Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jan 09, 2013 7:11 am Hi Guys, Have read with great interest Fu Man Chu and wrexters advise on improving Soil in Perth with Organic Compost etc etc prior to planting Lawn and gardens The one thing I want to check is the ratio of Compost to mix into the soil (as there are multiple posts with different guidelines) to the amount of Compost to mix in to the soil per m2 The Summary Sticky states to use - "Soil to have mixture of 10-20% Sand, 80-90% Organic Compost i.e. for 1m square of soil, apply 0.2m cubed of Organic Compost." So that's 1m3 of compost per 5m2?? In other posts there is advise to use 2 - 3 m3 of compost for 50m2 of planting area. As I only have one shot at this could someone in the know please confirm it for me? Thanks https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=44762 My Owner builder journey extending a 1930's Bungalow Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 2Jan 09, 2013 8:28 am Ratios are soil dependant. In existing clay and clay loams you add a max of 20% compost and cultivate it through to 200mm, no deeper. Don't bother mixing in sand. So thats a max of 40mm compost for 200mm depth, 1m2 compost per 5m2 of existing soil. These are max values, you will get excellent results at these levels but you can go down as low as 10% you want. Ideally you would cultivate the soil deeper than 200mm more like 400mm but the compost is the most effective if mixed into the top 200mm of the tilled up soil. Any deeper than that in clay based soils can cause disease issues.
In sandy soils you can add more compost and cultivate it in deeper if you wish. Edit; just saw you are in Perth, definitely no sand. Just compost and some of the other things Fu talks about, zeolite, benitite clay etc. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 3Jan 09, 2013 9:32 am What sort of disease issues can be caused by mixing compost more than 200mm in clay soils? I'm not sure how deep I went with the rotary hoe but I would say between 2-300mm at least. Is there anything I need to look out for in the future? Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 4Jan 09, 2013 7:55 pm Titch101 What sort of disease issues can be caused by mixing compost more than 200mm in clay soils? I'm not sure how deep I went with the rotary hoe but I would say between 2-300mm at least. Is there anything I need to look out for in the future? Hi Titch101, There is little air/oxygen at lower depths in clay soils from about 200mm. When compost breaks down, which it needs to do to improve the clay, it requires oxygen. Without oxygen the compost breaks down in a different way which creates pathogens. The tell tale signs of this is a musty rotten egg odour. If you have plants dying dig down and have a whiff, it also could be a bit sludgy. I should add you can go above 20% compost if you wish but your soil levels will sink over time which can be pretty ordinary if your levels are important. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 6Jan 09, 2013 10:18 pm Yeah its best practice to follow when specifying soil conditioning, it certainly is not the case your plant/soil will go south if you didn't follow it. It just increases the chance of problems. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 7Jan 10, 2013 10:01 pm Thanks for the feedback. I went with Fu's "Recipe" and quants to improve the soil. Ended up slightly less on the compost as the house has been around since the 30's and has had lawn / vergetation already growing which I will Rotary hoe back in to the soil. It has ended up being an expensive exercise costing me more to prep the soil than it will cost to buy the Turf! Hopefully though it's going to pay itself back 10 fold over the years Cheers https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=44762 My Owner builder journey extending a 1930's Bungalow Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 8Jan 10, 2013 10:31 pm It will, imo the best way to look at it is your lawn/garden will look better for longer between drinks. When you water or fert the garden will respond quicker and be far less pest prone because the plantings will not stress as easily. I have areas in my yard, some prepared correctly others not. The difference is huge, the plants in the prep'd soil look after them selves the others in the un-prep'd soil wilt and look poo as soon as it hits 30 degrees. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 9Jan 13, 2013 9:17 pm I'd be interested to hear "roughly" what others spent per m2 on soil prep? In total all the items listed in Fu's guide have worked out at about $10 - $12 per m2 for me (Certainly can see the change in the soil though so no complaints) I'd be interested to see how others costed it. I did shop around a bit but mainly from those recommended businesses listed in Fu's guide. Cheers https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=44762 My Owner builder journey extending a 1930's Bungalow Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 11Jan 28, 2013 7:31 pm The following is a direct Fu quote from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=57870&p=900396&hilit=where+to+get+zeolite#p900396 All soils, especially in WA, must have soil amendments used prior to starting a landscape in the traditional sense. You can get any type of turf to grow there to a degree. Any of the buffalo varieties (I don't buy into the marketing that suck people in as to which is slightly better than another) will do well. 5kg m2 of Bentonite ( sustainableoutdoors.com.au ) Available in bulk. Or clay/clumping cat litter for those on a budget. 3-5kg m2 of zeolite. (Bunnings is cheapest for that but they don't even know they sell it ) PM me for bulk volumes, (I know a guy) 15% of the soil needs to be compost (certified organic, eurekacompost (premium compost) not certified because he adds rock minerals and its rubbish that because of that they wont certify it. Very good compost, pays for itself. Dig it all through the top 20-30cm. avoid layering the soil. Its not cool. Here's how West Aussies can make sand into soil--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtBkWDdp ... e=youtu.be Benefits of a healthy soil--> http://www.soilfoodweb.com.au/index.php ... &Itemid=54 Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 12Feb 06, 2013 10:42 pm To give you an idea of what 15% organic material is, use a visual guide of roughly an amount a bit over a 30ltr bag of compost for every m2 dug through to 30cm (I know you lazy buggers will only do it to 20cm so maybe I should have said 40cm deep so you go to 30cm ) Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 13Feb 07, 2013 1:54 am Fu Manchu [...] to 30cm (I know you lazy buggers will only do it to 20cm so maybe I should have said 40cm deep so you go to 30cm ) Or you already did, and it's a double bluff, and the depth you want is actually 20cm Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 14Feb 07, 2013 11:55 am Just giving you an idea of a volume to imagine in your head. A bit hard to say imagine 1._ 30ltr bags of compost. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 15Feb 07, 2013 11:57 am I prefer to use around 20% organic compost to existing soil these days. Some applications I'll go higher. I used to use far more organic material but being privy to the environmental impacts of doing that has made me reassess what I do. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 16Mar 19, 2013 11:04 am Well empire has been down about 6 weeks now and is very happy. Cutting height I would like to get a bit lower but thought I would work that down as we move towards winter. Only thing is I get quite a lot of small mushrooms popping up between mows. I used mushroom compost in my mix so I guess that's where they are coming from. https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=44762 My Owner builder journey extending a 1930's Bungalow Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 17Mar 19, 2013 1:55 pm heh, you certainly don't need mushroom compost to get mushrooms in your lawn. Here in Qld out the back lawn I have had a lot of mushrooms in my EZ. In the front yard in one area I have had giant mushrooms 20cm in diamater! Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 18Mar 20, 2013 10:53 pm docker_rob Hi Guys, Have read with great interest Fu Man Chu and wrexters advise on improving Soil in Perth with Organic Compost etc etc prior to planting Lawn and gardens The one thing I want to check is the ratio of Compost to mix into the soil (as there are multiple posts with different guidelines) to the amount of Compost to mix in to the soil per m2 The Summary Sticky states to use - "Soil to have mixture of 10-20% Sand, 80-90% Organic Compost i.e. for 1m square of soil, apply 0.2m cubed of Organic Compost." So that's 1m3 of compost per 5m2?? In other posts there is advise to use 2 - 3 m3 of compost for 50m2 of planting area. As I only have one shot at this could someone in the know please confirm it for me? Thanks The single most important thing is not the compost but amending the soil to permanently change its structure. That involves Bentonite clay and then secondly, Zeolite. They will forever change the way the soil behaves. (In clay soils of course bentonite is not used by the zeolite does have a very important role) 5kg/m2 Benonite (Calcium Bentonite is best but Sodium Bentonite will be fine on a budget) 5kg/m2 Zeolite Then the compost. (30-60ltrs p/m2) or roughly the same as one to two bags a m2 That comes last though in importance. In some cases I will not include it for those on a budget. This is because it is something that the clients will have the whole future of the garden to add with ease. So when we have to weigh up what is a priority, it's the clay and zeolite that is hardest to introduce to the soil later (not impossible though) (In clay soils, it's the addition of sand and zeolite that helps permanently change the structure but the role composts play is also very important because the organic acids etc that will help break clays up in meaningful ways faster than Gypsum or Dolomite of lime. Gypsum won't work on all clays. ) Here's some links to some info: http://plantsman.com.au/page2/files/Pla ... Recipe.pdf http://plantsman.com.au http://petercoppin.com/pdfs/amending_im ... rth_wa.pdf http://petercoppin.com http://sustainableoutdoors.com.au/categ ... nite-clay/ http://sustainableoutdoors.com.au Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 19Mar 20, 2013 10:56 pm Titch101 What sort of disease issues can be caused by mixing compost more than 200mm in clay soils? I'm not sure how deep I went with the rotary hoe but I would say between 2-300mm at least. Is there anything I need to look out for in the future? As BK mentioned, though we can work at getting deeper root structures by ammending the clay with sands and zeolite which will help aerate the soil a little more. Re: Soil Preparation - Help with compost quantaties 20Mar 20, 2013 11:03 pm docker_rob Well empire has been down about 6 weeks now and is very happy. Cutting height I would like to get a bit lower but thought I would work that down as we move towards winter. Only thing is I get quite a lot of small mushrooms popping up between mows. I used mushroom compost in my mix so I guess that's where they are coming from. That's wonderful. Mushrooms and fungi that we see are the fruiting body of the fungi. They are doing a wonderful job breaking down complex organic material into simpler things the lawn will be able to use http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_o ... world.html Gardeners need not worry about them as so many have trained them to do. Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30233 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 13053 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 37084 |