Charcoal Agriculture - Biochar - Amazonian Dark Earth - Terra Preta

Here's a long thread with lots of sites and info at the Aussie Permie site: http://forums.permaculture.org.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1775

There's so much info that I haven't been able to keep up with it.


DaveT: Use organic mulch. Mulch retains soil moisture, prevents weed seeds from sprouting, breaks down into soil nutrients, prevents soil from splashing onto leaves and fruit.

Buy several bales of straw. If you have any chickens, give it to them first, and they'll clean out most of the seeds. Put it down kind of thin around small plants, and build it up as they grow, to about 8" or so. It's easier to handle if you run it through a chipper/shredder first, but you don't have to. Putting it on top of cardboard works well to kill weeds without digging them up. When putting your garden to bed in fall, cover the beds with a thick straw mulch for the winter. In spring, just rake back the mulch and plant -- usually no need to dig, weed, till, plow, etc, as the earthworms have been doing it for you all winter and it looks like chocolate cake.

Sue