"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
om...
"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
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"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
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The message
from "P&J" contains these words:
[...]
- hiring a shredder to create some mulch

No. Unsightly

Why do you consider chippings or sawdust to be more unsightly than the
faeces of a horse?

You don't put unrotted horse-dung on your garden. And not many people
would put fresh sawdust on, either.

and will in time take nitrogen from the soil.

Which is eventually returned to the soil with some small interest.

I'm heading for out of my depth he but surely cellulose is a
polysaccharide? Where's the nitrogen in that? And I thought lignins
were derivatives of cellulose... Isn't that why we have to add
nitrogen to get it to rot down, and why wood products rob soils of
nitrogen?

You've got me worried now.

All that sounds correct to my untutored ears. However, you left out the
ultimate stage: Ultimately the very last bacteria (??) to feed on what is
left extract the nitrogen which has been absorbed (from the nitrogen you put
in to aid the rotting process) by the fungi or whatever which did the
rotting and release it into the soil. Where else can it go to?

Franz