Use of Mulch at ECHO

Mulch is great for shading out weeds, protecting against soil erosion, improving water infiltration into the soil, moderating soil temperature, and the list could go on. We use LOTS of it on our demonstration farm. Illustrated below are a few uses for and types of mulch:


Vetiver under cabbage


Row of Vetiver trimmed for mulch
Hint: Establish mulch source close
to where it will be used.


Banana leaves under Amaranth


Corn stalks under corn
When mulch is scarce, residues
of previous crops can be left on
the field to benefit future crops.

More toilet progress

The composting toilet starts to take shape.

Progress continues on the composting toilet

Nate and Beth working on the toilet frame.

Our very own manure!

“Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

In a world where half the population lives on less than $2 a day, this axiom still reads true. At ECHO, we use science and technology to help the poor, improving agriculture techniques and introducing crops that are both hardy and nutritious.

But, we have no artistic pretensions! We've starting building our very own composting toilet, just waiting for some humanure (the Humanure Handbook is available in the ECHO Bookstore). This amazing contraption will evaporate off the liquid component of human waste (about 90% of the 'deposit'), then dry compost what remains.