The council has been flat out for the last month cleaning up the mess and chipping the branches and trees that were blown down down during the storm.
They are freely giving the mulch away to anybody that wants it, we have grabbed our share which is stock piled in truck loads.
The mulch is very green and contains a lot of "chips" as in solid pieces of mulch, if used straight away this type of mulch is actually bad for the soil and puts the soil under a lot of stress.
Coarse Mulch needs to sit for at least 3 months, the longer the better, 6 months or longer is good to allow it to at least partially compost.
Solid mulch extracts a lot of Nitrogen from the soil during the composting process, also because it contains a lot of Eucalyptus fibre that has a high oil content this is quite acidic and can be detrimental to the soil PH as well.
To hasten the composting process I am using Sulphate of Ammonia, a safe form of Nitrogen that will help the mulch to break down quicker so we can make use of it sooner.
Every time it rains I add a little more, I dug into a heap this week and the heat is amazing, a good sign that the mulch is breaking down well.
When the mulch takes on a dark colour this means that it is safe to use without any negative effects.
Be Happy,
Barry
