Shelton-Mason County Journal - Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

A fortuitous coincidence of video and book gave me a notion to stack some functions: producing biomass above and below ground, holding slopes and making fertilizer in situ.

While watching Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski talk about alfalfa on YouTube, I recalled some advice from Patrick Whitefield's "How to Make a Forest Garden." Whitefield advised establishing "fertility plots" throughout your gardens and forest plantings.

These need only two deep-rooting, perennial plants to produce copious amounts of chop-and-drop organic matter for enriching the soil: alfalfa and comfrey. Mown or macheted, t...