mulch in the sahel...raised vs. sunken beds
Edna M Weigel (eweigel@juno.com)
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 15:46:13 -0700
Bargyla wrote:
(snip)
> Gathering leaves, mounding to make raised beds,
> wouldnot ever be done--just too much effort.
(snip)
It sounds to me like the sahel is a desert or at least arid land.
If so, I wouldn't suggest a raised bed. Sunken beds work so much better
where water is hard to come by. Even the Master Gardeners in Phoenix and
Tucson can quote the reason why serious gardeners MUST have raised beds;
to get the soil to dry out and warm up faster in the spring. Too bad
that some of them haven't figured out that drying out and warming up
faster in the spring ISN'T desirable in the desert. I am constantly
amazed when someone here in the desert talks about gardening plans and
says something like, "We're going the whole nine yards--raised beds and
everything--just as soon as we can get them built." That means they've
read all the books written in other parts of the country. I agree with
Dennis' recommendation of Bill Mollison's Permaculture book.
Best regards, Edna
___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail