Re: compost

Also watch out for commercial compost that contains too much ground up
drywall. Some is okay, adds calcium and gypsum, but too much prevents
uptake of needed growth nutrients.  Margaret L

At 06:13 PM 11/1/00 -0500, you wrote:
>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
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index