Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 22May 17, 2012 10:00 am Hi Fu and co. I'm looking for a hand if possible. I'm about to complete some landscaping out the front and based in Melbourne with clay soil. I've gone through a lot of threads but just need a hand. So I have a couple of garden beds that have gone in and will be using mostly Cycads in these, I'll be using the same soil for all. Then will be planting as per below (from Roraima nursery in Lara which is the best I've seen), with ground cover and different plants: 42 x 140mm Anthemis carpatica 3 x 140mm Callistemon viminalis 32 x 140mm Convolvulus mauritanicus 22 x 140mm Lomandra longifolia 7 x 140mm Dietes vegetata 14 x 140mm Brachyscome multifida 8 x 200mm Cycad revoluta 1 x Brachychiton rupestris Bottle tree I have soil getting delivered today which is the best I could find and they seemed passionate about the care they take producing it (last supplier I picked out about half a bowl of big glass pieces out of their 'lawn dressing'). Just need help with the natives being planted would just Zeolite and Bactivate be the way to go? I'm having the soiled tilled tomorrow so will use what's needed. It's about 12m x 6m the area and has been scraped quite a few times to remove builders rubbish etc The soil and mulch from the greencentre: Botanical Blend Perfect for flower and garden beds, our Botanical Blend is the landscaper's favourite. Whether you want to rejuvenate your garden, or if you are starting off a new project, our unique blend of our 100% organic compost and sand, is easy to work with and will set your garden up for years to come. Remember to order some of our mulch to reduce moisture loss and suppress weeds. Medium/Heavy Grade Mulch (Australian Native Garden) Our Australian Native Garden style mulch is a fantastic way to both suppress weeds and retain moisture to your soil. With a natural look and colour, screened to around 25mm it is very popular with professionals and householders alike. Perfect for larger areas. Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 23Jul 31, 2012 12:00 am Make sure the mulch is rough, raw/uncomposted and made up of irregular particles. An example of one study: http://www.plantsman.com.au/page2/files ... ething.pdf If the mulch is black and soft, its not going to be saving water Many think all mulches save water. they don't. Most increase water use. Make sure you blend that soil with what you have in the garden already to a depth of 30cm, 40 is better. You need to avoid doing a thick layer of these composts. http://mulchnet.fortix.com.au/learn_aboutmulch Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 24Jul 31, 2012 12:01 am But that is going off topic. feeding soil is a very different concept to using soil and different again from using chemical fertilisers. Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 25Jan 28, 2013 10:54 am I have just been through and read most of the posts and decide to do something about the poor soils in my garden! I live west of Ballarat in Victoria where there is a lot of clay and quartz in the ground with not much organic matter. We recently had bush fires destroy the surrounding (and my) properties and have a lot of trees that have been pushed down as a fire break. As part of the clean up they come and chip up all of the trees and truck them away however i was thinking about letting them stock pile it on my property for future use. Is it fine to use the whole chipped tree (have a few pines and gums down) or just the thin branches and leaves? Any gum logs will be saved for firewood but the pine is useless in the fire. I also have a few branches and leaves that were cut down 5 months ago that i was just going to burn off in winter but could also have chipped. Are they still an good when all dried out? Thanks in advance? Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 26Feb 06, 2013 8:47 pm Absolutley and if you did this, you could be cunning and ask local contractors for a carton of beer for them to drop off the "waste" material on your property. It would be cheaper than what they pay to dump it as happens for the most part. It should be used straight away as a mulch rather than waiting to use to. I have posted quite a few threads relating to this material used as mulch. http://mulchnet.fortix.com.au/learn_aboutmulch http://www.plantsman.com.au/page2/files ... ething.pdf Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 27Feb 26, 2013 7:50 am Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 28Mar 08, 2013 3:43 pm I'm sure Simon will send these interstate as well for those interested. http://sustainableoutdoors.com.au/siphon-mixer/ Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 30Mar 19, 2013 10:44 pm I tend to use a watering can and have a seasol/ molasses mix but I agree these look heaps easier and less weight to carry around. ( had a back op in Jan so where I can avoid carrying stuff I will) Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 32Mar 20, 2013 8:44 pm Fu Manchu I'm sure Simon will send these interstate as well for those interested. http://sustainableoutdoors.com.au/siphon-mixer/ Emailed them yesterday and am still waiting for a reply.... Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 34Apr 15, 2013 11:19 am I have one setup and love how easy it is to apply all the good stuff. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Got it through evilbay freight bit high but couldnt find any supplier in Oz back then. Bit hard to use with hand nozzle as it sucks 1 litre when watering lawn in about 5 min through 10 mp rotators. Hope this helps Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 35Apr 18, 2013 8:15 pm Use a cheap plastic rubbish bin, rather than a bucket. Make the siphon hose longer using some additional tube from the hardware shop. Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 36Apr 18, 2013 8:22 pm Important to use only organic based inputs as the risk of contaminating the household water is high. Never apply poisons with these. Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 37Apr 18, 2013 8:23 pm Yeah, Simon is waiting on stock so it maybe a while. Amazon and Ebay have them. Re: Feed the soil, Never feed the plant 39Aug 11, 2014 8:37 pm In my last garden I worked with alluvial clay, albeit alluvial soil is pretty good to begin with but it is very dense and does water log easily. It also bakes hard as concrete in the summer months and is impervious to surface water. It is also very easily compacted if you happen to stand on it. Every kind of dirt has it's challenge. I got very good results with some pretty simple methods. - Cut down excess banana trees and bury the logs 1-2 feet down. Banana logs are very fibrous, not woody and they are basically mostly water. But once decomposed in the earth they break up this heavy clay beautifully while releasing their water content where the plant roots were. - Grow borage by the tonne. I let it get weedy all over the garden and go to seed. Spilling it's seed absolutely everywhere. After it had seeded I ripped it up whole and buried it in the soil 1ft deep. Just two successive seasons of this saw the earthworm population explode and our soil go from concrete in summer and bog in winter to rich, deep friable earth that could grow anything. - Scraped the chicken yard periodically and mixed the raw manure into the garden while digging in the above. I then planted seed directly into this, regardless of how hot the manure was and everything sprouted and grew prolifically. We got so good at digging in the green waste from the garden that eventually we ran out and had to slow down the progression of garden beds waiting for more material. The banana trees had at one stage swallowed half the yard but were pushed back to the fenceline with our incessant need for the logs for gardening. My new garden method was the same after this, dig a trench with a mattock into unimproved soil, lay banana logs in the trench, mix raw manure with the soil, push the soil back over the logs, sow seed directly into it. Mulch over the top. We never had a garden bed failure with this method. That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 18436 0 4900 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 38460 |