Re: Soil Improvement -Reply
- To:
- Subject: Re: Soil Improvement -Reply
- From: W* G*
- Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 17:35:53 -0800
And when spreading compost you can also add amendments by sprinkling on
before the compost, such as lime, rock phosphate, the slow acting organic
type is preferable, and green sand, or bonemeal. With the compost on top the
worms til in the amendments as well.
-----Original Message-----
From: SUSAN SAXTON <SS@Schwabe.com>
To: perennials@mallorn.com <perennials@mallorn.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 1999 4:33 PM
Subject: Soil Improvement -Reply
>I try to keep it "simple" (that said with as little
>sarcasm as possible).
>
>Every year I order a unit or more (7 cu. yards in a
>unit) of yard debris compost or mushroom compost
>delivered to my home. In my mature and existing
>beds, I simply (ahem) cut off the dead perennial
>tops, trim the roses/shrubs up, weed if necessary
>and dump the stuff by the wheelbarrel load,
>spreading it with the back of a heavy rake, leaving
>it several inches thick. I do this starting in Jan. in
>my Pacific Northwest Garden, before things have
>"grown up" too much. By summer you can't even
>tell it was there, it has worked its way into the
>existing soil by rain and earthworms. I wish I had a
>technical, detailed brain that could recite to you the
>studies that have been done about how deep and
>well earthworms take down soil, etc., but I don't, so
>you'll have to find your own research ;^D
>
>In my cutting garden, which is more like starting
>from scratch each year because it has all annuals, I
>basically do the same thing: clean the beds, dump
>a load and spread -- but then I take the extra effort
>to take a sturdy spading fork and stick it in to its full
>length of the tines (because there are no
>roots/plants to distrub) and gently (on all but your
>back and arms) rock back the soil to aerate a little.
>I do not turn the soil over. I do this every foot or so
>to a fairly large area (17' x 22'), but feel its good
>exercise and I can vouch for the results. I do not
>ever till anymore and disturb the soil structure.
>
>Susan Saxton
>For mine is just a little old-fashioned garden where
>the flowers come together to praise the Lord and
>teach all who look upon them to do likewise.
>Celia Thaxter
>1835-1894
>>>> Barb Pernacciaro <bpern@idcnet.com>
>01/13/99 03:30pm >>>
>Here's a new topic and some questions for the list.
>After watching HGTV and all
>the wonderful LUSH gardens, I wonder if my soil is
>up to par.
>
>What do you do to keep your soil up to snuff -- short
>of digging everything up
>to amend the soil under each and every plant with
>compost, peat, green sand,
>organic fertilizers, etc.
>
>I admit to being remiss in digging up and dividing a
>lot of the perennials I
>have (bad back), except for an easy few that
>spread vigorously and obviously
>need dividing like the Siberian Iris which forms
>doughnut-shaped clumps as the
>middles die out. And then there's the Dictamnus
>which doesn't like disturbance
>at all. Many of my plants grow cheek-to-jowl next to
>others, each with different
>preferences.
>
>Is mulch which breaks down enough to improve the
>soil and provide nutrition for
>the hungry plants? Do you regularly use a fertilizer?
>If so, what kind?
>What's your favorite mulch?
>--
>Barb P.(who will have to dig this year just to get the
>sneaky grass out)
>SE Wisconsin, Zone 4
>
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