compost and fertiliser

[serenity]

I really hope someone can help me here. I was under the impression that compost was a fertiliser but reading thro the threads it seems home made compost is a "soil conditioner" and does not feed plants. I do add chicken and rabbit poo to the heap so would this give the compost a fertilising role as well ?

[Geordie]

Short answer is that compost is both a soil conditioner and a source of nutrient for plants.
I did quite a big post on compost but let me know what type of soil you have eg clay based, sandy based or somewhere in the middle. can advise a bit better then.

[serenity]

Some areas of the gaeden are fine nice texture , can roll in a sausage, drop and breaks up nicely but not too much. Other part of the garden, 3 meters away the soil has large pockets of clay, you can literally dig up clumps of orange claylike stuff and the soil generally is thicker there. I know that sounds crazy but all I can say for definate is it isn't sandy

[serenity]

by the way geordie, I read through the posts that jaxom put together under "geordie tips" and you definately know your stuff. I have added it to my favorites and regularly dip into it. I am definately going to make some chicken poo soup and there are also plenty of nettles growing nearby so could do the same with nettles. I would rather not use any dead animal based products. I don't eat them so don't really want to spread them round the stuff that I do eat.
To be honest I am just finding this whole area of GYO very complicated.

[smallblueplanet]

Get yourself some Bocking 14 comfrey to add to your compost or around plants. Make sure its bocking 14 as it won't self-seed everywhere and become a nuisance.


Oh and if you're particular (or even peculiar like us!) then you might want to make sure your chicken poo pellets are soil association organic. Otherwise you never know what they've been feeding/prescribing to the chickens to poo out!

Ah I might have misunderstood, its your own (chicken) poo is it?

[serenity]

I don't have the space at the moment to grow comfrey. Most of my garden is flagged. I am trying to remove some of them but it is a hard job as the hardcore underneath is 4 inch deep and then the soil under is pants

[smallblueplanet]

Sorry to hear that, is there anything you can plant to speed up the process of enriching the soil? Green manures? Or are you having to buy in top-soil?

Maybe you could freecycle your flags for soil?

Good luck.

[Geordie]

For the part of the garden that is clay like the compost will act as a soil conditioner, (as would any organic matter), and so help to break the clay down to improve the soil. As a consequence of the compost or organic matter rotting down nutrients are released into the soil which will be taken up by the plants, and weeds!.

If you have parts of the garden not used from about september to Spring plant a green manure which you can dig in as organic matter. If you want an example of this, when you go to get the nettles see how friable the soil is where they are growing.

When you remove the slabs and harcore would it be an option to buy or acquire topsoil to give you a better start.

Good luck, keep going and just ask if you need owt else!

[serenity]

Yes geordie, removing the hardcore and slabs reduces the surface level by a good 6 inch. I have dug this over by a spits level and plan to top up with compost/top soil.

Here I have pulled up a couple of rows of slabs, before digging out the hardcore. I have only completed the first bed as have had neck problems so not able to dig at the moment

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p.../garden002.jpg