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Old 12-03-2011, 07:20 AM posted to rec.gardens
Billy[_10_] Billy[_10_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
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Default how to make soil amendments without digging up the yard?

In article ,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
Billy wrote:
In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

Billy wrote:

Add pulverized egg shells (put in blender with some water) to your
lawn. Egg shells breakdown slowly, so you won't get a quick
response, but they will break down eventually.


Get serious. Ted already has enough goofy advice. If the lawn is
no bigger than 3m square and he has 5 years to wait this is a good
idea.

David

Explain your goofy response.


I appreciate your aim of re-use and recycle but in this case it isn't
practical.

How many eggs do you have to eat to get enough shell to spread on a yard?
Sure it depends on the size of the yard but we are talking about some
kilos of egg shell.

How fine can you grind it? Not very fine without a mill. Fine garden
lime or gypsum will take months to work, ground shell will be much coarser
and take years.


IMO, if the OP wants to add calcium, all he/she needs to do is to just find
someone who still has a wood burning fireplace/heater, then s/he could just
spread the seived ash which contains calcium. It should be spread thinly
like icing sugar (confectioner's sugar in USian) on the top of a Victoria
Sponge cake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_ash

For nitrogen I'd spread 'your friend and mine' - good old blood and bone.


And you get this from where?, he said with reservations.

In the mean time, I found:
Lucerne - Primarily a plant source of nitrogen, Alfalfa Pellets (5-1-2)
also contains trace minerals and triacontanol, a plant growth promoter.

I use lucerne for my mulch. Makes me proud.

But for nitrogen look at http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm
and then look at the price, before you buy.
--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/3/7/michael_moore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkDikRLQrw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyE5wjc4XOw