FarmI wrote:
"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
IME, horse poo really *is* the nectar of the gods! It breaks down
easily, is easy to handle, is moderately available (there's always a
pony club or horse-mad teenager somewhere nearby) and, best of all, it
doesn't smell too bad.

:-)) I don't think any poo used in the garden smells bad, but then Himself
regularly says I have a shit fetish as I yet again enthuse about the value
of poo for the garden.
In years gone by, I was able to use the shovellings from our own stables
(wood-shavings with poo) and that's the best fertiliser/mulch combo I've
ever struck. Did no end of good to me roses as well as the few veggies I
was growing at the time. I dislike cow-poo for purely subjective
reasons: it smells bad (to my nose, anyway) and it behaves like
ready-mix concrete, forming nasty little tam o'shanters on hitting the
ground and then crusting over to fool you into believing it's safe to
pick up in your hands. Hah! Forget cow-poo!

:-)) You just need more experience or a short handled shovel. I like cow
poops but since our cattle camp rather a long way from where my garden is,
and it's a pain to colect individual plops in the paddock rather than from
the cattle camping area, i don't use as much cow poop as I do horse.
I wouldn't use carnivore-poo, simply because I'm aware of the nasty
parasites that can live in it (much worse, IMHO, than those occuring in
herbivore-poo). Of course, the fact that my dog and cat both enjoy
leaving gratuitous deposits on my rose garden doesn't fill my heart with
song, but there y'go: y'can't win 'em all.

Something deep in my soul balks at using hay for mulch. The fact that
some poor, starving animal could be surviving on it stops me from
spreading it over my soil.

It depends on the hay and I think we've been using that term more loosely
here than perhaps we should have done. Lucerne hay is not good animal
food - it's like feeding chocolate to children - more nutrient value than is
needed and really should only be used for animals that need to be tempted to
eat. Meadow hay is the best herbivore food and that is the one hay that
really should only be used for animals. Hay that really is straw, is fine
to use in the garden because it might only be eaten by starving animals and
then you'd need so much supplimentation for them to digest it that you'd be
better spending the money on meadow hay. Straw is good garden muclh and
other than that is really only good for animal bedding or nest boxes for
chooks.

Instead, I've recently graduated to using
sugar-cane mulch and it's reasonably OK. It plays merry-harry with me
asthma (dust), but it's doing a pretty good job of preserving soil
moisture for me, so it'll do for now. I've used straw and it's OK too,
but breaks down surprisingly quickly. I've often thought it'd be great
to be able to whack it through a chaff-cutter and make it a bit more
friable, IYKWIM.

I too don't mind the sugar cane mulch and I agree about that bloody dust!
Newcastle, NSW, Australia


hello all

Just a quick question about Australian natives. I have an area of my
garden that is very over planted with Australian natives is it possible
to replant them in another area or is that a waste of time as i was told
they don't like being moved and rarely survive.

abigail