Mulch!

It’s been a long time since our last post. We’ve been busy, but mainly we've just been lazy bloggers.

Mulch has changed my life.

A little exaggeration there, but mulch HAS changed the face of Terribly Happy, and helped fortify our trees, shrubs, and other plantings.

Mulch is placed atop soil to provide one or more of the following benefits:
* slows soil evaporation, so less irrigation is needed
* insulates soil, so soil temperature doesn’t change as much and doesn’t freeze or cook as easily
* provides raw materials for decomposers (worms, etc.) to generate future soil
* inhibits weeds, and may make pulling weeds easier
* minimizes yard waste

Secondary, but significant, benefits accrue directly to the orchardist or gardener (e.g., me): less time and money spent on irrigation, weeding, frost protection, etc., and thus lower overall stress levels. For example, in 2013 this part of Oregon had its driest January-May on record, yet I didn’t start irrigating until late June because mulches kept the soil cool and moist.

Mulch has to be able to transmit air and water, so solid plastic sheeting doesn't qualify. Lots of other things do, though; here's a semi-complete list of mulches we've used recently with information about sources, collection, and other stuff.

Grass cuttings

Source: orchard, other grassy areas of property

Collection: ugh. raked piles (no collecting bag on the mower, yet), wheelbarrow as needed

Available: Mainly Apr, May, maybe June; key springtime mulch


Top: Grass ring w/Sherlock

Bottom: several small trees w/mulch rings (walnut in foreground)








Chop-and-drop cover crops

Source: warm-season (buckwheat) and
cool-season (rye/vetch/fava mix) crops
that I planted and scythed down. No
tilling--they just decompose in place.

In this photo, I haven't yet moved the
cuttings to the mulch rings around the
key plants.








Other organic matter (no pictures): weeds and plant trimmings: thistles, dandelions, grape vines, comfrey (planted mainly for this use), tree suckers/water sprouts, etc. The few types that re-root (damn bindweed) go the dump or are burned.

Leaves

Source: Mainly the oak trees from the neighbors across the street. Sometimes they pick up and dump piles for me, but usually I go over with a rake and an old sheet and drag them home!

As time goes by, our trees will mature and we'll have an increasing supply of our own leaves.

Top: Thin leaf pile around a baby chestnuts; needs a lot more mulch.

Bottom: Sheet mulching w/leaves

Straw

Source: purchased bales; too pricey to do this regularly unless purchased in bulk (as I did for the pictured project).

Be sure to get straw and not hay, which is seed-filled.

Sawdust and peat moss

These materials aren't good for all plants, but blueberries love them.

The sawdust came from a local, small-scale mill.

The peat moss was purchased at a nursery.

Chopped cypress foliage

Source: A cypress on the property that we felled because it was growing like a weed....a 25-foot-tall weed that blocked our view from the back deck.

I painstakingly trimmed off all the foliage with pruners.


Grape pomace

Stems, skins, and seeds hauled in from a local winery (11 tons!) Half was used in compost, and half was used in a sheet-mulching project. We didn't expect the long-term viability of grape seeds. Fortunately, young grape plants are easy to pull out.

Top: Pomace close-up.
Bottom: Sheet-mulching project underway; grape pomace partly covered by straw in foreground.










Horse manure (no picture): An adjacent neighbor supplies us with horse manure (dung + straw) periodically. We store it in the barn for a year to let it dry out, then use it in the compost pile or as a mulch. When used as a mulch we cover it with other mulch types to deter scavengers.

Newspaper and cardboard

These decompose within about six months (of wet weather), interfering with most weeds and giving new plantings a head start.

Top: Part of a sheet-mulching project (later covered with bark mulch)

Middle: Torn-up cardboard that I covered with straw and grass, and into which I then hand-sowed buckwheat.

Bottom: Newspaper & cardboard as part of sheet-mulching.

 

Pea gravel, bark mulch, wood chips from a local materials yard.

Decomposition rates range from slow to zero (pea gravel), but each has its uses.

Pea gravel is especially easy to work with and weed, and discourages field mice who might munch on a young tree trunk.

Finally, weed fabric is an effective weed deterrent. I used it on fairly mature apple and hazelnut trees in the orchard, and my weeding time on those 60 trees is now negligible. Not sure whether I would ever do it again, though. It transmits air and water, but prevents the development of any kind of organic matter.

Recommendations: Construct mulch rings around any tree or shrub that matters to you. The radius of the ring depends on the size of the plant and availability of mulch (I'd have made my rings thicker if I had more mulch). Maintain a thickness of at least 4” (most of my mulches are 5-8” thick); how quickly your mulch decomposes depends on temperature and precipitation. If you have to irrigate, do so under the mulch (w/drip, hose, etc) to help slow mulch decomposition. Most guides specify a mulch-free zone around the trunk to avoid disease, but in cold winters it’s probably better to pile the mulch around the trunk and then move it away as the weather warms.

You'll find plenty of "mulch advice" in online articles and forums. Good luck!

House remodel

This post isn’t about sustainable living in the strict sense: No rainwater catchment, or organic gardening/forestry, or chickens, etc. But it IS about sustaining ourselves—via a house that keeps us sane and calm while we lead our Terribly Happy life.

We knew when we put in an offer on this property that the house needed a major remodel. We accounted for it in our long-range budget, and were fortunate that the inevitable hiccups we encountered did not bring us significant fiscal pain (at least, no more than we were expecting).

We worked with Rainbow Valley Design & Construction, one of the premier outfits in this region. While they aren’t the cheapest, they’re really good, and we are really happy with the results.

Rather than go through too much step-by-step, I’ll provide mostly before & after shots, with occasional in-progress photos.

First, the floor plan. The upper diagram shows what we started with; on paper it's hard to tell just how user-unfriendly the west half of the house was.

The lower diagram shows what we ended with. It looks so clean and simple this way! Of course, it wasn’t. I avoided much of the havoc because I was in San José so much of the time, but Beth had to live with it constantly. She enjoyed it, for the most part.

On to the before and after pictures, with some explanatory text.
The view from the front door (location A on the floor plan).

We squared off and raised the strange curved arch between the two front “rooms” (partly to protect my head, but mainly for aesthetic reasons), and removed the top half of the wall between the sitting room and the kitchen.

The view from location B, not far from A.

We closed up a door leading into the master bedroom (and had the Tulikivi masonry heater installed; see separate post). Otherwise, the only changes to the east half of the house were cosmetic: painting, refinished floors, new bookcase.

The west half of the house was completely gutted, down to the exterior walls.
• Many interior walls were removed, with new ones built elsewhere.
• Most doorways were filled in, and several new ones were added.
• Many windows were filled in, and new ones added elsewhere.
• The pantry sink was removed, the water heater was moved, the guest bath was moved, and the master bath was redesigned, involving lots of plumbing work.
• All the interior walls were insulated (so was the floor, finally; what were people thinking?!).
• And some other stuff happened.

Including—how could I forget—a complete reconstruction of the kitchen.

From location C (door to sitting room) (yes, these are exactly the same view):

From location D (SW corner of kitchen) (not quite exactly the same view; unmoved doorway to front of house outlined in green):

Changes to the kitchen included (incomplete list):
• Arch removed, low ceiling raised.
• N wall (with master bath) moved N by five feet.
• Doorway removed/added in W wall; window in W wall of kitchen removed
• Island added w/propane line to rangetop and hood that vents through roof; oven is separate, against exterior wall.
• Old brick chimney and wood-burning stove were removed.
• Upright refrigerator removed; chest freezer modified w/simple thermostat to be a chest frig (works great!! saves energy, keeps food at constantly cold temps much better than any upright; ask us if you’re interested in details).
• A bunch of other things happened, but this list is long enough.

Some other shots before & during the remodel.

Old wood-burning stove and chimney: These, plus the visible walls and door, all were removed.

Some asbestos in the flooring. Sigh. Pricey hazmat removal required.

A makeshift kitchen in the front rooms. Using a campstove indoors for several months isn’t exactly recommended (“don’t try this at home” …. ooops), but it worked out OK. Beth lived with this the whole time; Richard was in a small apartment in San José most of the time, with a small kitchen (and nearby Thai restaurant).

Various stages of tear-down and re-framing walls and doorways.

A tiling master craftsman at work on the shower in the master bathroom, and the finished product: A little over the top for our humble place, but quite an eye-catcher.

Installation of the Marmoleum flooring in the kitchen. Each of the new rooms ended up with a different color of Marmoleum.

Installation of the “engineered-stone” countertops.

What can’t be shown photographically is how much more usable the western 1/4 of the house now is. That’s the home of a mudroom, hallway, guest bathroom, and two usually-empty guest rooms. So if you’re thinking about visiting, yes we have room!