calliandra
Well-Known Member
LMAO how embarassing! Yeah I'm on my crappy laptop screen at the mo, didn't look at her up close, and had actually left the house for a talk about terra pretaIs Calendula my minature rose bushes name? LOL..........I think she prefers her new position to being in the shade, on the floor. She was a tangled mess so I cut her right back to 5-6 main branches and she's throwing out healthier buds & flowers now.
The grass is barley which I bought for making SST's, but don't use anymore, so thought I'd have a bit of living mulch. It's more trouble than it's worth TBH. I originally had the full surface of all the pots covered in it and trimming it was a PITA, the little that is still growing, is growing despite being flattened, buried in EWC and a new layer of mulch applied over it.
I'm definitely into living mulch and companion planting though. I'm considering going full 'No Till' in those big ass plastic pots(I'm getting too much evaporation from so many fabrics and it's giving me humidity issues) and I really want a small perennial plant that's known to make mycorrhizal connections with Glomus intraradices or whatever they've changed the name to now. I spent some time looking the other night, but could only find general list for endo or ecto, not specific species. There are 2 plants I've already decided I'm gonna use though, Indian mint and creeping thyme. I've got em growing in the same size pots in my front yard and they just cover any available space on the surface of the pot.
I haven't gotten round to checking it out, but apparently Ingham is experimenting with plants that won't grow up like that, as most "traditional" covercrops need cutting, whilst the idea is to get a perennial ground coverthat won't interfere with the crops being grown there overgroundand complement them underground. So it's a plant hunt
The glomus mossae/intraradices isn't a problem. AFAIK it's the most common of mycorrhizal fungi, so we can just assume it will be shared by most other mycorrhizal plants anyway And yeah that specific of information isn't out there and largely probably hasn't even been gathered - I mean, they're stuck even trying to name em haha
My copy of Teaming with fungi is probably going to arrive on Valentine's Day, how fitting!
Why I mentioned the terra preta: I've been focusing on aeration a bit, and biochar does seem to fit the bill perfectly for container gardening.
The guy of course was speaking of the outdoor, but the way he ranted about increases in soil fertility - with pix haha - well, it's ideal isn't it? Increases the surface area in the soil exponentially, allowing more air, more water, more microbes, to be in that soil.
On an aside, I really loved the rule of thumb he told us of regarding amounts to add over time. Namely, to add only that amount of biochar to a soil that corresponds to the biomass that would've grown on the area being treated. That really does resonate with me!
And I never relized how fucking easy biochar is to make - all you need is a can and a fire lol - I mean, I knew the big barrel method and had watched in on it, but never thought that the same principle can be miniaturized. of course!
So I may be getting myself one of those fire bowls, where you can make a safe fire on your balcony