Re: Soil and Bindweed
>
>It is surprising though how little talk there is on the garden lists about
>soil. Learning about soil opens up a whole fascinating micro-world of
>organisms, mineralogy, and quite a bit of good ol' physics.
The more I garden, the more I understand how much I truly need to learn
about soil. For example, I'm currently working on a book about lawns (hey,
grass is a perennial);-) and the basics of good lawns are good soils. Any
of you that are on Alpine-L know how often the soil composition comes up
when discussing how to grow some perennial rarity of other.
Basic border perennial gardens are much the same. If you overfeed Nitrogen
for example, you'll have some pretty dramatic results. The first is that
you'll become intimately involved with the concept of staking" as the
plants elongate in response to the oversupply of N. The second is more
subtle but by overfeeding N you'll wind up killing off some of the more
sensitive soil microbes. With the microbes gone, their normal food source -
fungi and bacteria - will thrive. You'll then have more plant problems with
things like pythium and rhizoctonia. So, a simple thing like putting a bit
extra plant food on your garden to "really get it going" causes problems
down the line with the soil ecology and ultimately your plants.
This inter-relatedness is why many people are now referring to the entire
thing as the soilweb.
Does anyone
>else have fond memories
Chemistry was a real gas,
>especially the day one of the class clowns burned a neat hole clear through
>his thick lab notebook with a blowpipe.
Nah, I was too busy putting the end of the rubber hose down the back of my
buddy and turning on the water. Or, having contests to see who could get
the longest flame on the end of the bunsen burner hose (without the burner
of course);-)
Doug
Doug Green,
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