blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-05 11:42 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-06-05 11:42 pm
Hallelujah and saints be praised!
It is a long weekend, and I have no work work to do. At last, I can get stuck in and clean the house, beta fics, write and read (and [Poll #1411482][Poll #1411482]
part two
If the composting process is still taking place, leave your organic matter in a heap, dust it with blood and bone if it looks as though it could do with a bit of a speed up (you won't need this for stable manure!) and turn it over a few times a week over the next few weeks, it will quickly finish rotting. If it's all calm and smells like rich humus, then you are fine to just start spreading.
Using the back of a steel rake, or a shovel, spread your compost across the soil. Then, if cash allows, cover it in a layer of straw, hay, or other bulky but relatively fast-degrading organic mulch, such as leaf litter, chaff, sugar cane waste, etc. This will take one afternoon, even for a big suburban garden, assuming a medium level of fitness.
Water the whole lot with a click-on sprayer of seaweed emulsion attached to your hose (this is the single most useful product known to gardening kind).
You will probably want to start planting around now. If you are looking for a flower garden or vegie garden, just stick to shallow to medium-rooted plants for the first season and then start introducing larger plants and root crops once the soil starts to crumble. Bacteria and worms will move in with all the organic matter, and they and the plant roots are going to do all the hard work for you. Lawn is fine, and can be broadcast as seed straight over the compost layer, though you may want to add a few cm of topsoil.
You can also do all of the above a bit at a time, and just move the sun lounger to suit if it all sounds a bit too much!
Don't plant trees or shrubs down into the soil at this point, you will just be creating a hole that will act like clay bucket and fill up with water when it rains and drowns the roots. Instead, create a good-sized (three times the rootball or more) mound of good soil/compost (retaining it with bricks or the like if needs be) and plant into that, or use large pots. You can plant a mini-garden of bulbs or annuals over the rest of the mound.
From here on, add more organic matter several times a year, regular organic mulches and one or two compost scatterings a year, plus feeding with organic fertilisers will do the trick. Water with seaweed emulsion once every month or two. Worm castings and worm wee are brilliant, too. You will be amazed at how quickly your soil improves. Keep an eye on the water; if it is raining a lot, do not add extra. If it is dry, water regularly, even if you need to use rinse water from the laundry, bath or rinsing kitchen vegies in areas that have hosepipe bans. Regular water is an essential ingredient in fixing the soil structure, though the better the structure, the better it will hold and drain water.
Finally, look for plants that will do well in your richer, heavier soil. Many woodland plants are perfect, and the more things you have actively growing, the better your soil will be, since the roots bring in air, improve structure, and encourage bacteria, worms and microflora and fauna. Talk to your local nursery about suitable varieties (look for an actual horticulturalist rather than just the general staff!)
Sorry for the longwindedness, but it's a complex problem, yet one that can be easily conquered. Good luck, and let me know how you go!
(Edited because I cannot type!)
Re: part two
I love the way you assume I have a hose, or anything as useful as an outdoor tap to attach one to. My flatmate's boyfriend found what he decided was an outdoor tap and used it to clean his bike. Turned out it was a crucial part of the hot water system, and draining all the water from it made the boiler not work. Why do I still sometimes believe what people tell me purely because they say it in an authoritative tone? Am I really not smarter than that?
Anyway, that is some good advice, although I may cheat and stick to pots for now, on the grounds that I have already dropped a load of cash fixing a garden that technically does not belong to me. There are a few things like aquilegia and peonies that have done all right on their own that I will probably move around a bit now they are done flowering, and I have done a few pots with smelly herbs down the back garden.
What I couldn't work out with the bulbs is why the ones I planted died horribly, whereas the bluebells that are in the next bed down flourish every year. (This was what led me to think my bulbs would be OK.) Gardens are weird.
I will keep this advice on file for if I can ever afford a place of my own, because the Bath area is pretty much all clay pan, and this will come in handy.
Re: part two
And it IS low effort, once you've spread a few tonnes of compost, you're sorted ;-)
Re: part two
So would spreading around a few tonnes of compost, but the very idea makes my lazy-meter set the alarm bells a-ringing. :oD