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15-02-2012, 08:27 PM
posted to uk.rec.gardening
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Puzzling soil test result
Janet wrote in
: In article , says... I may be worrying too much about the nutrient content. Rain will leach out nutrients over time, and plants take them up; so they are a diminishing resource and to keep cropping the same soil gardeners have to replace the lost nutrients. There is no instant, lasting one-off solution, look on it as a permanent program of soil improvement.To redress the stony alkaline soil you have I'd recommend copious amounts of homemade compost (which tends towards acidic); so start thinking where you can obtain large amounts of vegetable matter and manure to make it with. Thanks for the tip. Luckily I have an abundant source of free hoss poo. There is about one ton of it currently composting in t'garden. When I dig it in to t'veggie patch next autumn, I will start a new compost heap for the following year. I did plant a few vegetables last year: tomatoes and beans and broccili, and they grew perfectly healthily. Weeds absolutely LOVE the soil here. There is one weed (something edible, and related to celery, I'm told), with very deep tuberous roots, that I have been at war with constantly. The roots go so deep that it is almost impossible to dig them out. My latest battle-plan has been to use weed killer. We'll see if that works. I'd suggest you build a compost heap and to fill it, keep cropping the "celery like" topgrowth hard. Constantly frustrating photosynthesis will eventually cause the roots to die in situ. It hasn't happened yet, after two years of hacking the root with a mattock every time one rears it's pretty green head! I will keep hacking though. I'd be very wary of trusting that particular kind of unidentified weed to be safely edible; " tuberous root and celery look" includes some of the most poisonous. Luckily, it seems to be the non-poisionous! I took my friend's word that it was edible, and ate a pice of stem and leaves with no ill effect. I was going to see if the roots are cookable and palatable. If so I'll treat them with less animosity! JakeD |
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