FOUNDATION OF A FERTILE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23595, 3 September 1938, Page 23

FOUNDATION OF A FERTILE GARDEN

NEED OF ORGANIC MANURES GARDEN REFUSE PROVIDES ' SUPPLIES Many gardeners find artificial fertilisers so convenient and labour-sav-ing that there is grave danger of their forgetting that the true foundation of a fertile garden is humus. Invaluable as the chemist's products undoubtedly are, we cannot create or maintain soil fertility without the organic material that gives humus, any more than the Israelites - could make bricks without straw. Our garden's soil, no matter what its present condition may be, is a living organism, and its chief mission is to nurture plant life. Seen under the microscope, soil is 9 seething mass of living organisms, all intent on breaking up and chemicajly changing its elements, making them soluble for absorption through a plant's roots. This process is entirely dependent upon h-tmus, which enables the soil to retain iS moisture and hold the nutritive elements sought by the questing roots, and, incidentally enable the sun's rays to penetrate. Humus is as much a variable quality as the mineral content of the soil, and becomes exhausted from time to time. WHEN MANURE WAS PLENTIFUL Less than a quarter century ago, its relation to soil fertility was hardly recognised, as organic manure was then the sheet-anchor of soil cultivation With the rise of concentrated fertilisers and the decline of farm yard manure supplies, however, the significant value of organic replenishment of the soil has been overlooked.

The position is even more serious ui some gardens, as the crops are cleared Completely from the land, and the waste often burnt. Continuation of this practice lays the garden wide open to soil pests and plant diseases, and it cannot be too heavily stressed that plants' ill-health and the abundance of illegitimate inhabitants of the soil are due to the neglect of soil fertility through organic resources. The backbone of the garden's diev must be organic manures or humusforming material. . This is vital, whether the soil be heavy or light, for organic manure added each year improves its workability, and gives it " heart." On the other hand, inorganic fertilisers are wasted on unfertile soil, there being, an absence of beneficial bacteria to take charge and render it suitable as foods for the plants. With agriculture itself being more dependent upon the petrol engine than the horse, and with farm yard manure resources being unequal to demand, gardeners have nad to turn to other sources for their organic supplies. One of the best and cheapest is at hand in our own gardens—leaves and general garden refuse that accumulates in the autumn. DO NOT BURN IT This vegetation should never, unless it consists of diseased growth or noxious weeds, be burnt. Converted into compost, it becomes an efficient substitute for animal manures, a plant food, and a certain fertiliser of the soil. Composting is now a practical scicence, and every garden should have at least two compost heaps in being—one for leaves, grass mowings, and the finer garden refuse; the other for weeds, cabbage stalks, old hay. turves, and the like. Valuable compost for humus purpose is derived from well-wetted garden refuse, just protected by a layer of soil, and allowed to rot by itself for 12 months. The process can, however, be speeded up by the use of one of the several useful chemical preparations now on the market. Compost heaps are best made in the shape of potato clamps, the refuse being well packed and then given a coating of soil.

If between layers of some nine inches thickness a sprinkling of an accelerating preparation is spread, the refuse not only decomposes more rapidly, but develops a population of bacteria which work diligently in the transformation of the vegetable matter into easilyassimilated plant food. When opened up, these heaps of rich dark fibrous mould are excellent to handle, and overcome the manure shortage in a most economic way. For gardeners who have only a small garden, or who cannot this season begin composting, there are other manurial substitutes, a little more expensive, but none the j less very good items on the garden menu. Hop manure, as now available, is suitably prepared for adding to the soil at any time, and, being treated with mineral foods, requires no further addition. It is a complete humus-form-ing and fertilising plant food. Spent hops are often procurable from a brewery. These should be dug into the soil during the winter as humus material only. Another excellent humus-forming material is peat moss. This is clean to handle, and. being weed and pest free, is in great favour among nurserymen. It may be used either alone or with compost material, or even as a basis in applying artificial fertilisers. At the same time, peat moss will do a great deal towards opening up a heavy clay soil, and will give a moisture-holding capacity to a thin, sandy one. THE VALUE OP SHODDY One other material that is being used extensively in fruit orchards and gardens is wool manure or shoddy. This material is slow-acting, and is, therefore, very fine humus-forming manure for the herbaceous border, the rose garden, or the shrubbery. Shoddy is particularly useful on very tenacious clay soil, because it is absorptive of moisture bulky*, and capable of holding the clay apart, preventing its consolidation. As an aid to aeration as well as drainage, it is as serviceable as from the point of view of plant food production. Even plain straw, on heavy soil, is helpful, whilst on loose sands and stony gravels seaweed will orove of very great service. With these many sources of organic manure to choose from, it is comparatively simple to lay the foundation of a fertile garden in humus, and secu/p the full benefit of the chemist's products as stimulants and tonics to plant growth when they are applied in the growing season.