G'day,
Starting over again with my entire garden, after house renovations etc, here
in Townsville.
I'm looking at mulching the garden beds first, since the beds are hard dry
clay soil. Being on a budget, there's a tree lopper that sells 10 meters for
$100 which is cheapest by far. Later on I will get a better mulch for
appearance sake as well.
My question is, tree loppers mulch an open invitation for termites?
Barnsey

could be. Also, the newly chipped mulch nicks all the nitrogen from your
soil. Try a rotary hoe + clay breaking cowdung / leafmulch or gypsum to get
the soil friable. Then compost the beegees out of it with some mature mulch
then plant it out. What's good is going to a dry creekbed & getting a
trailer or 7 of the leafmulch from around the trees.
Good luck. Keep the area around your immediate house termite unfriendly
too. No wood lying about inviting the little joys.
Jock

"Barnesy" a.and.l wrote in message
...
G'day,
Starting over again with my entire garden, after house renovations etc,
here
in Townsville.
I'm looking at mulching the garden beds first, since the beds are hard dry
clay soil. Being on a budget, there's a tree lopper that sells 10 meters
for
$100 which is cheapest by far. Later on I will get a better mulch for
appearance sake as well.
My question is, tree loppers mulch an open invitation for termites?
Barnsey

g'day barnesy,

when i was in the burbs i bought it all the time i found it was great
stuff to use, never noticed that it attracted termites, but then your
garden beds should not be close up around the house anyway for that
very reason.

never experienced any nitrogen take up problem i have heard of the
theory but i think it is only when the material is dug in that it may
take up nitrogen as it breaks down but once it is broken down i have
been told all that nitrogen is given back, and being green chipped
material it is bound to contain nitrogen as well. any which way it all
turned itno this nice dark humus material that the worms loved.

so you only realy end up with the thin layer of chips on top in the
end i found i needed to add to it each year as it broke down i layed
it around 6 to 8"s deep, and always left a gap around the base of all
the trees etc.,. but natives and tropical alike all thrived on it.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://hub.dataline.net.au/~gardnlen/

"Jock" wrote in message
Also, the newly chipped mulch nicks all the nitrogen from your soil.


This is true.
The mulch with take nitrogen to help break down, however- the rate of
decomposition depends on the surface area of the mulch.
Because the micro-organisims work from the outside in, the more surface area
there is, the quicker it breaks down (and you may notice a nitrogen
deficency). This is why you don't use fresh sawdust on gardens (composted
sawdust is fine to use), with such a large surface area it breaks down so
fast it will draw out all avalible nitrogen causeing a deficency.
With woodchip the rate of decomposition is much slower (because it has a
smaller relative surface area because of the larger chips) and most likley
not present you with any problems.
You can add nitrogen (I use lawn fertilizers) but becareful as all the
nitrogen added will eventully become avalible to the plants, and it may be
at toxic levels.

Dave