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Mon, Aug 21, 06 at 0:10
| I have a huge Poinciana feature tree in my small suburban backyard in inner-west Brisbane. Last year I had the backyard landscaped and new raised beds put in (around the Poinciana) with good soil and mulch to add to the base clay. With half-decent rain last summer, irrigation (from new water tank) and fertiliser added to the new beds, the Poinciana had a bumper year, flowering twice (or was that just a response to the drought?), with a huge leaf flush etc. All this meant that 2-20 mm of needle litter from the tree has covered the beds. I have not turned the soil over on the beds since they were put in and the soil is still remarkably friable without much of a top crust.
Should I just leave the Poinciana needle litter on top (to act as sort of a mulch), turn it in, or rake it off (and compost?). Obviously what you might normally do in SE QLD may be a little different at the moment because of the drought- it looks like a tough couple of months a head of us before (hopefully) some summer rain. So I want to maximise water conservation, which normally means (I think!) don't disturb the soil / minimum tillage?? Thanks, Dirty Digger |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| g'day dd, i would leave it as it is maybe buy some pasture grass hay or spoilt lucerne hay even sugar cane mulch to put over the top of it this will conserve even more moisture. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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| I wouldn't bother to rake it off or turn it over, but being dry material it's going to take a while to compost down on its own, be a bit fly-away in dry conditions and could be a bit water-repellant just on its own as mulch. I think Len has the right idea as it will break down faster with moisture held in better by other mulches, and add some more manure type fertilizers to speed up the process. |
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