Re: Mulch vs reseed?
- Subject: Re: Mulch vs reseed?
- From: s*
- Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 11:53:03 -0700
Hello Moira --
I meant to say it in my previous post, and then I forgot to, but I actually
thought you WERE suggesting compost, and that I was just elaborating on
your good idea. Nan seemed to be assuming that whatever she would use for
mulch would be something that wouldn't allow the flower seeds to sprout, so
when you proposed in your previous post that she "...mulch just when your
plants are going over but before they actually drop their seeds", I
figured you meant that she would be mulching with something at least
mostly-composted. ...Now I'm just confusing myself, trying to figure out
what everyone else meant by what they said, so I can write this
clarification of what I said!
I think you're right about the drying-out been potentially a problem, and
about dry compost being better than nothing. I'm trying to remember how
dry the compost gets in my beds, under the plants' leaves, but I really
don't recall. I assume that the hybrid and California poppies are
evergreen where Nan is, so she could compost around them in the fall or
winter, whenever rains start in San Diego, and the sweet peas could come up
through the compost. Or heck, if she does have a lot of mulch of some sort
that seeds won't sprout in, at that time of year she could go ahead and use
it, because, by the time the new seedlings sprout almost a year later, it
should be quite well composted. Would that work? It has the added
advantage that Nan doesn't have to do anything now, in the spring, when
there's never time to get all the garden chores done!
-- Susannah
At 10:02 AM 4/23/2001 +1200, Moira Ryan wrote:
>Susanna
>Compost is indeed a simple answer, as it is so much more concentrated
>and consequently an inch or so is all that is needed to supply the soil
>with the same amount of useful humus as several inches of loose mulch..
>
>The only reason I didn't suggest it in my posting was that it is usually
>recommended to apply it in hot weather only with a covering mulch to
>protect it from drying out, as this will destroy many of the useful
>organisms it contains. However, I guess if it is applied among the
>plants while they are growing it would get pretty good protection from
>them anyway and at the very least the humus will feed the population
>already in the soil and maintain the good texture..
>
>Moira
>--
>Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
>Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
