OK, so I was thinking of adding compost, blood and bone and some vermiculite (I‘m told that I‘ll get goo drainage using this) but now I want to change my 3 choices to cow manure, compost and sea weed concentrate/solution. Will these 3 new choices still achieve the same results as the last choices or should I stick to my original ones?Also, what I want to do is because my soil is very clay-like, I want to improve it. I WANT TO USE ANYTHING ORGANIC!I also live in Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia if it helps.PS: Is seaweed concentration/solution, vermiculite and blood bone organic or not? I already know that cow manure and compost is organic.
So you live in a nice dry environment where permaculture is king. I wish we could trade places. :) I'm in Las Vegas, NV where most of our soil is a nice, hard, compacted clay. I've been pouring over permaculture books, which advocate completely organic, sustainable, long term methods for improving the conditions of wherever it is you want to plant. If you're willing to invest a season or two in your soil, whatever organic material you add is going to be, for the most part, beneficial. Cow manure will give you a higher salt content, which is definitely not a good thing for clay. As long as you use it in moderation, you should be fine. But if your intention with manure is to add nitrogen, consider planting a cover crop while you're improving the soil; maybe alfalfa or clover. Any type of legume will add nitrogen to your soil, and later, your plants. Compost helps your soil by inviting microbes (earthworms, beneficial fungi and bacteria) into your garden to slowly eat your awesome additions and turn nutrients into a usable form for your plants. I would say compost and a layer of mulch (pine needles, leaves, etc) on top would be perfect even if you don't want to plant a cover crop. The microbes eating that layer on top of your soil will produce a gummy substance after every meal that will cause your soil to aggregate and give your clay soil much more pore space, eventually turning it into a loam. And the organic matter will retain moisture, so make sure you don't till in all this goodness, just layer it right on top and your living soil will pick up the rest of the slack. Don't forget the mulch!!!!!
my garden had alot of clay in it. to make the soil better for my garden plants I have added massons sand an leaves from the trees in the fall. I gathered alot of leaves then I multched them with my ridding mower by blocking up the shoot of the mower deck and mowed over the pile until they were in little pieces. I have done this with the leaves for the last 3 years and it has helped my garden alot.
a million. composting 2. manure 3. If its a tilled field then perfect tilling practices at the same time with tilling on the appropriate intensity and tilling whilst the moisture content textile is nice 4. Planting perennial legumes in with perennial fields 5. perfect grazing concepts 6. stop or cut back using guy-made chemical compounds of any type (fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide) to sell soil organism improve. 7. Crop rotation 8. installation drainage tiles and/or ditches to straight away do away with extra water
