Tiffany ...
I think we all work over time to find what works in our climates and with our native soils to improve our soils to make our gardening efforts more successful.
>>>When it's 95 degrees and nearly that number in humidity, OM decomposes/'melts into the soil' in days. But the benefits of it last much longer, if the soil life is kept alive. I believe making various contributions often is the key to that. It's like lasagna gardening, that's never finished.
Since I don't have the kind of humidity you mention above, the OM I put on top of my gardening beds fries to a crisp and does not hold moisture in the soil. Nor does it decompose until the rains come as we do not get rain during the summer months. The incorporation of different materials along with OM into soils like mine is primarily to maintain the excellent drainage created by having different textures of material in the beds.
I wanted t raise the level of the beds I created, so I tried to replicate the texture of the native soils because that is what works in this garden.
I don't till either because I think, in my experience that changes the structure of the soils, but I do add OM to the top of my beds. Regularly ? No. I don't create enough OM on my property to do that. I have to drive half way down the mountain to a friend's oak forest to glean bags of leaves to bring home to shred to mulch my beds. I don't have much lawn left. I've been removing it to create beds over the years. I certainly cannot count on lawn clippings for a contribution to the OM I add to my garden.
This year, because of the drought and because the leaves dried up so quickly, I am going to the chipping pile to get wood chips to put over the shredded leaves I've already used.
If I followed your Ohio practice of putting down 2' of OM for my winter mulch, I'd kill every plant I've put in the garden because that kind of mulching would introduce the perfect environment for canker and other fungal diseases.
I think we have to adjust to the climate where we are gardening. There is no one perfect way.
I can say, until the drought, I had plenty of worms and the soil was very much alive. For now, I just want to keep the plants alive. The worms will come back.
Smiles,
Lyn
