Friday, December 31, 2010

Waste Not, Want Not....Using Freeze Killed Stalks as Soil Builders

In view of the hard freezes that have slammed Florida even before the usually cold months of January and February, I am re-posting this video from late last spring as now I will be employing the concept in the same area but in a new manner. For the last several weeks the center garden around my main pond my three Muscovy ducks have done a WONDERFUL job of eating down my hated weed 'Spanish Needle' (Bidens) plus the remnants of overgrown Vigna "beans" from last summer, pooping all the time. I can't believe how much work they spared me. Tomorrow I plant in that area two specimens of the productive Mystery Sweet Potato that Jon and Debbie Butz, hosts of WMNF's 'Sustainable Living' radio show gave me this year, then will broadcast seeds of the  ultra cold hardy forage rape 'Bonar' that I have grown so fond of. I will then sprinkle in horse stall sweepings from the stables across the street from my gym at Ballast Point, then  lay in there in criss cross fashion freeze killed stalks from my Bolivian Sunflower (Tithonia diversifiolia) and edible canna and more. This will act as a sheet compost to boost soil fertility while trapping moisture as the Bonar plants grow up between all the stalks. Most of my neighbors take their freeze damage waste to the Manhattan Avenue landfill, but I will use mine as a soil building resource on site. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eued80RWZZ8

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