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<br /> But we can turn junk mail into soil in a few short steps:
<br /> Step 1. Dig a hole or hire a hole digger.
<br /> Step 2. Fill the hole with paper and jump up and down on it
<br /> ikids usually ~ this part).
<br /> Step 3. Throw some dirt, or straw, or
<br /> · vceds, or pine needles, or manure, or
<br /> ~ometh/ng that'll rot, on top of the paper to
<br /> ~ide it and keep it from blowing all over the
<br /> adghborhood. Wetting the ingredients
<br /> renders them more 'al dente' (or chewable) to'
<br /> :he worms and microbes, and speeds up the
<br /> :onversion proces.s.
<br /> Many organisms will greet th/s mini-
<br /> !andfill as you or I would view a free lunch--
<br /> ,vith enormous enthusiasm. Snails, shes,
<br />~_~u~hworms, pillbugs, centipedes, crickets, beetles, mitez, and
<br />,rung/are some of the first paper munchers to arrive. Preda~
<br />5eon follow (spiders, toads, wasps, beeries, birds (chickens, for
<br />example), ~xmkez, along with various excrement eaters (more
<br /> mites, fungi, protozoa, baetoriO.
<br /> Step 4. Plant ~ or comfrey or rhubarb, and an apple tree (or
<br />a banana) next to ~e hole. Every morning on the way to the hen
<br />(or duck) house you can harvest buckets of ~nnilg whose h/Eh
<br />protein and calcium content make for happy b/rds and strong
<br />~ggshells. The plant~ will flxrive on the gently cascading rain of
<br />micro-feces and pred/gested paper, and you can return to tho.'
<br />house with eggs, flowers, herbs, and frdt.
<br /> Another variation might bo to put the paper in the henyard and
<br />let the chickens shred it. Worms, crickets, slues, piHbugs, and
<br />other paper eaters will feed on the du'edded paper at n/Eht and in
<br />the morning they'H become chicken brea~a~ (There are trill/°ns
<br />of ~ted scavengers that would like to reincarnate as
<br />chickens. AH they need/s your help, your garbage, and access to
<br />your birds.) Quit fighting this gon~ous urge of ~e landscape to
<br />feed the soil. An ever-ready army of decompeser~ are anxiously
<br />awaiting our contrilmfions toward their enhanced lifestyles.
<br />Good and rot/eh
<br /> Besides paper waste, there are big pieces of wood going
<br />begging: dead trees, lumber, logs, pallets, crates, old fumitur~
<br />and the like. These structural pioc~ can be useful in landscaping.
<br />Terraces, check/t~m,% compost bins, alld garden edge~ all benefit
<br />from .wooden reinforcement. If it's too derelict to reuse, and too
<br />wet or p, nl~y to bum for fuel, old scrap lumber or logs can be
<br />kept moist on the ground, in a hole, or in a perforate. A, partly
<br />svnken SS--gallon drum, and can provide term/re (or ant) treats for
<br />your whoh flock of chickens or ducks or quail or robins...you
<br />decide. Just toss chunks of the termite-l.nhabited wood to the
<br />birds (or to fish in a pond) and they'H go at it like a flock of
<br />typists, hunting and pecking merrily away.
<br />Just lay it down ' 7
<br /> And what about the amall~r stuff, like tree ~d shrub
<br />prunings? A chipper-shredder is not necessary. Most woody
<br />ma~int can b~ easily worked with a machete., a hatchet, and a
<br />bow saw or imming d~w~. The trick lies in knowing how to
<br />p/nc~ ~ tl~mm]n~8. If you've got e, nough space, a long, tall
<br />brush berm on contour mak~ a good shap~ for managing live-
<br />stock movement and reducing erosion. Lay larg~ pieces down
<br />first, overlapping ends, then weave in smaller pieces. Phce a
<br />stake upright every five W six feet on either side of the berm. Or
<br />try a brush check dam to keep your gully from eroding or a brush
<br />pe~.arJsquash trellis or a batch shade structure for youx te~nd~
<br />seedlings or a brush barrier to protect yoanE h'ees from deer.
<br />
<br /> Brash piles are great habitat for birds, toads, frogs, snakes,
<br /> and spiders as well as being outstauding condensers of fog and
<br /> dew, yielding as much as a quart per square yard of surface area
<br /> evvry foggy night, With the addition of straw and manure and
<br /> T~,-~r ~ water, brush piles can grow surprising volumes of
<br /> ,~,~,~-~- ~ potatoes, squash, fungi or Jerusalem artichokes.
<br /> Brush piles, like fence lines will, inevitably,
<br /> · . begin to incubate bird-deposited seeds while at the
<br /> same fin~ catching windblown l~aves. Your brush pile may
<br /> evolve into a blackberry mound or become home to young trees
<br /> taking advantage ofprotecfien afforded by the moldering brush.
<br /> Be aware that rabbits and mice ar~ attracted to brush and could '
<br /> gnaw the bark off saplings growing in it. Just remember that it's
<br /> all carbon, all food for something. And it's moving toward the soft.
<br /> Making the most of it
<br /> The real art in using carbon, however, lies in getting the mos~
<br /> value ou~ of it for ene longest time. At our house, we've found a
<br /> number of applications that match different grades of carbon to
<br /> their highest potential nse~ Ifa branch or log is thr~ inches or
<br /> more in diameter (and is fresh, green, non-toxic haklwood with
<br /> intact bark) we can grow shiitake, oyster mushroom;, or any
<br /> number of other delicious fungi on it for several years. Dead, dry,
<br /> or ~ds~.r~ged wood of lids caliber often becomes fu~l £or the stove.
<br /> But we also convert some of it to fenceposts, furniture, trellis,
<br /> poles, or carving wood. Black acacia {'A. melanoxylon), locust
<br /> (Robini; p~eudoacacia), and o~ge orange (Macl, ra pomifera),
<br /> for example, are excellent fast-growing fence, pole, and fuel
<br /> woods. Though they tend to become rampant, ~d may
<br /> overpower a small yard, they a~o grow back well'from repeauxl
<br /> cuttings, or coppicing. Like bamboo, these species are best grown
<br /> where people will harvest their consistent, long~ yields.
<br /> Craft material is one ofth~ most valuable uses of carbon.
<br /> Paper, for example, can be made from almost any plant, Friends
<br /> of re;ne, in north~n California, gather cut weeds and grasses let
<br /> after =aide mowing to sustain a profitable, village-scale paper-
<br /> making business. YOU can also grow yuccas, New Zealand flax,
<br /> agave, and malvas such as kenaf for your own fiber business.
<br /> Grow your own furniture
<br /> After you have developed a feel for recycling local waste
<br /> carbon, try growing your own. Coppice is a traditional forestry
<br /> practice whereby certain tree and shrub species, noted for their
<br /> inclkmtion to sprout from the stump, are manag~ by cyclical
<br /> pruning. If you work with hand tools, coppicing is the best way to
<br /> grow your poles, fencing, craft-, and fu~lwood, because you can
<br /> harvest it at th~ right size and avoid the effort of splitting.
<br /> W/llow, poplar, hazel, sycamore, oak, ash, beech, maple, elm,
<br /> tulip pople, r, alder, and eucal~ are a few of the many speclea
<br /> suitable for coppice. Most deciduous shrubs coppice well.
<br /> Willows, for e~ample, n~l~e gr~at cut-and-come-again basket
<br /> material, artist's charcoal, bentwood furniture, and fodder for
<br /> ruminants as well as yielding a medicine for headaches and a
<br /> rooting compound for cuttings and transplants. Coppice wood
<br /> can also be used for papa-making, trell/s and fencing,
<br /> propagation grafts of cuttings, and for mulch-
<br /> Everyttfing is mulch
<br /> It tums out that woody blom~s is very ~t for bu/lding
<br /> ~il directly, and different kinds have different appIicatiens. Fine
<br /> trimmings and small dlkmeter branches greatly increar~ humlc
<br /> mat~er in soils, and am very suitable for garden soil amendment,
<br /> while a deep mu]ch of coa/~ branches and logs provide superior,
<br /> long-la, ting habitat for the fungi that b~st feed trees. (I)
<br /> A 1997 study by the folks in the Quebec Forestry Dept.
<br /> coruinucd, page 5
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<br />THE PERMACULTURE AC'I'IVIST . ff38-A '
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