06-02-2003, 07:30 PM
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Adding Compost To Mulched Flower Beds
In article ,
(Fleemo) wrote:
So it's not necessary to work the compost into the soil? Top dressing
the beds will be just as effective?
I wish I'd saved the article because even I find it hard to believe
sometimes, but I read a report from a university horticultural department
that ran tests in their experimental gardens on seasonal topcoating as
sole method of sustaining & enriching soils, comparing the results to
soils that are enriched by upturning composts or plowing nutrients deeper
into the ground. Turned out nature's own method of enriching topsoils
functions equally as well as working the soil deeply with a shovel or
plow. I still have to suppose that soils compacted over time & other
conditions would require a deep reworking of the ground, but in general
gardens self-mulching from leaf fall, or given composts as topcoatings
only, will in the main sustain their own good soil forever.
Some natural processes in a woodland setting, however, such as those which
occur around deadfall & stumps, or somewhat transient, & encourage types
of plants that need an extremely high percentage of beneficial fungus. As
the dead wood breaks down entirely, the fungus levels thereafter lower
dramatically, & this means the types of plants that long grew happily in a
given location can no longer do well in their established spots. Deciduous
huckleberries for example thrive on & around stumps for instance, but when
the stump is completely reclaimed by the soil, the soil is no less sound,
but no longer of a type to sustain the huckleberries. Same with
burn-through -- the first plants to recover from a burn & become dominant
will like the heightened alkalinity from ash, will grow rapidly, & be
comparatively small things; they will be displaced by shrubs which will
dominate when the ash-caused alkalinity is rinsed by rains & the soil is
again acidic; & the shrubs in turn will loose their dominance when new
trees mature, or completely different shrubs that prefer shade displace
the shrubs that were there when more sun was available. To me this
suggests that nature alone will not sustain human-constructed gardens
because none are so fully natural as to be self-caring indefinitely.
Nature takes advantage of ever-shifting conditions permitting some things
to die out & other things to take over, in both short-term & long-term
cycles. So to sustain the example of the huckleberries in a garden,
decaying wood & the fungus it encourages would have to be worked into the
ground every few years, since even if topcoating kept the soil rich, it
might not remain the precise type of good soil conducive to the given
plant.
Still, overall, it was both a revelation & a relief to see that on
average, soils can be sustained by topcoatings & mulches alone, which is
good to know since so much of my gardens are woody shrubs & permanent
sorts of things that can never be plowed through as a method of
revitalizing soils.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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