"Franz Heymann" wrote in message ...
"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
om...
Rusty Hinge wrote in message
...
[...]
But beware of sawdust if you are averse to fungi appearing......

And it needs to be completely rotted before it goes in: wood needs a
lot of nitrogen to rot, and will take it out of your soil, which
doesn't seem to have much in the first place. If the stables are
mucked out very often, there may not be enough dung and urine to do
the job without a bought-in nitrogen source.

What's wrong with that? Ultimately you get the benefit of this "investment"
in nitrogenous fertiliser. Besides, pee is free.

You'd have to drink even more than I do (and I wouldn't advise it) to
make a big difference! Remember, we're planning to condition the soils
of a whole garden, not just a couple of beds. The sandy area will
remain hungry for years even with generous treatment: you mentioned
how you wanted much more stuff for your own sandy former garden.

Sure, bought-in urea, dried blood, ammonium sulphate, or whatever is
certainly an investment, and a good one: but the enquirer needs to
know that if he uses sawdust he'll have to *make* that investment, and
manage it reasonably well, or the sawdust will do more harm than good.

Mike.