Going native with the lawn--your experience?
17 years ago
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- 17 years ago
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An effort to promote Natives
Comments (2)Change the title of your posts in each forum or you will get banned from Garden Web. This happened to me when asking if anyone wanted to start a new forum for Canadian Native Plant gardeners. Barb...See MoreGoing Native
Comments (18)Jerlis, I agree with Matt's explanation that small amounts of shallow watering are not as good for a plant as less-frequent deep watering. When you give plants 'just a squirt' of water, you're training the roots to stay very close to the surface of the soil which makes them vulnerable to drought stress/death. Basket of Gold needs well-draining soil and although it is a full-sun plant in many areas, it does better in our climate if it gets some shade. (That's true of many 'full sun' plants....full sun in a very hot climate is much harder on plants than full sun in milder climates.) Any perennial you plant will need consistent watering until it has established a good root system. Also, any plant that is put into the ground in summer may struggle. It is better to plant in fall or spring so the plants have time to adjust to being transplanted and to form a larger root system before they have to start dealing with the excessively hot temperatures here. Dawn...See MoreOutside Worm Bins and Native Worms
Comments (20)wfike, are you adding wood shavings to improve the texture of the casts or to help aerate the bedding? I've read, and surmise, that wood shavings take a long time to break down, so I'm assuming you aren't adding them as feedstock, am I figuring this correctly? I've also read, from several older vermi books (and the Vermiculture_FarmersManual), that horse manure by itself is not the best feed, but that cattle manure is good. Do you mix the 2 as feedstock and bedding? I guess what I'm trying to understand is whether you use horse manure as feedstock and feel it is an adequate feed by itself. I added soaked, torn corrugated cardboard to the horse manure because I'd read that it has excellent nutrition due to the high-protein glue that is used to hold the layers together. Another advantage that corrugated cb has is it's water absorbancy, so the 2 (horse manure and corrugated cb) mixed together make a good bedding and a good feedstock. But, you know, you can find all sorts of contradictions when comparing books, websites, and opinions...so I'm interested in what you find to be true, based on your experience. Cheryl, I have been freezing the food waste lately. It does seem to speed things up a bit, but there is still the issue of varying amounts of water being released, mold/fungus, and odors if you use too much or have strong smelling foods to vermicompost. I've found that as much as I want to keep food waste from the landfills, it's a lot of aggravation (too much water, mold, fruit flies, fungus gnats, march flies, houseflies, odors..etc), inconvenience (both of my freezers are half full of food waste for the worms, leaving only half for my own food), and guess-work involved in feeding food waste to the worms. Now, if I didn't have access to horse manure and corrugated cardboard, I would still use primarily food waste. But since I do have access to those materials, I much prefer using them. I have encountered very few issues/problems using horse manure and corrugated cb. So, I ease my conscious by reminding myself that these 2 items would have been dumped in a landfill somewhere, had I not taken them. I still plan on freezing some food waste to use as trench feedings in my raised beds. This practice has eliminated all issues/problems with using food waste because it is buried 4-6" under the soil, and I have many worms in my raised beds who process this food quickly (and thank me for the cold stuff when it's hot outside). The junk mail I use are advertisements for credit cards, various insurance, and a hodgepodge of solicitations. I just remove them from the envelope and tear into strips that could be used as bedding (I put them in the compost crate, so they will be partially composted by the time the worms get to it). I don't use glossy papers, not because they are bad for the worms, but because they take forever to break down and I don't like the look of them in the compost. The Vermiculture FarmersManual recommends shredding cardboard that has a waxed coating, so I assume wax is safe to use if shredded or had the wax seal broken in some other fashion . I've read that oils are not good for worms (I assume oil would smother them since they breath thru their skin), but I wouldn't think a small amount would be harmful. The boxes that you have should be fine. Most of the corrugated cardboard that I use has colored printing on it and I haven't noticed any problems with it (the majority of people say that most inks are soy based now). I also use shredded office paper in the indoor bin I just created, and to absorb water from the barrel bins outside when rain has been heavy, and that paper has been thru laser printers. I haven't seen any ill effects from any of the paper products I have used. Welcome to the thread, Cheryl. I look forward to reading about your experiences in the vermi-world....See MoreNative Peach as Rootstock
Comments (0)Howdy! I am in S. Texas where we can go from years long drought to almost swamp in no time flat. The good news is my soils underneath are decent for growing: 18" of sand on top of a red sandy clay. The bad news is my property is located in a zone where there is hardly any groundwater, if you can even find it. Despite all this, I still want a peach orchard, and I am wondering if anyone has had experience using Native Peach as Rootstock? It seems to me it would be more hardy, as these guys will grow randomly in the pasture. It may also be dwarfing, as they usually top out around 10' tall. The only drawback I see is that it will be impossible to hold back water, as I am pretty sure they have a tap root, otherwise they wouldn't be able to survive the droughts... Has anyone had experience?...See MoreRelated Professionals
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gthomson910 - Zone 10a/9b - Corona, Ca, US