mulching (forum)

nickg starts with ...
Hi All,
For all its worth, my self and my father before have always used news paper as mulch its extra good because its full of sh....t any way [HEH HEH!]
Seriosly my father used to spend hours shreding news paper by hand, i now use a cross cut shreder.For pots or around trees in the ground put a thick layer around the tree about 3" thick, but keep away from the stem about 4".
spread your npk blue over the paper water well frequently and you will not go wrong. This is in Perth.

Time: 28th January 2013 5:57pm

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John Mc says...
Yes, any mulch is better than none. Anything to feed the worms and keep them around your trees. I like to use mulches high in nutritive value like lucerne and sugar cane mulches. I learnt early that if you pay $2 less for bales of "garden" lucerne, you get a bale full of weeds, with a bit of lucerne here and there for good measure. Always buy the best lucerne they have in stock. My bales are then put through a mulcher and turned into the nicest mulch, you could eat it. An $18 bale completely fills a 240lit wheelie bin when put through the mulcher. It takes around 5 bales to cover almost everything here. I do that once a year in Spring. Then, during the year, I hand mow my 1 hectare and put the grass clippings around as many fruit trees as I can.
Some people say to mulch the grass clippings first because of the nitrogen drawdown in the process, but when you have as many trees as I have, it's much easier to tip the grass straight out of the catcher onto the tree. I have other means of keeping a check on the trees nutrition.

Time: 29th January 2013 7:44am

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Julie says...
'mulch the grass clippings first 'because of the nitrogen drawdown in the process'. Did they mean compost them first?

But grass clippings are high in nitrogen, so it's hard to understand this comment.

I whippersnip my weeds in late winter and do the same - place around fruit trees. Just doing that, plus fallen leaves, has improved the soil over time.



Time: 29th January 2013 8:14pm

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Original Post was last edited: 29th January 2013 8:15pm

About the Author Julie
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lenn says...
Nitrogen draw down ,I think , is overstated if you merely add something as a mulch on top . It may be an issue if it were mixed in. How could "draw down" occur if there is no direct continuity?

Time: 30th January 2013 7:45am

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