Mulch Bed

Successful mulching depends on a good supply of easily acquired mulching materials. In some cases, a waste material such as fallen leaves or sawdust can be used, but sometimes it’s a great use of space to grow a mulch bed right on site, reducing trucking costs and your carbon footprint. Many plants can be used this way from alfalfa to clover to reeds of various types. Mulch beds are recognized as an alternative to or in combination with a regular septic system in many countries, such as Australia – there is some doubt as to whether they will be able to work in colder areas such as Canada and the northern United States. However, even if they’re not used to polish septic water or greywater on a year round basis, any water taken out of the waste stream and re-used in a mulch bed is a bonus.

Building your mulch beds in an area that you can guide greywater or rain water to in a similar fashion to rain gardens gives you the opportunity to not only clean the waste water through the roots of the crop, but the crop will grow much faster too. Some water isn’t safe to use for irrigating a food crop, but will be fine and have no negative results on a mulch crop.

Mulch beds can be grown anywhere that you have a small area of wasted space. Most plants grow best in full sun, so keep that in mind when planning your bed. Gravity will also be the easiest and cheapest way to move the water downhill, so plan accordingly.

Building the mulch bed consists of digging a hole in the ground, and lining it with a rubber liner, or concrete water trough. It is filled with drain rock and allowed to fill to the surface. The inflow pipe is higher than the outflow pipe, so that the rock is dry at the surface. Reeds are planted in the rock and the roots will utilize the excess nutrients. It’s been found that eventually, especially if a portion of the harvested reeds are left as mulch on the surface worms will move in to the mulch bed and assist in bringing more nutrients to the surface making them available to the reeds.

The mulch can be cut twice a year and either composted or chopped and used as mulch on crops.

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