Soil amendments - Page 3

 



If you are making new raised beds, that will be permanent or in place for a
few years, you can use the partly composted material. Google up lasanga
gardening. This is the process of building gardens using whatever organic
matters comes to hand. You could bung the leaf mulch on the bottom of the
garden and build up over it. You need to have several inchs of gorwing
medium (soil or finished compost) at the top of the bed. Plant in to this
growing medium & over your spring and summer the leaf mulch will break down
and be available for the plants to take up. This way you get to use the
organic matter in your garden but don't have to worry that it is only
partially broken down. I built a raised garden and chucked any old stuff in
it, leaves - used coffee grounds - grass clippings - manure - and topped it
off with some soil and mushroom compost. The garden was good to go in the
first season and has been productive ever since. Savs you time and energy of
tilling the soil and digging it over. Do it a little smart & the soil
biology does the rest for you.

have a squiz at these, notice how they use any old organic rubbish
http://www.fbga.net/Lasagna%20gardening%202004.htm
http://www.ourgardengang.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

rob

 

ooohhh I forgot about lasagna gardening.....  

I used the dirt from digging our pond to create the raised beds.  So find a
place to
dig the clay, rent a big cement mixer and toss the DRY clay in with all the
amendments and then begin to fill your raised beds over the compost and hay and
whatever else you can find that will break down nicely over time.  
anybody recommend rotten granite or green sand?
Ingrid

 Google up lasagna >gardening.
This is the process of building gardens using whatever organic

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Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago