Would dead leaves and spent blooms be considered organic material. I am not talking about compost, but many Gardiner’s advise adding organic material and i don’t know what they mean.
Compost IS organic material. If you have very heavy clay or very sandy soils, adding organic matter will loosen heavy clay and allow sandy soil to hold more water. Putting all your dead leaves and spent blooms in a pile to break down over winter is composting. You want your organic material to break down before using it in your soil because the process of breaking down can harm your plants. By allowing the material to compost until you can’t recognize anything in the pile, you are completing the process and won’t burn your plants.
Yes they would and so would all types of animal manure. They all break down, become chemicals and fertilize the plants. Whether you apply chemicals or "organic material" it is all the same in the end. That says the "organic" craze is another example of the Madison Avenue hype and the gullibility of
consumers.
References :
Farmer
Compost IS organic material. If you have very heavy clay or very sandy soils, adding organic matter will loosen heavy clay and allow sandy soil to hold more water. Putting all your dead leaves and spent blooms in a pile to break down over winter is composting. You want your organic material to break down before using it in your soil because the process of breaking down can harm your plants. By allowing the material to compost until you can’t recognize anything in the pile, you are completing the process and won’t burn your plants.
References :
Horticulture student and avid composter. I have composted over a ton of horse manure the last 2 winters.
Any carbon will work to improve the soil. You can have a single row, or a raised bed or a corner of a lot. Turn you lawn into an organic garden. Sheet mulch the whole yard and produce food for you and your community. All you need is to layer cardboard, manure, compost and straw. Let time and nature do the work of making good soil. Try to find sources of organic material that have not had any pesticides and herbicides used on them but you can use blooms and leafs if you used organic methods. You cut a small hole in the card board to plant your seeds or small plants. The rows should be laid out on a Keyline contour or swale to maximize the water be soaked up by the earth. Leave 20" wide pathways for by the 48" wide beds. Put overlapped cardboard everywhere but all the other organic materials go only on the beds. Get ready to eat local this year!
References :
wiki, permaculture, sheet mulching, organic gardening