Re: no-till
barbara sargent wrote:
>
> Last year was my first for no-till and I'm about to prepare again since I
> can't do much winter veggie gardening (lack of sun).
>
> There's been some talk in the organic group indicating that compost
> shouldn't be spread in the winter. Perhaps it's different in our Med
> climates? I'm in Berkeley. Anyway, last year, I forget when - perhaps
> around early Nov. - I put down newspaper, a layer of compost and mulch
> over that. It seemed to work pretty well but now I'm wondering if I should
> be waiting until February to put down the compost and just put down mulch
> instead.
>
Barbara
The one ingredient of compost which is pretty soluble is nitrogen and
unless there are plants present to take it up, much of it will simply
leach deeply into the soil and be lost.
So, if you are not growing a crop in the bed over winter you would do
much better to keep the compost safely under cover until spring and just
put on the mulch for the time being. Your young spring growth will then
certainly take up that nitrogen eagerly before it can escape..
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
