Re: compost

Hi Laura and all,
Bobbie here in Ma...

The deep compost beds that I have planted in, both here on my property, and
on jobsites have been doing great!  What was 10 inches is now about 5 as it
settles over the first winter. But the nutrients have leached further down
and the earthworms have traveled to and for mixing it up.  I find that beds
not walked on, stay fluffy and nice...roots love to expand there, and there
is plenty of oxygen. A ton of worms is evident within the first season.
Where they come from I have no idea!

Even on one site where I was doing a cleanup just today....
There was rubble - I mean RUBBLE! - stone, filler, subsoil stuff - drainage
material for leaching fields and two very old caved in cesspools or septic
cement things...and not even weeds were growing!!!!  Worms appeared that
first season within the compost <G>

After its third season, the plants are doing fantastically and will now need
a lot of dividing and tending too to hold them back into their designated
spots.

Within 'one year' the beds on jobs look better than mine after 5-10 years.
Why?  I didn't start off using this stuff but used to add bagged manure,
peat, and fertilizer. And I do not have the money, nor man power to redo all
my beds.  I do topdress some each year and last week spread another 4 yrds
of this stuff topdressing 1-2 inches after cutting down the perennials in
one bed. What 'they' say...sure is true...it is the fertile soil that makes
plants grow...farmer's gold, etc!!!

Where I purchase this stuff by the truckloads, it is commercial made, with
debris, manure, etc and is tossed and turned and heats up and kills off weed
seeds etc.  I had asked at one point what was in it, to make sure no sludge,
etc, and I was satisfied, but can no longer remember.

Make sure that you ask about the municipal stuff for sludge and other
materials such as lead (0ld house paint, etc)

I also, don't understand the meaning of too organic!

I also am aware that to make money some places STRETCH what they buy....

Good luck!

Bobbie
Bobbie Brooks,  MA    zone 6.5
Gardens In An Old Fashioned Way
http://daylily.net/gardens/bobbiebrooks.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Noble <laura@SHADOW.ORG>
To: shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU <shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 9:55 AM
Subject: [SG] compost


Bobbie:
Saw your note about using 8-12 inches of compost in all your landscaping
design jobs.  Do you add any other ammendments, such as manure or a bit of
clay soil to your planting holes?  Do you advise your customers to do
anything special to the beds every year?
Some years ago I read in one of Ann Lovejoy's books that she spreads a thick
layer of compost. even under trees, doesn't till it in and plants directly
in it.  In my late, still lamented KS garden I did just that and it worked
well.  The country hort agent, speaking ex cathedra, said it made sense.  I
knew that because it worked.
So then we moved to Cleveland, where I garden on 18 inches of clay over
shale.  Both the designer who planned my garden and the hort agent said to
spread topsoil mixed with some(?) compost as pure compost is too organic.
Well, I used the compost method anyway, since we are blessed with lovely
abundant cheap municipal compost.  My garden grows with abandon.
How your deep compost beds develop over the long term?
Laura
Cleveland, 6a, Indian Summer
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