hazelnut said:
I hadn't thought of throwing bones in, but my dogs eat a lot them so
bone disposal was becoming a problem. Thanks for the idea -- Ill toss them in with the woodies in the hugelkulture beds.
Bones in acid soils don't last all that long, but still long enough. They keep longer in higher pH soils. A few years ago we had a cattle truck accident near where I work. It was a 3 trailer one and one of the trailers rolled. Some of the cattle were killed, about 30 had to be put down, and some escaped. The carcases were dumped in the bush. Over the past year I've been bringing loads of bones home for the gardens. Although I have big gardens, there's more than enough bones for quite a while, make no bones about that!
If your soil is sandy, charcoal is good to add, especially activated charcoal. Now I don't mean the charcoal sold for BBQs, that often has flammable compounds added to it to make it burn better. Charcoal has a huge surface area (at the molecular level) which nutruients adhere to preventing them from getting leached away too rapidly. It holds moisture as well. Plants are able to draw on these. Sand generally hold nothing.
