r/Permaculture

hiya, I'm in 8a central Mississippi. I am impulsive and I saw the city guys trimming the trees and now I've got about a half dump load of mulch. My partner was not nearly as thrilled as I was by this acquisition and now I need to make something happen asap to justify this and also because it's just sitting right there... It's a mix of chunks, twigs, to pieces that resemble commercial mulch. So far we've put cardboard overlapping and 2 or 3 inches of this mulch on top of that. That place is about 14x14 feet and I've got a pretty good size pile left. And now I don't know what to do. Everything I read says it'll take at least 4 weeks to break down if I layer some mulch with grass clippings and leaves etc before I can plant into it. Is there a way to fast forward? Could I for instance layer some torn up cardboard with some smaller mulch and then put wetted alfalfa pellets down and then put a few inches of finished compost from the local nursery on the top and plant into it? I do have 2 raised beds that are 3x6 and that is where I'll try to build soil right now. I plan to expand the site depending on how far the mulch goes. I will buy some starts and some seeds and I don't know if that'll make a difference in how long until I can use the beds. I would like to plant some things like okra, and a few perennials in the spots without beds but I think those can be planted immediately since the native soil is just a few inches down?

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a time vs money situation, but given how late in the season it is what is the better option? I want to build fertile soil that will improve over time, but I also really want to plant. Does anyone have suggestions or advice? Thank you

Hi guys,

Just a quick question.

I am not into this at all and I do not understand anything, but I heard a lot of people complaining that they can not find workers for puning once a year because people do not know how to prune.

So my question is are there clear rules which branch to prune and which to not prune.

Not 100% rules but maybe some that apply to most of the branches?

I'm wondering if anyone has tried using something like this to separate nut and shell fragments from some of our thicker shelled wild walnuts.

https://realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html