WHICH COMPOST AND MULCH IS SUITABLE FOR A FLOWER BOARD?

COMPOST FOR THE FLOWER BOARD WITH YOUR HANDS

Perhaps one of the most valuable components of a beautiful flower garden is high-quality nutrient soil. There are many ways to increase fertility and keep soil healthy. This time, our experts will tell you how to properly prepare an affordable universal fertilizer - compost - and what kind of mulch is needed for a flower garden.

Choose a place

Choose a semi-shady area with well-drained soil, without stagnant water. It is important that the soil in this place is fertile, because the microorganisms living in it pass from the substrate to the compost heap, and after processing the organic matter, they return back.

Define content

The compost heap should be 10% soil, 20% manure and 80% organic matter.

You can lay plant residues, tree leaves, grass clippings, weeds, aerial parts of legumes, bone meal, food waste, sawdust (not fresh!), shavings, hay, straw, white paper. It is very important to introduce materials containing nitrogen, such as rotted manure (preferably from cattle).

Do not put glass, plastic bags, plastic, as well as weeds with seeds.

Important Conditions

The compost heap is obtained in the form of a trapezoid: 1-5 m wide and 2-1 m high. These are the optimal dimensions so that oxygen can enter the structure.

The compost should have enough phosphorus and potassium. Phosphorus can be added in the form of phosphate rock (5-8 kg/mXNUMX), but it is undesirable for it to come into contact with lime. Phosphorus and lime (or dolomite flour) neutralize the acidity of the compost environment. Add ash as a potash fertilizer.

Do-it-yourself compost in layers:

1. In the place for laying the compost heap, remove the soil to the depth of a shovel bayonet.
2. Lay rough materials (tree branches, leaves).
3. Then - plant residues with a layer of 15-20 cm (it is advisable to sprinkle them with lime).
4. Top - manure with a layer of 5 cm.
5. After - the soil with a layer of 2 cm.

During the season, alternate components: plant residues, manure, soil.

Lay out a pile 1 m high. On top - a thin layer of soil, then - straw or tree foliage to protect the compost from drying out.

Useful Tips

If the territory allows, it is best to build three compost heaps. The first is for laying plant residues during the season, the second (last year's) is for ripening and ripening, and the third is for use in the current year.

Manure (cow or horse) is introduced into the soil only composted (not fresh!). To speed up the overheating, it is mixed with peat (1: 1), put in a pile and covered with straw. After a few months, the compost is ready.

You can create a compost heap right on the bed: remove the soil with a layer of 10-15 cm, put plant residues, sprinkle with lime and cover with the removed earth. But this is best done in the fall.

© Author: Natalya Mineeva, agronomist, Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod region.

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Reference by topic: Mulch for a flower garden - which is better?

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MULCH FOR FLOWERS

Many people think about how to make the site less care. After all, in the garden you want not only to work, but also to have plenty of rest. It will not work to let everything go by itself, but you can reduce labor costs in various ways. One of them is mulching the soil around plantings.

Thanks to mulching, you can achieve many results: reduce the number of weeds and waterings, protect the soil and plant roots from drying out and overheating in summer, as well as from deep freezing in winter, and maintain good water and air permeability of the soil. But that's not all. By using organic materials as mulch, it is possible to naturally increase soil fertility.

Types of mulch

inorganic mulch

Various covering materials (lutrasil, spunbond, polyethylene film), gravel, crushed stone, pebbles, sand

Organic Mulch

Sawdust, shavings, leaves, hay, straw, humus, nutshells, mowed grass, coniferous or leaf litter, crushed cones, branches, bark of trees and shrubs

Pros and cons

Inorganic mulch is durable, but does not provide additional nutrition to plants.

Organic matter rots over time, providing food for soil microorganisms and thereby increasing the fertility of the substrate. But, unfortunately, it often attracts slugs and other pests that feed on it. It also needs to be updated periodically. For example, the grass layer will have to be poured 4-5 times per season, and the thuja coniferous litter - once every few years.

From personal experience of mulching a flower garden and vegetable garden

В vegetable garden я use only organic. My raspberry is covered with a thick layer of straw, and on top - an oak leaf. Thanks to such “protection”, last year she managed without weeding at all. Strawberry bushes are mulched with wood residues with a layer of 5-7 cm. By the end of the season, no more than 2-3 cm remain from such mulch, so it has to be added annually.

В flower gardens apply combined mulch option. After weeding and planting, I cover the ground with a layer of black non-woven material with a density of 90-120 g / sq.m. On top I scatter gravel or crushed larch bark with a fraction no smaller than 3-5 cm. A fine fraction (1 - 3 cm) is good for mulching without lutrasil. In this way, I mulch young bushes of the host and other perennials, which I plant for growing. To decorate solitary or group plantings of conifers, a larger fraction (5-12 cm) is suitable. It is not only effective, but also more durable.

Shrubs, including fruit and conifers, hosts, phloxes, daylilies, delphiniums, hellebore, thyme, mountaineers, primroses and other ornamental perennials, as well as bulbous ones, which do not require annual digging, grow well in gravel backfill. Under lutrasil in a gravel backfill, plants on an alpine hill also feel great. The first gravel bed in my garden is over 22 years old. To this day, she demonstrates beauty and low maintenance.

BTW.

Last season, due to the invasion of slugs and snails, hosta leaves were badly damaged. The reason was the lack of a large fraction of larch bark during mulching. On top of lutrasil, I scattered the bark of a fine fraction (1-3 cm). In the first year, it perfectly performed a protective function, and in the second, as a result of overheating, it became soft and attractive to pests. In the end, everything had to be redone.

© Author: Tatyana ZHASHKOVA, Chairman of the Moscow Florists Club

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Reference by topic: Properly prepared do-it-yourself compost from A to Z

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