mulch colour
 

hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate that we
mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before a stint of
(unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.

knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours to
deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top of the
poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed areas are
still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't measured
due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is several degrees
hotter there than in general garden areas (where the larger plants would
ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all that stuff - but there are
no larger plants in teh veggie garden - it's just blindingly hot :-).
between the rows the grass is short & dry & therefore light-coloured, but
the throb of heat you experience walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable
nevertheless!

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening experience
where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have created an inadvertant
heat sink like this. the garden in general, the veggie patch in particular,
is struggling with lack of water atm & it's just making me sad, really. i
haven't been getting good germination this spring/summer, nor good growth.
there are things i'm just not doing because i foresee that they would fail,
& i should just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.

any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?
ta!
kylie

mulch colour
 

0tterbot wrote:
hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate
that we mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before
a stint of (unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.

knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours
to deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top
of the poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed
areas are still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't
measured due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is
several degrees hotter there than in general garden areas (where the
larger plants would ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all
that stuff - but there are no larger plants in teh veggie garden -
it's just blindingly hot :-). between the rows the grass is short &
dry & therefore light-coloured, but the throb of heat you experience
walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable nevertheless!


There is also the cooling effect of water evaporation. Darker green lush
growth feels cooler than lighter dry growth because it is keeping cool by
evaporation.

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening
experience where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have
created an inadvertant heat sink like this. the garden in general,
the veggie patch in particular, is struggling with lack of water atm
& it's just making me sad, really. i haven't been getting good
germination this spring/summer, nor good growth. there are things i'm
just not doing because i foresee that they would fail, & i should
just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.
any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?
ta!
kylie

In principle a lighter colour will reflect more heat but I doubt the
difference would be great. It will still be fulfilling its main purpose of
insulating and covering the soil. In any I case it would be better than
none.

You could always apply a thin whitewash of lime ;-)

David

mulch colour
 

0tterbot wrote:
hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate that we
mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before a stint of
(unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.

knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours to
deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top of the
poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed areas are
still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't measured
due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is several degrees
hotter there than in general garden areas (where the larger plants would
ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all that stuff - but there are
no larger plants in teh veggie garden - it's just blindingly hot :-).
between the rows the grass is short & dry & therefore light-coloured, but
the throb of heat you experience walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable
nevertheless!

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening experience
where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have created an inadvertant
heat sink like this. the garden in general, the veggie patch in particular,
is struggling with lack of water atm & it's just making me sad, really. i
haven't been getting good germination this spring/summer, nor good growth.
there are things i'm just not doing because i foresee that they would fail,
& i should just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.

any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?
ta!
kylie





Funny you mention that.

I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.
I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane
mulch to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

mulch colour
 

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
0tterbot wrote:
hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate that
we mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before a stint
of (unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.
knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours to
deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top of the
poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed areas are
still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't
measured due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is
several degrees hotter there than in general garden areas (where the
larger plants would ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all
that stuff - but there are no larger plants in teh veggie garden - it's
just blindingly hot :-).
(snip)
I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.
I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane mulch
to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

Otterbot has a problem with bloody choughs so I'd recommend rice hulls
rather than sugar cane mulch. Rice hulls are so tiny they seem to have
prolbems chucking it around. One thing I never knew about choughs till I
was told and then actually watched them, is that choughs only use their
beaks for chucking stuff and never use their feet to rake stuff.

mulch colour
 

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't
measured due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is
several degrees hotter there than in general garden areas (where the
larger plants would ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all
that stuff - but there are no larger plants in teh veggie garden -
it's just blindingly hot :-). between the rows the grass is short &
dry & therefore light-coloured, but the throb of heat you experience
walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable nevertheless!


There is also the cooling effect of water evaporation. Darker green lush
growth feels cooler than lighter dry growth because it is keeping cool by
evaporation.

well, that's what i was calling "transpiration". :-)

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening
experience where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have
created an inadvertant heat sink like this. the garden in general,
the veggie patch in particular, is struggling with lack of water atm
& it's just making me sad, really. i haven't been getting good
germination this spring/summer, nor good growth. there are things i'm
just not doing because i foresee that they would fail, & i should
just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.
any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?
ta!
kylie

In principle a lighter colour will reflect more heat but I doubt the
difference would be great. It will still be fulfilling its main purpose
of insulating and covering the soil. In any I case it would be better
than none.

certainly! i'm not sure a few degrees' difference is even waht you would
call a "great" difference - and as i said i've not actually measured it,
just going by feel.

You could always apply a thin whitewash of lime ;-)

i could just concrete the whole lot over, even g!
kylie

mulch colour
 

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
Funny you mention that.

I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.

feels hotter in the air, do you mean?

it makes sense to me that different mulches have different effects in every
way (including perhaps on air temp). well, i'm not sure, but have noted that
you've had a similar experience. (now we both feel more normal ;-)

I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane mulch
to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

oh, my garden's huge - i can't really afford sugar cane mulch on it :-(
(also, i loathe the way it comes packaged in plastic!!!!!! i hate
plastic!!!!!!! arghhh!)

what i was doing instead was using ordinary straw after it's been through
the chook house. it's a fairly light colour & while the sugar cane is rather
choppy & nice, i'm mostly pretty happy with ordinary straw, considering it's
so cheap & plus the chooks use it anyway. except the current batch, which
evidently got rained on at the shop. (sigh). which makes it fine for the
garden but if i can't dry it out & it goes mouldy i'll have to get another
lot for the chook house.
ta!
kylie

mulch colour
 

"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
. au...
)
I used to mulch with stable manure (mixed liberally with wood-shavings)
and it remains my favourite mulch to this day. Sadly, we no longer keep
horses, so I've had to revert to paddock-pickings (ie pure poo) to bring
home and rot. This feels *much* hotter to me than the shavings mixture.
I'd never discussed it with anyone before, but I think we've hit upon
something here. Would it be worth investing in a bale of sugar cane
mulch to cover the poo thinly and (perhaps?) reduce the temp?

Otterbot has a problem with bloody choughs so I'd recommend rice hulls
rather than sugar cane mulch. Rice hulls are so tiny they seem to have
prolbems chucking it around.

i've still not got round to trying a bit of that!! (am i not slack?) i can
think of 1001 uses to try it, naturally. i will get some!

One thing I never knew about choughs till I
was told and then actually watched them, is that choughs only use their
beaks for chucking stuff and never use their feet to rake stuff.

well they certainly do an admirable job with beaks alone.

lately i have seen some of those evil, red-eyed *******s lurking in the
orchard. grrrr! christ, they're a loathesome bird.
ta!
kylie

mulch colour
 

0tterbot wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't
measured due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it
is several degrees hotter there than in general garden areas (where
the larger plants would ease the effect with shading, transpiration
& all that stuff - but there are no larger plants in teh veggie
garden - it's just blindingly hot :-). between the rows the grass
is short & dry & therefore light-coloured, but the throb of heat
you experience walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable
nevertheless!

There is also the cooling effect of water evaporation. Darker green
lush growth feels cooler than lighter dry growth because it is
keeping cool by evaporation.

well, that's what i was calling "transpiration". :-)


Call it evapotranspiration then. Which is what we have right now, due to a
hot north westerly. Praying for rain for Xmas.

David

mulch colour
 

On Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:46:32 GMT, "0tterbot" wrote:

hello,

in retrospect, i am thinking now that it ended up being unfortunate that we
mulched with horse poo, rather than (say) straw, just before a stint of
(unseasonal for the area) hot weather with almost no rain.

knowing that dark colours are likely to absorb heat & lighter colours to
deflect it, i've been putting straw round the veggies over the top of the
poo (but as my plants are pretty well spaced, most of the bed areas are
still pooed, rather than strawed).

when i walk into the veggie garden, anecdotally at least (i haven't measured
due to a lack of a working themometer at the moment!!) it is several degrees
hotter there than in general garden areas (where the larger plants would
ease the effect with shading, transpiration & all that stuff - but there are
no larger plants in teh veggie garden - it's just blindingly hot :-).
between the rows the grass is short & dry & therefore light-coloured, but
the throb of heat you experience walking in on a hot day is quite remarkable
nevertheless!

i can't recall any previous time in my fairly limited gardening experience
where i've noticed that i seemed (personally) to have created an inadvertant
heat sink like this. the garden in general, the veggie patch in particular,
is struggling with lack of water atm & it's just making me sad, really. i
haven't been getting good germination this spring/summer, nor good growth.
there are things i'm just not doing because i foresee that they would fail,
& i should just put it off until a cooler/wetter period starts up.

any thoughts or comments on mulch colour?

You shouldn't use fresh manure on the garden. Let it compost for 5 or 6 months first.

mulch colour
 

mulch colour
 

On Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:24:21 +1100, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:

wrote:

You shouldn't use fresh manure on the garden. Let it compost for 5
or 6 months first.

Why?

Because during composting, some nutrients will be removed from the soil.

mulch colour
 

mulch colour
 

David Hare-Scott wrote:

snip

I wouldn't apply fresh chicken manure (it is better added to the compost
heap) because of the high nitrogen content as it can easily burn young
and tender plants but I apply horse anytime. This is fairly common
practice in some places and no ill effects have been reported.

David

Yeah, I've used it straight from the - ah - supplier with no probs. The
only thing I have observed is that it's better not to pack it too close
to rose stems. Mine got a bit soggy around the edges, but clearing the
HP away fixed the problem.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia