WWA Info Exchange

My son-in-law has desided to really get into gardening this spring.
He has asked me to provide some saw dust to mix into the soil to help water retention. Since I custom make saw dust, the question has come up about what wood makes the best mulch.
I have heard that walnut is NOT a good wood dust for gardens and now my bro. tells me that cherry should not be used either.
The question is.....What do you use or recomend for garden mulch? I assume that pine, popular and cedar could be used but, I'm not sure.
This is very important to me because I hope to reap some benifit from his garden AND it can determan what wood my next few projects will be made of.

Rog

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Dont badmouth no strangers, they just friends you aint met yet.

An ounce of responsibility is worth a pound of State and Federal laws.

I spent most of my money on woodworking
tools and beer, the rest I just wasted.

Here's some info he may find helpful. http://msucares.com/lawn/garden/vegetab ... index.html . Newspaper is an excellent weed control mulch, which I use.

Walnut, cherry, cedar and some other woods contain various toxins that can cause problems in some plants if used fresh, and all woodchips, etc. will deplete soil nitrogen, and/or acidify the soil so be prepared for that. Most toxins will be dissipated after a year of composting. He should take a soil sample first, and compensate with lime and extra nitrogen if using woody mulch. Co-ops and Extension offices will analyze his soil and recommend quantities and types of amendments either for free or a small fee.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Thanks Gene! I knew that I could count on you.
I printed the info you posted so he can read it but, you live in a whole different world than Kansas. I'm sure most of the info can be used here too tho.
For everyone reading this......If you have a question about ANYTHING, post it here on this site. These guys are great about answering.....You may not like the answer and some of them (like mine) may be a smart alec coment, but you WILL get an answer.

Rog

_________________
Dont badmouth no strangers, they just friends you aint met yet.

An ounce of responsibility is worth a pound of State and Federal laws.

I spent most of my money on woodworking
tools and beer, the rest I just wasted.

Here's the KSU Extension page. I'm sure they can provide more locally pertinent info on this. http://www.ksre.k-state.edu/DesktopDefa ... x?tabid=24

PS: Also found their publications page. Lots of info in PDF format. http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/Desktop ... x?tabid=16

_________________
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Hey Rog,

The subject of allelopathy (plant to plant toxins) aside, around here, the extension agents will tell you that uncomposted sawdust is just not worth it. Because of the nitrogen it grabs up in order to break down, it actually does more harm than good as a garden amendment.

Composted sawdust, which has already had a year or so in the presence of a high nitrogen source, like blood meal, is good stuff, but it takes a long time to produce.

Tom

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"There is no path to peace, peace is the path."
Mohandas K. Ghandi

Roger, do you know any details of his planned garden? Size, crops, etc. ? Has he done this before?

Anyway, this planting guide might be of help. One of the biggest mistakes a newbie gardener makes is planting everything at the same time. For example, planting an entire row of beans all at once, which means they all come in at the same time. Really should plant a few feet every week to 10 days, to extend the harvest period. The guide here should be read with that understanding. http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf315.pdf . I also have one of those inexpensive vacuum gizmos to freeze bags of veggies that we eat off of all winter and the following spring till the next harvest comes in.

_________________
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Roger, I agree with Tom. I've never used sawdust in my garden. I have used it in an area where I didn't want anything growing....and it did keep the weeds and grass away

My simple formula for mulch is just grass clippings during the growing season. Cheap, and good fertilizer.

If you fertilize your yard, please wait for three weeks before putting the clippings on your garden (you wouldn't want to eat those chemicals, would you???). I spread the grass clippings evenly throughout the garden, making sure I keep a few inches close to the plants. As the growing season progresses, the grass clippings decompose, sending the nutrients into the soil, keeping the moisture into the ground, and keeping the weeds down.

In the fall, I mulch leaves and put them in the garden. I just let them decompose as much as they can, and then I till them into the soil in the spring. I don't worry too much about whether or not there are too many leaves.....it's all free fertilizer and it also helps keep the moisture in and the weeds down.

I don't put many oak leaves (too acidic) or magnolia leaves (too "sweet") into the mulch--they change the PH too much.

Just my 2 cents, and how I've done it since the late 70's. Oh, by the way, I have friends who try to pay me for my tomatoes The flavor is tremendous!!!!

Verna

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Verna
Indianapolis, IN

Give the stuff to your chicken/horse/rabbit raising friends on an exchange basis. You'll have more nitrogen than you know what to do with.

As to not adding clippings from the lawn after fertilizing same, silly in the extreme. Amending the heap with lawn clippings is an excellent thing to do.

Lawn fertilizer contains nitrogen in high analysis, which is what sawdust lacks. You will, however, retard composting if you put the fertilizer on the heap.

Down here, the county takes all of the yard waste left at the curb and turns it into mulch. They even sterilize to get rid of the weed seeds. It's available to county residents free of charge. If you have a truck you drive down and pick it up. We hire a truck to do the pickup for us. It's the cheapest mulch available and it works great. We use about 40 yards of it a year.

Here's how the mulch looks. This shot is from a couple of years ago. The yard right now looks pretty bad after the recent freeze.