Today I have even more evidence that roof shingles are good mulch. I
had about 30 containers of white-willow cuttings in large plastic pots
that I water each day. But since the drought is upon our area I took
some roof asphalt shingles and divided them into smaller strips in
order to fit into the top of the pot leaving a gap to water. I did this
for 15 of the 30 pots and the result is that of the 15 covered with
roof shingles there are 3 of them today that have taken root and
throwing up new leaves. As for the other 15 pots not a single one of
them has shown signs of forming roots and new leaves. So I covered the
other 15 with roof asphalt shingles.

Another evidence of proof is that of my 25 apricot trees one of them is
the tallest and dark green whereas the others are showing signs of the
drought stress. But this tallest tree is the tree where I simply
placed bundles of roof shingles to be later used and spread on other
plants. So what happened was that because this particular apricot tree
had its ground covered completely with many tar shingles that it
benefited the tree the most and it grew the tallest and not stressed by
the drought. It is about 20 feet tall and I pulled away some of the
bundles today to see the condition of the soil and as I pulled away the
lowest layers of shingles the soil was moist even though it has not
rained for approx 5 weeks.

The plants most affected in my orchards are currants and rhubarb. In
the last 2 days I was able to apply more asphalt roof shingles to my
currants and rhubarb and after I do, I apply about 2.5 gallons of water
to the plant. The currants given this treatment of mulch and water are
robust green and not shriveled leaves. The currants I have not gotten
to as of yet are shriveled. Tomorrow I hope to treat the last remaining
currants.

Today and the day before I covered the tomatoes that were planted
inside the holes of concrete block. So the application of tar roof
shingles is straightforward of abutting a shingle up against the block.
And I did not have time to water those tomatoes, just mulch them. And
when I examined those tomatoes today, they were not shriveled and
seemed to have revived simply on the mulch application. I think what
happened was that the mulch slowly kills the grass that the shingle
covers and in the process of killing the grass releases moisture from
the grass back into the soil which the tomato is benefiting.

I am convinced that the way to combat drought is not just pure watering
but a combination of mulching and watering. And the plant needs less
water once a mulch is applied. And the mulch itself is more important
than the water because the mulch retains the moisture in the soil from
evaporating away.

I have a feeling or impression that like tar paper pots, that tar roof
shingles are the best mulch in the world because they last for years,
retain moisture and condition the soil pH and do not hinder lawnmowing.
Trouble with the old mulches is that they never provided the water
retention that tar shingles provide.

Lastly, I want to mention that the best raspberries I have ever grown
was some hedge row of raspberries that inadvertently I had discarded
old roof tar shingles and those raspberries seemed to have loved that
pile of roof shingles.
My only trouble with raspberries is that I cannot cover them too much
with roof shingles because the new runner plants need to penetrate the
surface.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies