flowerbug
Sustainability Master
well not quite exactly, but when done you often won't be able to tell the difference.
i have friends who will give me their leaves at the end of the season, and also any
sawdust or pieces of bark or rotting wood that is left when they are done splitting
and putting up wood.
instead of burning this it can be turned into some great garden amendment material.
with our heavy clay soil i can dig down a foot and a half and then pack as much in the
trench as i can and then cover with what i've dug up. over the next year or two it will
turn into a very nice brown color.
since i am a fairly low till gardener i just incorporate this into my fall garden clean up
and so i am not digging up entire gardens that often. any garden debris goes in the
trench too.
i may not dig this up again for 4 or 5 years, but it is there and waiting.
i excavated a few patches this season that i put in a long time ago and it was nice
to have such amendments just there waiting for me to use up. with the heavy clay
on top in some areas the seal was so good that when i dug into them there was as
strong methane smell. i think it would have lit up and poofed had i struck a match.
all that energy for the soil critters and worms! also helps with the drainage and
making the plants happy. next year i'm going to be moving some of one garden
area's soil mixed with this material to help improve another garden that needs a lot
of help.
the other primary source of garden humus here is partially or fully decayed wood-
chips. we use them as mulch on the various perennial gardens, but it takes some
time before they are consumed by the fungi and other soil creatures, when it is
done though and weeds start sprouting too easily in there then that is the sign it
is time to scrape back the surface chips and remove some of the finished humus
from below. it is dark and great material to add to any of the vegetable gardens
out back. the only real downside is that there are often weed seeds moved around
this way so i may have to make sure to keep the scraper going in places where i
move such things until they've given up their seed bank sproutings...
i have friends who will give me their leaves at the end of the season, and also any
sawdust or pieces of bark or rotting wood that is left when they are done splitting
and putting up wood.
instead of burning this it can be turned into some great garden amendment material.
with our heavy clay soil i can dig down a foot and a half and then pack as much in the
trench as i can and then cover with what i've dug up. over the next year or two it will
turn into a very nice brown color.
since i am a fairly low till gardener i just incorporate this into my fall garden clean up
and so i am not digging up entire gardens that often. any garden debris goes in the
trench too.
i may not dig this up again for 4 or 5 years, but it is there and waiting.
i excavated a few patches this season that i put in a long time ago and it was nice
to have such amendments just there waiting for me to use up. with the heavy clay
on top in some areas the seal was so good that when i dug into them there was as
strong methane smell. i think it would have lit up and poofed had i struck a match.
all that energy for the soil critters and worms! also helps with the drainage and
making the plants happy. next year i'm going to be moving some of one garden
area's soil mixed with this material to help improve another garden that needs a lot
of help.
the other primary source of garden humus here is partially or fully decayed wood-
chips. we use them as mulch on the various perennial gardens, but it takes some
time before they are consumed by the fungi and other soil creatures, when it is
done though and weeds start sprouting too easily in there then that is the sign it
is time to scrape back the surface chips and remove some of the finished humus
from below. it is dark and great material to add to any of the vegetable gardens
out back. the only real downside is that there are often weed seeds moved around
this way so i may have to make sure to keep the scraper going in places where i
move such things until they've given up their seed bank sproutings...
