Organic, Garden safe dye for wood shaving/mulch?
Robert Raczkowski
5 years ago
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susanzone5 (NY)
5 years agoRobert Raczkowski
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Landscape fabric - safe for organic garden?
Comments (37)Re: " It is safe to use fabric as a liner for a vegetable bed? In other words, line the bed with it -- and then fill it up with soil. " I'm not clear on why this would be done. My interpretation of the original question was that the weed barrier was to be used on the sides of the bed, to keep the soil from sifting out through the gaps in the wood. I could see cutting weed barrier and stapling it to the sides of a wooden bed, with a few inches continuing onto the soil so that the soil doesn't sift out where the bed touches the ground, either. It's not how I would build a bed, but it seems reasonable. But if it covered the bottom of a bed, weed barrier would keep the plant roots from reaching down, and it wouldn't reduce weeds to any significant degree, because weed seeds would migrate to the soil above the weed barrier anyway. It might fight off tree roots for a year or two, but I suspect not for much longer. I say ll this as someone who uses weed barrier on top of the soil and plants annual vegetables through it, so I'm not opposed to weed barrier. (I lift it and amend between crops. The holes are at standard spacings that I use for a variety of crops. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be better to just weed, but I've come to accept that I don't weed.)...See MoreSafely Mulching(?) Pathways on Boggy Clay
Comments (10)Hi Flora. Thanks for that. It's a dangerous thing to ask for photos of my garden because I LOVE to share my garden :-) The pathways I want mulch mostly run behind the garden beds at the bottom of my slope. I have about 2' between those beds and the fence. I don't feel that I'm fighting against my garden so much as im fighting the poorly planned layout of our estate and the refuse left in the soil by the builders (I've pulled copper wire and other rubbish from my garden). Also, my neighbours gardens on both sides drained into my garden. I understand why you think I have small compost piles. The picture I posted previously is after my heap had significantly reduced in size (and id robbed it for mulch) My current pile is 10x4x4. I've raised beds on the borders of my neighbours garden (with Thier consent.) and have stone lined French drains into the field behind my garden at the bottom of my slope (with the estates consent) This is a bed I amended by digging up the stones and builders rubbish and adding my cold compost. I usually have my container roses here but I am going to plant them in the spring... I have two areas of the garden where I grow a few ornamentals mixed with native flora... Many of the native plants have been cut back already for winter ... The other half of the bed pictured above... I have my compost heap on the bottom of the slope because I plan to grow veggies there and I've had great success creating beds on sites of previous compost heaps. I've cold composted previously with smaller piles but have been excited about my first year hot composting. I am straw bale gardening in the spring and the next compost piles will be built in autumn 2013 on the site... There is a cold compost pile underneath all the containers. I should be able to plant them in the bed in the spring I raised this area (again on cold compost) and used stones from my garden. I have creeping thyme planted. I'm hopefully the thyme will fill in between the stones by next autumn... I've just expanded the beds on this side of the fence - again, cold composting topped off with leaves. It may be next autumn befor I sink the container plants ... I don't have any more winter pics but will post photos the garden when it's all colourful in the spring M This post was edited by mirendajean on Mon, Dec 10, 12 at 14:22...See MoreCedar Shavings for Mulch?
Comments (15)I'm not worried about contaminates per se, but rather was concerned about the resin in cedar, What I am planning to use are shavings marketed for pet bedding-- a 1:1 mixture of cedar shavings and (finer) pine shavings, My thought is that I will rake what is left this fall and remove them from my beds before I put the garden to bed for the winter. I'll bag them in some heavy duty trash bags and hopefully reuse next spring. I'm not planning to turn them into the soil--although I know that some will be left behind. I'll just need to follow-up with a little more N than usual....See MorePlaner shavings as mulch
Comments (8)The only time I have heard of wood mulch being a problem is when it was wet inside a bag and got what's called 'sour mulch' syndrome. A friend of mine used it on potted tomatoes and they looked horrible until he removed it. Presumably some kind of decomposition was going on in the bag that produced something that messed up the pH, etc. I'm sure that would have been due to 1) fresh wet wood chips and 2) in an oxygen starved atmosphere. None of which should be a problem with using planer shavings on the ground. I've used my own planer shavings for years on paths, around perennials and in compost piles, and never had a problem. Right now I have a pile of sawmill sawdust from 0 to 1 yr old that has half a dozen species including cedar and black walnut. I thought about how to use it and to be safe I think it's going to go on a walking path because of the walnut. I really could use it for mulch and soil improvement around some shrubs and berries but it's probably not worth the risk. Got a cubic yard of the stuff though!...See Moretoxcrusadr
5 years agorhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
5 years agoIrving Ragweed (Austin 8b)
5 years agotoxcrusadr
5 years agoIrving Ragweed (Austin 8b)
5 years agotoxcrusadr
5 years agoIrving Ragweed (Austin 8b)
5 years ago
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