CONTROLLING EROSION

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Mulch. Once you discover sheet erosion, don't waste too much time either admiring it or bemoaning it. Get the right mixture of seeds, put them in a wide, shallow basket, and go skipping across your meadows like Ceres strewing the seed. Be joyful — and the seed, the land, and perhaps the universe will respond to your joy.

In most places you can seed and forget. But if the soil is loose and unstable, or if it is so hard that you're afraid the seed will wash off, or if the slope is exceptionally steep, you should apply a mulch after you've seeded. A light covering of mulch does wonders. It cushions the impact of the raindrops, like those blades of grass, and allows the water to settle in gradually. It creates a network of little dams on the ground that impound the water and prevent it from getting a running start down the hill. It absorbs water. And as it decays, it adds organic matter that eroding land usually needs so desperately.

But remember: Underneath the mulch are seeds, and you want to encourage, not smother, their growth. So keep the mulch covering thin — no more than an inch or two — and avoid any mulch that tends to mat down.

Straw is far and away the best mulch you can get for erosion control. But don't be too fussy; other mulches also work very well.

Brush mats. Brush mats are for really nasty places — places where you want to use a mulch but where the slope is so steep that you're afraid a loose mulch will wash down the hill. Believe me, an eroding hillside with a huge pile of soggy mulch at its base is a nightmarish sight. The way to avoid it is to use brush as your mulch and tie the brush together into mats.

To make a brush mat, first lay two wires parallel to each other on the ground, about two feet apart. Lay the brush over the wire. If you use fir boughs or pine boughs, pile them very thin; otherwise, they'll smother the seed. If you use sparser chaparral brush, you can make the mats as much as six inches thick.

After you arrange the brush over the wires, bring the wires back over the top of the brush. Use baling wire to connect the upper and lower strands of wire. Pull them tightly together and tie them off, making a connection every six inches or so. The loose ends can be twisted tight with pliers.

You now have a brush mat that will hold together very effectively, even on quite steep slopes. If you want to be extra safe, you can stake your brush mats down to the ground — preferably with sproutable, rootable stakes.

Contour trenches. Here is still another technique you can use in addition to mulching. If by some chance you don't have any mulch, you can sometimes use this technique instead of mulching.

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