Our friends the worms

[phil53]

The ground is not so sterile as that, there is no humus that's all and the pebble

[dedeleco]

The soil is in embankment of construction thus practically sterile ...
there is no humus that's all and the pebble

In general the embankments of construction of pebbles and earth are filled with all the cuttings of masonries which embarrass the masons, that is to say blocks, concrete blocks, remains of concrete mixers with all the additives which one finds with the cements and the plasterings !!

In my personal case, in my garden during a renovation, the bricklayer cunningly left a huge block of concrete an m3, all the cement excavation to avoid paying the landfill, covering them with dirt from above to hide !!
I had to spy on him and fight him for him to re-embark the biggest of huge, but he left lots of small residues in the ground under the concrete mixer, which sterilizes this portion of my garden, where only the plants of vague lots are growing !!
So this embankment is very likely to be sterile except for some plants adapted to these rotten wasteland full of cement and junk !!

[Christophe]

Ben after a few years of weeds, it should form a fertile humus on some cm no?

Otherwise help by adding dead leaves, mowed lawn ... etc etc ...

This will be enough for most garden ornamentals, obviously should not expect to plant large shrubs or a tree ... although ... some conifers grow on very rocky soil ...

This is only my opinion of Sunday gardener ... finally one Sunday a month

[ecologicreation]

Hello everyone,

If Phil53 wants to start a compost and the land is embankment, it is better to untangle the soil, dig on 30 or 40cm and rather than ask for worms, deposit a good compost or a mix soil, garden soil to start, then think to deposit some branches mixed with peelings, clippings, leaves ... the ideal is to ventilate the compost so that there is an aerobic decomposition (the air brings oxygen to the bacteria and avoids the anaerobic decomposition ( oxygen-free) that causes the smell of rotten eggs when bacteria begin their work.
Because, in fact, it is not only the earthworms that help the decomposition, but an entire ecosystem and full of auxiliaries, bacteria, fungi and insects.
Then there is the "hot" or "cold" compost depending on whether you want the compost quickly or not.
There is still the solution of the commercial composters which have a bottom and aeration, but you have to start anyway the same way and "seed" it in a way with a good quality bottom and rich in nutrients.

When in the land, the ideal is to put in place a green manure and to escape at the end of cultivation to improve the soil.
Legumes are used, such as clover, alfalfa, or non-leguminous, mustard, phacelia. Legumes have the ability to fix nitrogen from the air, by fermenting, these fertilizers bring humus and nitrogen and greatly improves the quality of the soil.

Good day under the sun
Caro

[dedeleco]

Ben after a few years of weeds, it should form a fertile humus on some cm no?

In my case, even with potting soil, digging and plucking, 10 years is totally insufficient, it takes centuries, like after a flow of volcano lava, which initially is sterile!
the depollution by these plants of wasteland is slow !!
The land of embankment construction with pebble without humus is hyper limestone (cement, concrete, broken blocks) and so it is necessary to reduce the limestone, otherwise few plants are at ease, in addition to junk and additives with cement.
So the safest way is to change the soil surface on 20 to 30cm with topsoil and compost, charcoal (terra preta). and follow the advice of ecologicreation !!
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
I should have done in my case instead of planting plants that grow badly and have to wait a century at least (good for my little children?)!

Miraculous land preta on leached and barren soil since 150 million years ago:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
http://jardinons.wordpress.com/2008/03/ ... -la-faire/
http://jardinons.wordpress.com/2008/02/ ... a-planete/
http://dindiu.canalblog.com/archives/20 ... 19210.html
http://e-terrapreta.blogspot.com/

Black earth (terra preta in Portuguese) is an anthropogenic soil (that is to say of human origin) of exceptional fertility due to particularly high concentrations of charcoal, organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium [1]. It also contains a remarkable amount of pottery shards [2], and the micro-organic activity is most developed ......
Indeed the debate has until recent years revolved around the issue of subsistence: Amazonian soils, generally poor and leached, they were able or not able to meet the food needs of dense populations? ......
They would have applied a soil-care practice to transform a clayey yellow soil of limited biological productivity into one of the richest soils on the planet ....
Carbon has been added to poor soils, in the form of charcoal made at low temperatures and in the presence of a limited amount of oxygen (using muffled fires).
This coal is thus decisive for the sustainable nature of the soil culture of terra preta [17], [29]. Ferrasol amendments with charcoal significantly increase plant productivity [8]. Agricultural soils lost on average 50% of their carbon due to intensive agriculture and other human-induced degradations [4].

On the other hand, Terra Preta blocks carbon in the soil in the form of charcoal. It is a soil that retains minerals well (remember so activated carbon that filters and retains impurities), it is quickly regenerated by fallowing and has a higher yield than normal. No need to go elsewhere, so no unnecessary land clearing.
But I wonder how long such a soil is created. In my opinion, it is not impossible that it takes one or two generations to reach optimal fertility, which would not really be in line with today's economic interests, which are more of the order of short and medium term ...