Burying Mulch?

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ladyshanny
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I mulched almost all of my beds in fall with leaves and chopped down plants as taught (living or dead plant material). Now it's time to top the beds up with new compost....but there was a post from Local Harvest the other day that gave me pause:

Many gardeners believe that crop residue must be incorporated back into the ground. For some reason it seems to be a natural instinct of ours. My grandfather used a sharp spade to double dig. Years ago in my home garden I used a rototiller.

But as we learn more about soil biology we're beginning to recognize the harmful effects these actions have on soil. Agressive disturbances disrupt the soil ecosystem introducing nutrient imbalance, pests and weeds.

Dead and decaying crop residue left on the surface, however, feeds microganisms that eagerly recycle and hold onto nutrients. These nutrients are released to a new generation of plants when higher level soil food web members consume the decomposers.


What I'm wondering is are we also doing a disservice if we basically bury that mulch material under a load of new compost? Or is the disruption of tilling under that is most damaging?
angelinab
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I'm not the expert here but I've been doing a ton of reading/youtube watching on this and since you haven't yet gotten a response, Ill give it a go... my understanding is that it's the tilling that's damaging. You're releasing carbon and disrupting the soil food web, breaking up the fungal networks and creating damaged conditions which weeds will come into repair. Leaving it all there and layering on top of it does the opposite -- keeps everything intact AND adds nutrients.
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