Re: CULT: Adding sand as soil amendment
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- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] CULT: Adding sand as soil amendment
- From: w* D*
- Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 12:00:20 -0600
- References:
Hi everybody,
I have not ever lived anywhere that didn't have clay in it. I guess I learned how to garden by accepting new rules. But it does have some advantages. Clay makes bricks in the summer. I can move any plant I want anytime I want by prying it's brick up and setting it down elsewhere. The roots are not disturbed and the plant does not know it was moved, unless I chang the light it receives. Another advantage I can grow iris right next to daylilies and water each according to it's particular needs by soaking only the plant I want watered. The same goes for fertilizer. I can even grow cactus next to daylilies without rotting the cactus. I have noticed that iris do not appreciate to much coddling. To many amendments in the soil makes the soil easier to handle for the gardener but not for the iris who thrive on tough conditions. Abbandened farmsteads have the most incredible display of iris many of them over 100 years old and covering as many square feet.. Any way now that I am completely off track, My point was iris love clay as long as it has the nutrients it likes. The one thing I do that iris like the best is to get bonemeal the farmers use to feed pigs,it is cheaper and comes in 50 lb. bags, and spread it liberally on all my gardens. It will eventually break down clay to some degree and is more permanent than sand and peat moss, or any other organic material. I don't know why this works but I have gardened for 25 years since I moved away from home and I know that it does. It also make iris blooms much larger than registered. I watch my acidity, iron, and calcium levels but leave the clay the way it is for iris. Also using bark to add organic matter to soil can turn the soil into clay, Dad says nature know best and nature does not bury trees in the ground it allows them to rot on top to add to the soil or burns them. Dad is 82 and was farming before tracktors and pesticides were widely used. He also said bugs became a problem after pesticides were introduced into the environment with the one exception of 7 year loc
usts which caused the dust bowl. Dad's childhood home collapsed after the locusts ate the grass off their soddie and it rained. Just a tidbit of what man has done to the environment from someone who watched it happen.
Sincerely Wendy, Zone 5 40 plus today with sunshine and lazy breezes.
----- Original Message -----
From: dlouis@dynamicro.on.ca
To: iris-talk@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2000 5:38 AM
Subject: Re: [iris-talk] CULT: Adding sand as soil amendment
On Sat, 30 Dec 2000, Loberg wrote:
> Although I've heard several threads talking about amendments, pros and
> cons... most recently about the Humor in OK, one thing I've not heard much
> talk about... does anyone add sand or equivalent in large quantities to
> their iris garden beds? Not just a covering, but till it in? I don't
> need to because my soil already drains well, but as I think about those who
> say they have clay or heavy clay, I'm just wondering if adding huge amounts
> of sand (or course builders sand as Rosalie once said) would help. Not as
> a substitute for other nutrients, but to lighten the soil and make it drain
> better. Anyone with reports on using sand?
> Kitty Loberg northern Calif.
There was a discussion about this a couple of years ago on this list and
some people said they got cement if they didn't add organic matter first
like compost or lots of peat moss.
--
Diana Louis <dlouis@dynamicro.on.ca>
Zone 4/5 Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
AIS, SIGNA, Iris-talk, Canadian Wildflower Soc.
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