We are hoping to start growing some vege as there is precious little fewsh produce avaiable. The soil is sandy with not much else. We have started a compost bin & have an incinerator too. Any advice on what to mix into the sand would be appreciated. There is no fertilizer, soil or mulch available!!!!!
Our vege garden is already set up with netting protecting it and bays made out of concrete to hold the soil but it is only holding sand at the moment!!
shredded paper straw if you can get it cardboard over the top to mulch and keep moisture in and weeds down Practically any organic product that will break down quickly Lawn clipping but be careful of these they generate heat Chook poo put it in heaps until the ammonia and heat go out of it keep turning it and add straw etc to it So keep adding stuff and turning it over should break down quickly in the heat
ReplyDeleteHave you looked up Lasagna Gardening - I just cut and pasted this from the net but if you google it there is heaps of info. Alot of it you should be able to get hold of. Good Luck :)
DeleteHow to Build a Lasagna Garden
With lasagna gardening it is done by sheet composting whereby the scraps and weeds and old boots if you like are all dumped in one spot... well, layered on top of each other.
It's all recycled in one spot.
It really looks like a pig's breakfast, but boy oh boy does it work!
Start with whatever materials you have; maybe old leaves, then 5-10 layers of newspaper, or some thick cardboard, next a bucket of kitchen scraps, seaweed, some grass clippings, then straw. Soak it well with water.
OR... start with cardboard, then old grass, straw, old horse or chicken manure, some soil or compost, then coffee grounds, more grass, prunings, fruit peelings, veggie scraps, wood chips, seaweed... just keep piling it on.
Honestly you can do any topsy-turvy way you like with whatever organic material is at hand. It will eventually all rot and provide a great home for your plants.
Obviously there are tried and true materials and the order they are layered, that speed up the process. It does help of course to alternate layers of carbon (brown, drier material) with nitrogen (green, living material) which provides a balanced state of aeration and moisture.
What it really rots down to is that lasagna gardening is just like other no-dig methods, whether done by gardeners, or in the wild...