Mulching with compost in established bed
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mazerolm_3a
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Establishing new perennial beds
Comments (13)mitanoff: Where my existing soil is okay, I sometimes just use cardboard to kill the grass, coffee grounds to attract earthworms & any lawn clippings and/or leaves I might have on hand, before covering it all with mulch (optional) and waiting for the grass to die. With enough moisture & time, the cardboard will decompose and then you can dig & plant. If your soil is poor or rocky, the higher you build your lasagna layers the better, allowing you to plant without having to dig into the original soil. Twelve inches could easily compress to only a couple of inches by spring. This time of year you should be able to find lots of leaves to use as browns. Alfalfa pellets from a feed store can be used as a green, if you don't have access to other greens. I'm not familiar with triple mix, so can't comment on that. Suzanne: If you aren't going to plant anything immediately (Some lasagna gardeners do), using your slightly aged manure should be okay. I would think you could continue adding stuff as you want, keeping in mind that it does take time for things to breakdown. This is a very forgiving process. As long as everything you use is compostable, it will break down given enough time....See MoreCross post: newpaper in established beds and watering
Comments (3)The paper will be fine. Some wood mulches can repels water though, especially if applied thinkly or allowed to crust on the top. Either paper or cardboard work well to prevent weeds. Karen...See Morecollecting worms from an established compost heap
Comments (4)Based upon others experiences as well as my own (relative newbie) with a bin, I would use something other than onion as bait. For whatever reason the onions seem to be ignored by worms until most anything else is consumed. What do you want the worms for? Starting a bin or something else? If for something else your idea should work fine, just use a bait more attractive to worms like... well, most anything other than onions ;-) Probably avoid really acid stuff like citrus fruit as well. Most anything else that is rotting should work great. If you wish to start your own bin you should be fine if it is an outdoor bin, but if indoors you may want to buy EF redworms as these are regarded as the most bin friendly. There are other redworms out there, but don't adjust to bin life quite as well. Some even have a tendency to be all happy for awhile and then one day decide to move on which as I am sure you can imagine leaves a mess on the floor ;-) Might work OK though, don't know. Just depends....See MoreRose Garden Mulch for tropical south - compost as mulch?
Comments (34)I have a comment about weed seeds, or any unwanted seeds. I use a product called Preen, but there are others - they prevent the germination of seeds, but do NOT hurt plants already growing. So, obviously not something you use if you are hoping nearby plants will self seed. However, I have used it forever, and it works fantastically. I only mulch my roses once a year (right after pruning or trimming them, whenever that happens - in a warm climate I can do that most anytime). First I deal with the pruning or trimming, and remove any weeds or nearby ivy or bulbs which have crept too close to the base of the rose. Then, I water the rose well. Then, I sprinkle a handful or two of Osmocote on the soil under the rose out to the drip line of the rose (my theory is that this will provide nitrogen while the compost is decomposing further, and both of them will feed the rose). Then, I put a layer of at least 3 inches of home made compost my DH makes on top of the soil out to the drip line, of course keeping at least 3-4 inches away from the base of the rose. Then I sprinkle Preen or some similar product all over the top of the compost, and (very important) water it in. Voila - done for the year. By the time a year has gone by, the compost has fed the rose and turned into soil, so I repeat the process. I also use Preen on bare soil if, say, an area has just been weeded and is all clean. It has worked like a charm always, and although nothing is 100%, it reduces the amount of new weeds by certainly 95%. Regarding my DH's compost. Our property is a city lot of only 1/3rd of an acre, but we have a lot of mature trees, most of which are deciduous. He makes it from grass clippings and shredded leaves (the small leaves don't need to be shredded - just the large oak leaves) from the trees in a very large sort of raised bed place he built in the back of the lot, which he can leave open to the rain, or cover with a thick plastic sheet to let the compost rot and get hot underneath. Then when the Fall cleanup has produce MORE leaves, etc, he bags up last years crop which has sat for 12 months already, and puts it in those huge strong black garbage bags - it usually makes 7-8 of them. It stays in those bags until eventually one by one the bags are dumped into a medium sized plastic garbage can which lives on my wheeled garden trolly, so it is easy to wheel it to where I am working in the garden. One crop lasts me about 12 months. So, there is always one bagged crop aging further, and one new crop in the compost raised bed, while the trees grow another crop of leaves... I like it because, after sitting for 12-24 months it is the darkest, most wonderful compost, and the roses love it. Also free - what's not to like? Jackie...See Moremazerolm_3a
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