In article , Charlie wrote:
On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:27:51 -0700, Billy
wrote:
In article , Charlie wrote:
On Thu, 6 Aug 2009 13:58:38 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:
"George.com" wrote in message news:h5bfs1
I'd not bother with the plastic and instead cover the area with
cardboard
or old felt carpet underlay. Whatever comes free and second hand. A
carpet
layer will often have second hand hessian underlay they are happy to
part
with for free.
Coffee grounds, food scraps, leaves, grass clippings. Chuck it all on
top
of the hessian or cardboard and leave for a few months & you have a
garden.
I think this system works even better if you chuck all thos things under
the
free top layer. I like to let the worms get at it and do a lot of work
for
me. But then my soil is rotten and hard and wormless so I also dig up
some
worms from my veg garden, dig a tiny bit of soil so thye at least have
some
soil cover and then do what you describe.
hmmmm.......doh. This makes good sense, in that the worms don't have
to chew thru the cardboard/hessian/whatever before they begin to work.
Same weed reduction results, but faster soil improvement results.
Thanks for the idea, Wormwrangler.
Charlie
I would suggest that you first lay down your soil amendments (manure,
rock phosphate, potassiun [wood ash, what ever]), then your cardboard,
or newsprint, and then cover that unsightly mess with the mulch of your
choice (I prefer alfalfa), then if you want to go full gonzo, spread
some green manure seeds (I'd go with rye or buckwheat to condition the
soil [make it looser], or some legumes to add more nitrogen to the soil).
In any event, the worms will thank you for it.
No disagreement witcha on this and what I have done also, but my take
and thinking, after Fran's post, is lay down a good layer of worm bait
and food, such as cooked rice and pasta, veggie trimmings
May I see the wine list?;o)
, rotten
fruit and trimmings, etc., *under* the cardboard, with amendements, in
order to give the crawlers a head start on doing their business, and
then continue with the layering. Just a slight variation on the
procedure to which we subscribe.
No argument, but I doubt that worms would see much difference between
cardboard or newsprint vis-a-vis leaf mulch, or straw.
As far as the alfalfa, one needs to find the right balance perhaps. I
think parts of my garden suffered from alfalfa meal overdose this
year. At least I had what appeared to be nitrogen burn on some things
that I likely OD'd with too much alfalfa meal and blood meal.
Particularly in my potted mix.
I've had the same problems with alfalfa pellets, which I use in my
lettuce patch, but with a much lighter hand in pots now.
Manure Chicken Diary cow Horse Steer Alfalfa Fish Emulsion
N 1.1 .257 .70 .70 3 5
P .80 .15 .30 .30 1 1
K .50 .25 .60 .40 2 1
You can see that alfalfa is almost three times stronger in "N" than
chook doo.
I still use it (pellets) in the lettuce, and carrots because I don't
want to bury the plants under mulch. Otherwise, I've never had a problem
with baled alfalfa as a mulch.
Charlie
The tomatoes are starting to come around, producing a little more each
day. Koralic came in first, followed by Stupice. Everything else is very
green.
Happy to report that we no longer need to put on music for dinner. The
crickets arrived two nights ago. With the stair lights on, it is nearly
magical outside in the evening. (We eat late.)
--
Racial injustice, war, urban blight, and environmental rape have a common denominator in our exploitative economic system.
~Channing E. Phillips
http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm