Re: Iris beds
- To: i*@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: Iris beds
- From: "* C* <j*@hotmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 17:34:23 PDT
From: "Jan Clark" <janclarx@hotmail.com>
>I thought about breaking the area into smaller beds. What size beds
>does anyone recommend that could be worked a little bit easier?
Hi Lora,
You might be interested to know how I prepare new garden beds here in
Australia. The soil on our 2 1/2 acres is poor, and the ground is very
rocky, but the grass still grows in profusion. I mark out my territory,
then put down thick layers of newspaper, and cover these with pads of
lucerne (alfalfa) hay, On top of this goes a 2 inch layer of manure,
with lime and blood and bone added, topped off with a 6" layer of oaten
straw. This has to all be hosed thoroughly, and begins to rot down
quickly. If I want a crop of vegetables out of this, I use well rotted
manure, otherwise it comes straight from the chook shed. It will be 2
years before this will be ready to plant with perrenials, so I plan well
ahead.
I am working on a plan for a large portable chook run, so that the
little tractors will do the early work for me. If you keep the chooks
well supplied with weeds, scraps and straw, they will work it into the
ground, and get rid of all the weed seeds and bugs. Then you move them
on to the next spot, and prepare the previous one for planting.
Hope this information is useful to someone out there - Jan Clark
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