TLDR don’t bury tamarix in the garden. It’s okay as a light mulch, but if buried it alters the soil. I’ve used mulch with tamarix before, so I just assumed it was okay to bury the wood.
Some recent reading states that tamarix decays slowly and releases allelopathic ooze very slowly, so it makes sense that I only started noticing new stress after 3 years. Furthermore, I already have significant salinity issues in water and soil here, so salt was probably building up fast in that pit.
When I dried out a soil sample it was super crusty with minerals and the texture was non-existant.
Only this one bed had tamarix. Other beds have some mesquite and cactus burried underneath and those are awesome.
I guess I’ll fill it and plant some halophytes over top…
Yay learning the hard way!
submitted by /u/sheepslinky
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