rocks and compost on the site
- Subject: rocks and compost on the site
- From: E*@aol.com
- Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 21:59:46 EDT
In a message dated 6/20/01 8:11:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mygarden@easystreet.com writes:
<< When you can't go down, you must go up. So, like you, I start a new bed
by
making it my compost pile for at least one year. Kitchen scraps, newspaper,
chipped prunings, leaves, garden waste, rotted manure - they all go into the
pile and it isn't even turned much, just kind of muddled around. But by the
next spring, you can plant right into it and the plants take off like a
shot. It is very satisfying. >>
Marilyn,
This is the easiest and best way for me. If you think you have to dress up
the work in progress you can spread a few wood chips over it until it is no
longer on view. I do not use paper or cardboard to prevent the grasses
growing, I have not found it necessary in our short season - do you kill the
grass or use a barrier?
Anyone wanting a rock any size can stop by my place anytime. We have all
sizes including those as large as automobiles. The previous owner did some
goat farming here so cleared some spaces and made a few fields. Hence, we
have stone walls. Stone walls are fairly common in our area. In NYS they
are long mounded piles. In many parts of New England they are put together
with masonry skill.The best I have seen are in Rhode Island.
If we did not have the fields, we would have to deal with mature trees as you
do. I have sort of accepted the rocks and tried to work with them. If one
were younger than I am one might use this wonderful supply of native stone
for many artistic purposes. We had a two and one half story chimney built
from the native stone. The mason and his two sons worked for a month on it.
They had to spend many hours choosing stone as I thought having lichens on
the rock would be attractive. Do you have those rounded, smooth river rocks
one sees at the sides of streams.
In areas of the Berkshires and Adirondacks there are places where that type
of round smooth stone exists plentifully but is not used in building here in
the north. Masons have the most unmentionable names for that type of stone.
It was some lesson for me many years ago.
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
