a snow cover for several
months in between.
I can't remember when I started viewing bare earth as an abomination
(Yes, I really feel as strongly about it as the word suggests, but I do
manage to deal with it ok in real life). It
was before I started reading stuff about mulching and no till, and shortly
after I started gardening. I remember noticing that bare earth almost
never happens in nature, and that many of the weeds that people love most
to hate are bare earth weeds.
sph
Sandra P. Hoffman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
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