inexpensive ways to add organic matter to lawn

The ideal soil composition for growing vegetables or maintaining a lawn is 45% minerals (sand, silt, and clay), 50% air and water, and 5% organic matter. Its a nutrient-rich mixture of decomposing organic matter from table scraps to fallen leaves to grass clippings and you can make it all by yourself. The ideal organic matter to mineral composition is 2 3% for lawns and 5% for vegetable gardens. Are the catalogs arriving? The decomposed element is important here, though: If you spread fresh leaves, youll just get a thick, wet leaf mat that doesnt let water filter through. Work it into the soil with a shovel, iron fork, or rototiller.

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Using compost

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The best organic material to add to your soil is compost. At the end of the growing season, fold grass clippings into your soil. Hays weed seed content makes it a poor choice for effective mulching. Explore more resources from OSU Extension: Photo Credit: Sergey - Adobe Stock (Cropped from original), Photo: Kym Pokorny (Cropped from original), Photo Credit: Pixavril - Adobe Stock (Cropped from original), Add organic matter to improve garden soils, Commercial fishing, crabbing and clamming, Local, regional and community food systems, Photo: Uploaded by jokevanderleij8 on Pixabay, Plain Talk about Soils and Soil Chemistry, Let soil temperature guide you when planting vegetables, Set seeds on the right path with homemade planting medium. Apply 3 to 4 inches of well-finished compost or manure over the surface of your gardens and landscape beds and work it into the sandier soil. MORE INFO . Take a trip to your local garden store and pick out hardy, attractive ground covers like liriope, pachysandra, rosy pussytoes, creeping jenny, or periwinkle (AKA creeping myrtle). You can stop clover from overtaking your yard by adding more organic matter high in nitrogen (like in the form of fresh grass clippings) or let the clover do its work. Will the plants grow well? Another rototilling in spring will thoroughly mix in the amendments. Pine needles 7. Jobe's Organics All-Purpose Granular Fertilizer. Straw is the dry, hollow stalks of grains after they have been harvested. Clear away existing grass and weeds to expose the soil. Apr 2008 | This free compost may not be finished, however, and you will need to let it continue composting before applying. Good organic amendments for garden soils include wood by-products such as sawdust and bark mulch, rotted manure, grass or wheat straw and compost. Composting breaks down yard waste, agricultural waste, wood scraps, and even sludge into a crumbly soil-like material called humus.

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Compost is usually clean, easy to use, and available. Avoid adding leaves infected with anthracnose, scab, or leaf spot, as they can spread disease to your lawn. Primarily composed of municipally collected leaves, these products are high in many trace nutrients, as well. If your soil pH is below 5.5, ground limestone would be a good amendment to use. Synthetic chemicals then wash off into nearby streams, affecting the local ecosystems. It can make heavy clay soil drain better, easier to dig and not so hard or sticky. Check with any commercial source to ensure that bio-solids (sludge) were not used. Remember to only work in your clay soil if it is relatively dry. Grass clippings, dried leaves, and organic material for compost are free yard waste that youd otherwise be bagging up and sending to the garbage dump. Any composted material that has been reduced to humus is a good soil amendment. News story. ","hasArticle":false,"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/10044"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"

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