Dirt should never be bare. I observe yards, the strips between sidewalks & streets, agricultural fields, gardens, and wide open landscapes without the protective cover of organic mulch. Meanwhile people rake up every leaf, stick, pine needle, bark chip, dead weed & grass blade, only to throw them away. The nursery areas in big box stores are loaded with bags of mulch, top soil, potting soil, bark chips, soil amendments and even plastic mulch chips! The mulch is purchased and then laid on flower beds and around trees to look “presentable”. Plastic looking bark chips are not a soil amendment solution and will in time become unsightly. The purchased amendments (fertilizers, pH fixers, etc., ) are placed around the root zone to give some nutrients back to the plants. If the detritus was left on the ground as mulch, it would be feeding the plants and creating healthy soil without the need for costly amendments each year.
Where I live, people have been given incentives to rip out lawns to decrease watering demands & install landscape plastic or cloth to cover the area with rocks.
Rock lawns will always become weedy and collect dirt & detritus (debris from trees, shrubs, & plants). I watch the landscaping crews who cannot spend all day hand weeding these areas & cannot hoe the weeds because it creates a visual disturbance to neatly laid rocks. The hoeing can also ruin the cloth or plastic underneath, making it unsightly and inviting more weeds. I have seen first hand the poor root structures of trees and bushes that are trying to seek out nutrients under these layers of plastic & cloth. The dirt below the plastic is flattened and lifeless. This alone becomes a financial burden as the homeowner must now pay for the landscapers to come out and pull out the dead tree or shrub and replant a new one. Since landscaping crews cannot keep up cleaning every rock lawn after a weed event (spring, rainfall, etc…) they spray herbicides. So these no water “lawns” become chemicalized areas that are saturated with glyphosate (herbicide to kill weeds). This chemical is unhealthy to the people who are working on these rock areas and to the person who is spraying the weedkiller. Herbicides can harm neighboring organic fields or properties. Studies have shown that wind can carry herbicides a good distance and ruin other peoples crops and plants. It has also been proven in studies that herbicides affects waterways harming unintended plant life, as well as species that live in & along the waterways. It’s not just one household, its thousands spraying chemicals and those chemicals end up in watersheds.
With the world attempting to capture carbon and lessen the affects of climate change, I suggest returning to the soil and getting rid of the rock lawns. Rock lawns do not capture carbon and only allow limited water infiltration (especially if there is plastic underlayment). Rock lawns become a heat sink, and squander an area that could be used for food production, nitrogen fixing grass alternatives, or flowers for pollinators. Have you ever tried to relax on a rock lawn? Have you watched kids play and roll around on gravel areas? Have you seen native animals lounge on large gravel areas?
I’m sure you have seen rock lawns, driveways, or rock landscaped hillsides wash out after a heavy rain storm.
Yes, I understand that many people cannot physically work in their yards. However, having landscapers lay down cloth and pour tons of rock onto the area and then chemically treat it, rake it, fix water runoff damage, and blow off the detritus continually, is not an environmentally friendly or a financially feasible answer.
Large swaths of land have been reduced to dirt, nowhere is this more evident than in desert areas. When the wind blows, the dirt is picked up and taken miles away to another place. I have witnessed haboobs (large dust/sand storms) in Arizona. These massive storms swallow cities and travel many miles. I have also driven through dust storms where the visibility shrinks to the car before you on the road.
Yes, drought has an influence on these larger areas, but it is aggravated by overgrazing, large construction operations, mining operations, and the millions of folks who leave soil bare to the elements of sun & wind.
What can the average person do? Mulch open soil, create a living sponge, capture water in holding tanks during rain and snow events to use when conditions are hot and dry. Dig swales & catchment ponds to capture water and allow it to soak into the ground (see Post on swales). Create green spaces that actively use the soil, cool the surrounding area, and increase potential for food & pollinators, while protecting the soil from sun and wind. Use the water we have with consideration of multi-use purposes to feed green areas.
Mulched soils hold more water than bare ground. Mulch from organic sources (not plastic mulch) retain a far greater amount of water for a longer period of time than bare soils. Mulching will reduce the need for watering as the soil remains cooler and moist because of the upper layers of protective matter. The mulch is food for macro fauna organisms living in the soil (worms, grubs, beetles, slugs, ants, etc.,) which will convert the mulch into soil. They like this protected and moist environment to carry on their work. The nutrient rich soil which they have created, now feeds plants, shrubs, and trees.
Mycelium will also be found growing under mulch layers if they remain moist. If you find mushrooms popping up in your garden beds, these are the visible fruiting bodies of the mycelium. Mushrooms are above mulch evidence of good moisture content and evidence of organic matter. Mycelium share their nutrients with plants, shrubs and trees by their weblike structures in the soil. In the summer, before the heavy rain events begin, I will layer more straw upon my vegetable and flower beds to capture the water and hold it in place. Think of straw as a giant sponge, that can retain precious water. I read somewhere that a straw bale can hold 55 gallons of water!
Mulching:
Use mulch on lawns, lay mulch on flower beds, around trees, and in vegetable gardens. Mulch is a continual additive throughout the year, sometimes a heavy mulch, sometimes a lighter mulch (if laying over seedlings for instance). Seasonal mulch from “grass” cuttings, pine needle shed, leaves in autumn, coffee grounds, wood ash, bark chips, and a term used in Permaculture “chop & drop” all benefit the soil. Mulch needs to remain around the base of all plant, shrubs, and trees so that their roots can feed on the nutrients and not become stressed. I will argue that bark beetles attack stressed trees. Drought is a major factor to that stress but landowners who remove all mulch from feeder roots cause extra stress. Insects tend to be drawn to plants, shrubs, and trees that are not healthy. In the mountains where I live, Ponderosa Pine tree feeder roots are covered by asphalt, cement, or completely void of mulch. How can they possibly remain healthy?
Pine needles are aesthetic when mulching beds. The needles of the White Pine in the southeastern U.S. are coveted for flower beds and laying at the base of trees. Here in the hills surrounding Prescott, we have Ponderosa Pine. Ponderosa Pine is a tougher needle and slower to breakdown, but not impossible. I use many pine needles in my garden and even glean some from my neighbors who are raking them up into bags to throw away. (These I make sure have no rocks or dog poop in them). I use the pine needles in the paths of my vegetable garden to keep the walkways clean. After a while, my own foot traffic and weather events turn the pine needles into usable material to transfer onto garden beds. I will also lay pine needles on top of any new swale berms I create, so that the dirt can be protected from the sun. If there are exposed tree roots, they should be mulched with pine needles and/or bark chips. I have been known to sweep up the pine needles from the road that have been smashed by vehicle traffic. The smashed needles resemble coconut fiber and can be used anywhere mulch is needed to include potted plants to keep the soil protected.
Chop & Drop:
“The Problem is the Solution” is a phrase from Bill Mollison (the originator of the term Permaculture). The problem of tidying up the yard is that you have to prune the plants, clean up all the debris, and haul it away. “Chop & Drop” is the solution and turns a chore into a nourishing event for your plants and green space. Prune the bush or tree and then chop it into smaller pieces, right in place and lay it back onto the soil as a mulch layer. This process can be performed with weeds pulled, dried wildflowers or tall grass, and green areas that need to be cut back a bit, just chop them smaller and lay them in place or at the base of other plants needing mulch. This is all free organic matter that needs to go back onto the dirt to feed the soil. The only problem will become finding more things to prune so that your plants can be fed!
Now you may wonder what to do with all the larger limbs from trimming away trees and bushes……Well, you can still chop and drop all the leaves, pine needles, smaller side branches or shoots and end up with a large clean limb. The limb can be used as a brace for beans in the garden, or maybe an extra tomato stake when the plants become heavy, or maybe even a walking stick.
Perhaps a neighbor or friend heats their home with wood and would like your larger limb cuttings. Or tie them up and lay them by the street with a sign that says “FREE WOOD” and see if they find a new home. If the wood happens to be oak or mesquite or a fruit wood, you could give them to someone who has a pizza oven and maybe be invited over for some homemade wood fired pizza! We have a pizza oven & always joke with friends that they could bring over a few sticks to help with cooking!
I realize that some limbs are very large and very heavy and that assistance is needed from a tree company or perhaps a friend with a chainsaw. If you use a tree cutting crew, they will chip the smaller stuff and you can keep the logs or they will take them away. You can also ask for the wood chips for your garden, flower beds, or pathways as they have more chips than they can possibly use. I try to keep a pile a wood chips around to amend my gardens throughout the years. I do leave the chip pile alone for about a year to allow the rains and snow to soak it thoroughly. Within a years time, the bottom of the pile will have grubs and mycelium breaking down the chips.
Creating a green space:
A green space can consist of edible plants (vegetable plot or fruit trees & bushes), possibly native plants & grasses , or even herbs & nitrogen fixing alternatives. If living in a desert environment with extreme heat and low water usage, use desert dwelling trees, shrubs, plants, grasses, & wildflowers, etc. to cover bare ground. In Permaculture we consider that adding an element to your overall design should contain at least three benefits or mutual aids to other elements. For instance, a green “lawn” area (let’s say clover, chamomile, daikon radish, yarrow, & native grass) will have many benefits. This “lawn” can lower the temperature by a home, create herbs for tea, become a pollinator haven, the daikon can be pulled and eaten, it absorbs more water, it fixes nitrogen, captures carbon, and creates a place of respite. And, if you happen to have chickens or rabbits, they will enjoy the fresh greens.
A green area could just be edible plants with stepping stones and mulch. Planting an over story of trees and even high bushes will create shade and help limit the evaporation loss from the green area. Think layering vertically when creating a green space and don’t forget the area within the soil that can grow root crops. By planting the green area with these layers; a multitude of plants within a small space can all glean from the same watering cycle. Creating shade in desert climates is critical. Look around to see what seems to be growing successfully in your area.
Multi-Purpose Watering & Water Capture Areas:
I have covered swales in another post, but using other types of water capturing methods can increase green spaces without using more city treated water. The allocation of water resources must be reconsidered on a small scale by every homeowner. If precipitation is only a few inches a year, then creating catchment areas to glean runoff from hard surfaces (road, sidewalk, roof, patio, driveway, etc.)is imperative. Catchment ponds or sunken areas in your yard can be planted with shrubs, trees, or other plants directly in, or on the edges of the catchment. Mulching is still critical to keep the ground cool and limit evaporation. Rerouting water runoff may take some effort and creativity. Consider a homeowner who washes their car (with environmentally safe soap), and allows the water to drain in the direction of a green area to feed the plants. Use gutters to fill catchment tanks during rain events. The water can then be used during drought conditions to feed plants and not burden stressed city water supplies. An added benefit is that rain water is much more healthy for your plants than chlorinated city water. If you have a shower or bathtub that is located on an outside wall of a house, it could be re-plumbed to feed a catchment pond. The same applies to laundry water. An average top loading washer uses 30-35 gallons of water per load. HE washers can use around 14 gallons. That is a lot of water that could be used a second time to feed plants! If drought conditions are severe, consider hand washing pots, pans, dishes, utensils, & glasses in a portable tub placed in the sink, then taking it outside to feed plants. Make sure to scrape off as much of the food particles as possible so that the water is fairly clean & you don’t invite rodents. Again, by using environmentally safe soaps in all of these scenarios, the wash water can be used to feed green areas in your yard. In the past, I created a catchment pond from laundry water that became a habitat for toads and dragonfly’s as well as a place for ducks, javelina, and our wandering sheep. It fed a blackberry bush, peppermint, cattails, a few roses, a pine tree and a flowering plum tree.
As bare areas fill in with the help of native or wild grasses and wildflowers, just enjoy them while they are green and flowering. When they become withered, string trim (a fast version of chop & drop) and leave in place to mulch, increase water absorption, and feed the soil. If there are seeds from the grass or flower that you would like to spread to other areas, now would be a good time so that they are ready for the next rain event. If you have ever purchased native grass and flower seeds, this may be your chance to save money and reseed what grew for free. I have been known to look around at other “weedy” areas in parks or out hiking, for seeds that I wanted to collect for my own green spaces.
Brad Lancaster, a resident of Tucson has shared many of his ideas of rainwater capture and the abundant plant life that exists because of his efforts. You can find him on YouTube and TEDx talks. This is Brads website:
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/
In closing, remember that leaving soil bare to the elements causes erosion, baked & lifeless dirt, blowing dust events and loss of nutrition for plants, shrubs and trees. It also decreases food sources for wildlife, and increases the surrounding temperature. Each individual has the ability to mulch soil and can delve into capturing water and planting green spaces.
