Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 3/4/2005 5:24:03 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
melody AT crecon.com writes:


> Thanks for the encouragement, but below are are the paragraphs that made me
> wonder if I am adding too much of this, or not enough of that, and the
> article stated that well-meaning gardeners might screw up more than they
> are helping.
> 
> 

I read those too.  It left me thinking that maybe Dr. Ribeiro might do well 
to add some of those concerns to the compost pile to enrich it.  Sure, if you 
dumped a 50 lb bag of lime and 10,000 egg shells on a small plot of ground, 
you 
just might get too much calcium and screw things up.  But life soil balances 
itself wonderfully and you'd really have to get up early in the morning, pack 
a lunch, and work really hard at fouling up organic ground with organic 
materials.   For example, if you put calcium carbonate (such as limestone 
sand) on 
the ground, only as much of it is dissolved as there is acid present to do 
so.  
It balances itself.  

Another example is this, I've done it and I wager that many on this list have 
... I put a foot of raw sawdust on a (thankfully) small plot of ground.  
Supposedly the decaying sawdust ties up the nitrogen (in the bacteria) and 
makes 
the ground acid.  Probably because for three years nothing would grow there, 
nothing!  Then on the fourth year all the sawdust fell apart into dark black 
duff as loose and rich as coffee grounds.  It was full of earthworms and 
would 
grow anything planted in it.  It balances itself.  I'll not do that again, I 
have a method now of weathering the sawdust util it turns grey and it rots up 
in 
situ in one year.  But the ground forgives you your mistakes ... eventually.

James