"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
. au...
"0tterbot" wrote in message
"Linda" wrote in message

I know some swear by chook poo, some seasol,
personally I can't find anything better than blood and bone.

Linda (Perth)

well, i don't know, because it all depends! :-)

i like blood & bone because you can just throw some around when you think
of it, in a not-a-hassle type of way. but, it won't add any bulk organic
matter to the soil if one's soil lacks humus (e.g. mine), so it's
certainly not the Answer To Everything - it will never actually _improve_
your soil.

in terms of fertilising in general, good soil with lots of humus needs
much less of that, which is where i'd like to be. (one day).

So what are you doing to increase your humus level Otter?

well, i've been mulching like a ******* & i'm getting there (slowly!) :-)

i REALLY like horse poo. i think it's a good mulch as well as the fact it
breaks down & goes in pretty rapidly (which is tiresome to reapply, of
course, but that is the point!) i've been waiting on another trailer load
from the stables but it hasn't appeared yet (monsieur has been busy). and as
an aside, i like to mix it in with potting mix for pots, too, i reckon it
makes the potting mix so much more moist & well-structured.

i use the poo-and-straw mix from the chooks as much as possible - limited to
some degree by my laziness & quantity of poo available from only 10 birds.
ideally, i compost it in a nice moist pile, regularly turned, for a while
first, but i also just dump it on empty beds to age & break down by itself,
& i will also dump it between plants, trying to avoid the root zone as it's
pretty fresh. i know one is not supposed to do that, but i do, and i've not
had anything die from doing that (that i could identify).

we also use leaves (collected from town in autumn as a rule - we haven't
many deciduous trees & quite frankly they can use their own leaves - _i'm_
not going to collect them to put elsewhere!) i've been known to organise
grass clippings & so forth, but as i said, one of my big battles is against
my own laziness :-) i no longer have neighbours who mow the grass & collect
all the clippings in a pile & give it to us, so that's an option lost to me
now. (bizarre garden behaviour on their part, but it was very handy for me!)

when something needs mulching but there's no poo to be had, i just use
straw. again, it breaks down quickly. i wish i could justify the expense of
hay or pea straw, because i'm sure it would really help, but i can't really
g, so ordinary straw just has to do at this point. because i tend to mulch
fairly thinly & all year around, i just spread the available substance
amongst whatever needs mulching.

have a few BIG beds for veggies down the back where i've been using
newspaper held down with either straw mix, or just with boards, to keep the
weeds out basically & supply a bit of nutrition while waiting. (i try to
remember with this to spread some blood & bone first). done properly, this
is a really good method to keep a space organised while it's empty for a
long time. done not-quite-properly, you can get newspaper blowing
_everywhere_ when it's windy!! that doesn't bother me but it's best not to
have to do soemthing all over again, i reckon. (i have some failed newspaper
areas i have to do again, which is bothering me atm ;-) this is also good
for a bed which has spaced-apart items in it - the spaces are covered by
newspaper, & the whole lot mulched over with straw mix or whatever else is
available. it's not so good for planting things through, it's best done
afterwards i reckon.

i would really like a constant supply of large-herbivore poo on the
premises, but i'm not getting any large herbivores any time soon. maybe one
day. :-)

compost has been something of a disappointment to me so far - we just can't
seem to get both quality & quantity. we use compostibles from a cafe, so
there's quite a bit, but it takes a long time to get anything at all. mainly
we have tended so far to use it when still lumpy, more as a mulch than mixed
in. so i feel i can't really comment about compost in this context. i feel
fairly sure that we haven't enough nitrogenous materials in it, as we give
spare greens to the chooks, mostly. it's up to dh to do as i gave that job
to him, & he's struggling with it a bit (lack of time, knowledge &
inclination). might have to start adding in chook poo or soemthing to get it
going better, & it would be good to be adding in grass clippings or
something. and sadly, my comfrey seems to have died (!)

that pretty much sums up my mulching behaviour (and wasn't it long?!!). does
anyone have any other thoughts?
kylie