Ash asked whether we use a thick layer of newspaper on the paths to avoid losing soil nitrogen when the sawdust breaks down. In fact, we haven't used sawdust for a while. When we first set up the dome system, I followed The Permaculture Home Garden like a recipe book, and spent ages digging out the paths and filling them with sawdust (which we got free from the Queanbeyan saw mill). However, when the fierce wind came that trashed the original dome, it picked up all the sawdust and dumped most of it in the pond.
Since then, I've tried different approaches. Mandala 1 has a path made of bark (from our pine trees), laid on newspaper. It looks okay, but takes a lot of maintenance (weeding the path and debarking pine logs are 2 jobs we save for visiting WWOOFERs!). Mandala 2 has a grass path, which looks fine and is easy to maintain - I just mow it once a month and throw the grass clippings into the dome.
what grass seed would you recommend because we've just decided the same - probably the easiest to maintain and organic!
Posted by: Madeleine Murray | May 31, 2011 at 12:38 AM