"Steve Young" bowtieATbrightdslDOTnet wrote in message
...
"Marie Dodge" wrote

"Pat Kiewicz" wrote

Marie Dodge said:

My husband has a leaf-vac of the "same brand" (pulled by a large mower)
but a different model. He picks up all the fallen leaves and has for
years.

Why not pull it around in the spring too, when grass is growing well?
It'll give you green stuff for your pile. Collect spoiled produce thrown
out
from a commercial establishment or 2.

The kind of grass we grow makes almost nothing when cut. It's fine bladed.
It's not worth the effort to drag the huge thing around for the few pounds
of clipping he'd get. They're left on the lawn so we don't have to start
fertilizing it like our neighbors do to theirs. You keep removing the grass
and soon you have to start fertilizing your lawn. Fertilizer almost doubled
in price this year. Commercial establishments are not close to where we
live, and because of liability, will not give away spoiled produce. People
were apparently eating it themselves and not giving it to pet rabbits and
goats.


He had another one before this one, but it was too small.
We dump them on the gardens to rot down over the winter with kitchen
waste, weeds etc. In spring we start tilling the rotted leaves under.

I'm not in favor of this, uncomposted carbon will steal vitality
from your garden for at least 3 months.

We use it mainly for soil amendment, not as a fertilizer. It's needed to
break up the fine clay. I switched to chemical ferts this year. Because of
the high PH problem I can't use bone meal for phosperous/minerals or
wood-ash for Potash/minerals anymore. The PH finally came down to 7 in the
gardens. We can't get enough grass clippings or green weeds to make a good
compost mix. I don't keep livestock anymore nor do any of my friends so no
more manure. No more green cover-crops after that nightmare with winter rye
and clover. What's convenient where you live may not be convenient or
possible everywhere.


That alone will
lead to increased loss of organic matter in the soil.

It does, but the ultimate goal is increased carbon, which is accomplished.

http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/publicatio...s/sq_fou_1.pdf

Tilling too much or too little has no effect on insect pests.

Yes it does, less is better. It's said that recently disturbed soil
requires twice the nematode count per square foot to be effective.

And I read that exposing the harmful nematodes, insect pests, their grubs
and eggs to the sun and wind and cold in spring kills them in large numbers.
So more turning over of the soil is better. I don't buy beneficial
nematodes so that's not a problem for me.


The recent soil test showed plenty of organic matter. OM isn't the
problem.

Have you asked the earth worms?

Yes, they all said the leaves, twigs, shredded bark and chipped branches,
kitchen waste etc were delicious.


Resistant insects and spiders are. Pests are becoming resistant to
everything we're throwing at them.


They're not resistant, you've simply cultivated an inviting environment,
rather than an environment that's hostile because of natural beneficial
predators, i.e. BT, nematodes, beneficial microbes & funguses, or any of
these handy helpers:
http://www.basic-info-4-organic-fert...alinsects.html

They are resistant. Any Ag Agent will tell you about the resistance of crop
pests. Why do you think they keep developing new ways to fight pests? I
didn't create anything. God created it. It was woods until 4 years ago. This
is new garden that laid fallow for 2 years. It was never sprayed with
anything. It was organically fertilized 4 years ago with sulfur, compost,
blood and bone meal and woodash. The garden that year was fine with a
minimum of pests. It was very productive. No sprays were needed and none
were used. It's a shame the BT, nematodes, beneficial microbes and funguses
weren't pleased with these natural organic products. A real shame because
the earthworms loved it to the point the moles had it looking like a mine
field. What should I have used, something like 5-10-5 ?


Then you don't have the heavy poor fine clay soil we do.

Or has been working the soil long enough to have arrived.

This garden is only worked for the second time and never worked without
adding organic material. Each tilling or turning turns under organic matter
including partly rotted leaves, weeds and kitchen waste. Whatever is on the
pile on that side of the property gets turned under. Unlike you we don't
have sandy soil. We have a hard dry clay that's low in everything but
calcium and moisture.


Steve Young