This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Mulch and composting...this works for me

I am new at Square footing, as this is my first year. I am also new at
composting, but have gotten the knack of it rather quickly. Several
questions and comments came up about mulching. I also had the same
question. The books I read seemed vague, so I tried cypress mulch. It
was supposed to be bug resistant, so I gave it a whirl. I didn't like it
for several reasons. I didn't think it looked good; to me looked trashy.
Also, I noticed that it burned my strawberry leaves that touched it.
Finally, it could be my imagination, but it seems that my plants didn't
grow well with it. So I went with a gut feeling, pulled it all off, and
used compost instead.

As I said, I am new at composting, but once I understood the science of
it, I really got the hang of it. I can make usable, finished compost in
2 to 3 weeks, and now I put it on everything. As soon as I put it on my
beds, I noticed an immediate spurt of growth. My strawberries recovered
nicely. When you think about it, whatever you put on your beds will
leach into them whenever you water them, so why not compost? I have very
little weeding to do now, the beds look fabulous, and the soil can
always use extra humus. I just pile it on thick. It helps regulate soil
temp, retain water, keeps down weeds, and can actually help suppress
soil born diseases. And for me, it's FREE! We use grass clippings, the
neighbor's wood ashes, all kitchen scraps, and boxes of produce scraps
from a local market. Should I say more? I don't know why the cyprus
burned my strawberry leaves, but that seemed to be a sign of a chemical
that was a bit too harsh. Ideally, if I have time, I like to screen the
compost with a quarter inch screen to remove rocks or any debris that
hasn't been broken down yet. But when pressed for time, I used it as is.
I can always go back and screen the top layer of compost off of each
square after a harvest, and then mix it down into the soil before I
replant a new crop. This works great with carrots, lettuce, or spinach,
that are delicate and closely spaced. On flower beds, I don't bother to
screen it, because screening can take awhile, and I don't feel it's
necessary. 

Hope this little tip is useful for some. I saved the cypress mulch for
something else. Some excellent info on composting can be found in "Your
Organic Garden", by Jeff Cox.

Paula Hicks, North Little Rock, AR

--
To unsubscribe, send a message to: majordomo@lists.umsl.edu
with the single body line: unsubscribe sqft
Contact owner-sqft@lists.umsl.edu with any admin questions.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index