Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Sep 28, 2011 5:19 pm Hi everyone, I know Murrayas have been discussed here before, but we're just about to plant a whole bunch of them and I wanted to quickly ask about the soil prep because we still have the opportunity to easily add whatever we want to the existing soil, which is a 50/50 mix of trade mix and sand (it's the fill behind a retaining wall). So, are we best to mix certified organic compost, zeolite, a little seamungus, and treat them to some powerfeed and seasol on occasion like we would our turf? Is there anything else we should mix into there to make sure they can get off to a healthy start? The plants we are getting are about 25-30cm tall. Oh, and could the roots interfere with our timber retaining wall in years to come? They'll be planted in the fill behind the wall. Thanks very much for the help. Re: Soil prep for murrayas 3Nov 09, 2011 9:18 am We're in Brisbane. We've actually gone ahead and planted them now anyway, about a month or so ago. We ended up mixing wheelbarrows full of the naked farmer organic soil activator, zeolite, perlite and some cow manure, and mixing that in with the existing trade mix / sand fill to a depth of 50 cm or so, and then planted each murraya into that. We've since given them a watering with a molasses/seasol/powerfeed mix. Does that sound about right? They look good so far - lots of new growth shooting off each one (though I don't know if that's because of spring or happy soil!) Soil prep for murrayas 4Nov 09, 2011 10:04 am It's great. Clip them a fair bit when young. That way they'll get really bushy. It's going to grow faster that way as well. Mulch heavily with anything you ever clip off them as well as recycled tree prunings or pine bark. Or lots of straw then covered with the above. Re: Soil prep for murrayas 5Nov 09, 2011 10:24 am Excellent, thanks for the advice. I meant to mention we have sugar cane and tree lopper mulch all around them too. I'm worried that the tree lopper mulch has kind of 'dried out' and gone all grey, with only the big woody chunks remaining, but I'll save that for another thread sometime when I've got some photos. Thanks for the help, as always. Soil prep for murrayas 6Nov 09, 2011 1:30 pm That's what you want. If mulch is wet then it's not doing its job. Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30235 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13063 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37085 |