SLUGS!!! Up here in the Northwest we have so much of a slug problem that we have given in and put a collar and leash on them and take them for very slow walks!! I have been using Sluggo for 4 years now and am very pleased with the results. We have two dogs and I have never had any fear of them getting poisoned. I just make sure that the Sluggo is sprinkled UNDER the leaves of the plants and I do this several times during the season. Ref: Growing potatoes I have been growing potatoes in a well drained large plastic garbage can. I took a hole saw and made many holes on the sides and bottom. With about a foot of mulch in the bottom I laid in the first of the seeds (why do they call them seeds when they are just cut-up taties??). Then about six inches of mulch. I await the green plant to poke it's head out of the dirt about 12 inches and then I add another 8-10 inches of dirt. I repeat this process until the bucket is filled nearly to the top. I keep the can well watered and in an area where it gets shade in the late afternoon sun. Don't put a can in the sun. You will get baked potatoes before you can eat them!! When the tops wilt out at the end of the summer I turn the whole can over and pick out my spuds. Note: The potatoes continue to send out fingers of potatoes from the plant as it is covered up with dirt.

Buckster said: "Let me know what you think. I would love to make compost but I don't have a lot of time to get all the materials and I only have this month or so to do this and then the rains stop." I may be too late with my input, but I will offer my thoughts and hope for the best. Making compost does not take a lot of input; the main reason for all the turning, temperature taking, and other techniques is to speed the composting process. Compost made by creating a pile of horse manure and wood chips left to its own natural time frame will make compost just as good as turning the pile every +3 (three) days or more. It all comes down to a matter of time. Ingredients you pile up now will be ready to use next season if constructed in a general 3:1 ratio of browns to greens. You already know about how your environment plays into the mix of the process, thus one can take measures (cover the pile, add extra moisture, leave exposed during rainy season) to get the most bangs for the buck (excuse the pun). What you are describing in your post could be sheet composting. It has worked for years for other members; I see no reason it shouldnÂt work for you. I would tweak the process to fit my circumstances and go for it. I trust this helps in some way Blutranes

Ditto kimmsr's advice...but you may also want to consider that the roots to a cover crop are an additional level of ammendment. How about splitting the area and grass-mulching-turning under one side and cover-cropping-turning-under the other side...and see if you notice a difference in tilth, water-retention, productivity, etc. And, of course, report back to us on the different results [or lack of differences] BTW do you use the eelgrass for mulch in the summer? And, greedy me, I'd be tempted to green manure AND use eelgrass in a compost pile. :) /// There is a study from the Rodeale Inst. about the need for beneficial soil fungi needing roots as a host to remain active. I couldn't find that study, but the following link might help. ...snip....WeÂve found these mycorrhizal functions provide many direct and indirect services including increased agricultural productivity, improved water-infiltration and water-holding capacity, and soil carbon sequestration /// FOUND THE STUDY LINK http://rodaleinstitute.org/node/441 ....snip....Yet because endomycorrhizae are 'obligate symbionts'--they must have living plant roots to colonize in order to complete their life cycle--their numbers will decline under conventional agricultural monocultures, which have living crop covers fewer months of the year than organic rotations. The drop in yields typically seen after the first year of cultivation on virgin prairie or forest soils is probably attributable in part to the loss of native mycorrhizae, Douds says. ....snip...."Over-wintering cover crops. . . are very beneficial to mycorrhizal fungi," Here is a link that might be useful: Mycorrhiza

"I have no idea if cow manure left where it was deposited for several years, dried to grey on the top, but rich brown underneath would be considered rotted at all." Nope, it's dehydrated cow manure. Compost it before using. My "mulch test" for my food garden is that if I can drop food on it and still eat it (maybe brushing it off first, maybe not), it's ok to use. Manure, even dehydrated, does not pass this test. It's still poop. Hmm, mulch in Wyoming. Straw is a great mulch. Any tree trimmers in town? Or get a chipper-shredder? Is it too late to start a cover crop? Otherwise, yes, you can use compost as mulch, if you can't find anything else and you have enough to spare. The grass would be ok if it's dried out; you wouldn't want to put globs of green grass around your plants -- could get hot or slimy. A small concern, if you're using the lawn clippings to mulch a food garden, is that people may have used chemicals on their lawns.