Some of the interesting things I’ve been reading this week:
- Rob over at One Straw has posted about how he is using mulched-filled trenches as paths between his garden beds. This is exactly what I’ve been setting up in my gardens, so I was very excited to discover someone that had found success with it! Also check out his Midden L’eau Chaude for producing massive quantities of hot water and compost, and his articles on Sub-Acre Agriculture.
- Tiny Houses – Wow, so many cool resources on this topic – Sugar Mountain Farm, Milkwood (near Mudgee, NSW), the Tinyhouse Blog, Tiny House Design, Inhabitat, Urban Rancher, The Tiny Life. I love the idea! Seeing these houses motivates me to de-junk and make more efficient use of the space in our house.
- A shopping list for assembling a home first aid kit, for less than $10 per week over 8 weeks. It details US products in US dollars, but should translate fairly closely for other countries. This is a great way to build up an essential kit without a huge up-front cost.
- Musings From A Stonehead – A blog by a Scottish crofter breeding heritage pigs. Lots of very useful information for people raising (or planning to raise!) pigs on a small scale.
- Jenna from Cold Antler Farm got her first pig – congratulations Jenna! Others are also getting in on the pig-raising act: Team Bettendorf, TerraByte Farm, and Linda Cockburn (one of my favourite sustainability writers – check out Living The Good Life). I love reading about other people doing similar stuff to us. It kind of makes me feel less weird :-).
I hope you enjoy the links above. If you’d like to make reading suggestions for the week ahead, please post them in the comments below!
Comments
5 responses to “Weekly Roundup – Mulch Paths, Tinyhouses, and More Pigs”
Hey Darren
I have been using heaps of grass clippings on my garden paths for about 2.5 years now. It has been immensely successfully. I do not trench the paths, as my policy is to continually build up the garden beds. Thus the inherent soil building means that my paths also need to keep up. After a few months I have black humus rich compost from all the worm activity. The worms do not mind being walk over as they are just under the top bit of mulch (about 3 mm down). The other benefit to using your garden paths as compost generators, is that they provide additional nutrients to your more adventurous and hungry plants such as tomatoes, watermelons, etc.
I also add Greenstone rock dust (similar to basalt) to the paths while piling on new mulch. This helps make the compost even more nutrient rich.
This is the ultimate cheap and simple composting method!
These days I have also been trailing using Hessian sacks on the top of the path, to speed up the process. As I acquire these for free, the cost of my path compost is still pennies a path.
@Jason: That’s interesting, I didn’t realise you were doing that. I’ve been throwing all my grass clippings in to the chickens and pigs, but I might have to cut back their rations :-). Do you find the grass gets gloopy when it rains? I was planning to use wood chip/mulch for the drainage.
Paths well advanced in the composting can get a bit squishy with lots of rain, but then so does other ground not stabilised by a multitude of plant roots. Early on in the process, they are quite stable even with lots of rain. Mind you I do use lots of grass clippings in each section (at least 30cm deep along the path), so there is plenty of drainage.
I really need to document this (along with heaps of other things) on my blog. It is horribly out of date.
Sounds like a good system. I’ll give it a go if it stops raining long enough for me to mow the lawn! I’d love to see some more photos on your blog :-).
The trench path idea is intriguing. I’ve started mulching my paths, more for my personal benefit and my hatred of bare clay soil. But actually digging down would allow a greater volume of fresh mulch to be stored. I’ve been toying with the idea of trying to form a relationship with a local tree lopper (so as to obtain free chips and know that they’re from garden safe sources – no privet!) but don’t have room for a giant pile of mulch to age, and don’t want to put it straight on to places I’m growing stuff.