Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>]

We save wood ash from our main heating source, and some of it ends up in 
the garden. Theoretically, in place of lime for raising pH. It does have 
small pieces of charcoal in it, and it contains potassium. why is excess 
K bad? Someone mentioned that it ties up calcium, ...OK, got that. But 
why is it in the common fertilizer "formula"? What does it do for the plant?

Regarding added organic matter: we have tons of leaves, llama manure, 
and may get some aged horse manure and fresh hen manure. How should I 
put theses on the garden this fall? Last year we got a load of oak 
leaves and ran them through a shredder or mowed over them in place, 
which was a lot of work. I mixed horse and llama manure with the 
shredded leaves in the beds. This year it is a mix of oak, ash, hickory, 
and maple, not yet shredded. I still have some uncovered piles of 
shredded oak leaves //that have not broken down all last winter and this 
summer.// I'm wondering if it's worth the bother to shred the leaves, 
and just use them as a weed-suppressing mulch once the veggie seedlings 
are up. Maybe layering the manures on top of the leaves (shredded or 
not) over winter so nutrients leach through them to help them break 
down? The shredds I put in the garden beds did break down, mostly (I 
hand-cultivated them in 2-3 inches, not deep--the tiller went deeper); 
maybe contact with soil is what they need?

Don't yell at me for tilling, I don't want to anymore! But Hubby, who 
studied horticulture in the 70s, still thinks soil must be mixed up.

Barbara M
Foster, RI

--
"Animals Are A Gift"