A composition includes a plurality of processed leguminous straw particles having about 18-21 wt. % of particles on sieve #25 or particles measuring 0.71-1.17 mm and about 18-20 wt. % of particles on sieve #50 or particles measuring 0.3-0.7 mm, based on total weight of the leguminous straw particles, the composition being a mulch composition.

Applying sustainable approaches in the landscape of public and private projects in a desert region (arid or semi-arid regions such as Saudi Arabia) is crucial to preserve natural resources such as water. It is possible to design a desert public university campus to save 82% of water consumption while having a modern landscape. This modern landscape is more acceptable to the campus population than a traditional desert landscape. This is a sustainable native soft and solid landscape for usage in public and private spaces in arid and semi-arid regions. It supports the national and international direction towards transforming into green societies while saving natural resources, i.e., water. Decision-makers, landscape engineers, agriculture engineers, architects' engineers, and any interested person or specialist organization can design their own ideas landscapes following the soft and solid materials quantities and ratios herein with approximately 2.26 L/m.sup.2 water consumption rate.

Implementations set forth herein relate to using fiducial markings on one or more localized portions of an agricultural apparatus in order to generate local and regional data that can be correlated for planning and executing agricultural maintenance. An array of fiducial markings can be disposed onto plastic mulch that surrounds individual crops, in order that each fiducial marking of the array can operate as a signature for each individual crop. Crop data, such as health and yield, corresponding to a particular crop can then be stored in association with a corresponding fiducial marking, thereby allowing the certain data for the particular crop to be tracked and analyzed. Furthermore, autonomous agricultural devices can rely on the crop data, over other sources of data, such as GPS satellites, thereby allowing the autonomous agricultural devices to be more reliable.

A method is provided for producing a biochar solution. The method comprises the steps of collecting biochar particles, dispersing the biochar particles in a liquid solution and adding a stabilizing agent to keep the biochar in flowable suspension. The stabilizing agent may be added to the liquid solution or to the biochar prior to placing the biochar in solution.

The mulch spreader is a piece of lawn maintenance equipment that comprises a rotating mulch dispensing chute and a compressed air mulch loosening feature. The mulch spreader is wheeled and has a hopper that is suspended above the ground on wheel supports. A rotating dispenser chute is situated below the hopper and the rotating action of the chute spreads mulch over a wider area than a simply drop chute would cover. The motor that causes the chute rotation is powered by a rechargeable battery contained within the mulch spreader. The same rechargeable battery also powers an air compressor. Air from the air compressor may be used to loosen mulch in the hopper and to expel mulch from the hopper via an optional external hose.

A water and soil conservation and ecological restoration method of high and steep, abandoned slag piles at high elevation with large temperature differential in xerothermic drought valleys, comprises: preparing a mixed material; collecting and cutting a plant to obtain a plant ingredient; preparing a treated material; digging tree holes; planting; spreading the treated material, and watering. The water and soil conservation method adds gelling material for cover soil, and stirs to allow fine particles in the cover soil to be uniformly coated on the coarse particles to realize coherence, thus effectively avoiding water erosion and wind erosion on the loose cover soil on a slope and slag pile, reducing the cover soil falling into gaps of large slag pieces on the slope surface, thus controlling the water and cover soil conservation of a slag pile, and the scale of fill earth, and ensuring the survival rate and preservation rate of planted trees.

The invention provides a closed system for collecting, mulching and storing natural yard waste in a manner that saves time and labor. Storage of the natural yard waste is enabled by use of off the shelf bags instead of customized bags that must be later dumped into a generic storage housing. The system is empowered by a device that is attachable to such off the shelf bags and fully uses their volume so that maximum storage is achieved.

A water-retention and dust-suppression crop straw mulching method includes crushing a whole harvested crop straw to be 1-4 cm in length first, mixing the crushed crop straw with an adhesive well, and uniformly paving the mixed crop straw into a forming die for extrusion forming to form crop straw modules. A plurality of drain holes is on the crop straw modules. The method includes stubble cleaning and subsoiling treatment on the harvested farmland, and then performing rotary cultivation on the farmland to loosen soil, and performing rolling treatment on the rotary-cultivated soil by a land roller; paving the crop straw modules on the farmland uniformly in a densely covered way, meanwhile, connecting and fixing the crop straw modules by ribbons and connecting rods. The method helps to block the upward evaporation channel of soil moisture, reduce the evaporation of soil moisture, prevent the crushed crop straw from polluting the environment.

A method is provided for producing a biochar solution. The method comprises the steps of collecting biochar particles, dispersing the biochar particles in a liquid solution and adding a stabilizing agent to keep the biochar in flowable suspension. The stabilizing agent may be added to the liquid solution or to the biochar prior to placing the biochar in solution.

A ground cover in the form of a mulch, allowing air and moist to permeate, which includes a paper substrate originating from fibre-bearing pulp, preferably emanating from lignocellulosic material, which has been web-formed or sheet-formed, characterized in that the substrate has been impregnated with supercritical fluid, preferably CO2, alternatively a fluid under high pressure such as near supercritical conditions, wherein also one or more colorant(s) is (are) present in said fluid. Also a method for its manufacture and use thereof are disclosed.