Subject: Re: building up the soil
From: wtmorgan@pilot.msu.edu (Bill Morgan)
Organization: Michigan State University
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 02:25:20 -0400
Message-ID: <MOD$971019.1915@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$971018.27276@rec.gardens.ecosystems>


In article <MOD$971018.27276@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, Jesse Dinkin
wrote:

> I've posted to this group before but I'll ask again because I don't
> remember the responses I got. How do I build up my soil.
Since you have Netscape, you can get back to the earlier responses by using
DejaNews:

http://web3.dejanews.com/home_qs.shtml

You can do quick searches, power searches or filtered searches. Most of it
is self-explanatory, but there are also links to help files.

Enter your name in the search field, or enter keywords that you are
interested in. Click on the find button, and you're off.

When the search is done (say you used your name), then you can click on the
links to any of the article titles listed, and whatever you click on will
open. Once you are in one of the articles, you can click on the "view
thread" button to see the responses.

Your alternative at the end of the search is to click on your e-mail
address where it apprears. This will bring up your "author profile", which
will show what groups you've posted to, and how many articles to each
group. In this case, you would click on rec.gardens.ecosystems, and it will
give you the list of the articles you have posted here. (Should be 2 right
now, maybe 3 by the time you read this.) Click on the relevant one, and
again you can view the thread.

Of course, there is more out there than that. Suppose you wanted to search
lots of old responses on the topics. You could run the search on kewords
like "lawn" and "organic", specifying that both words must appear. This
will give you a lot of articles to choose from, I am sure...mostly from
rec.gardens.

After you use DN a few times, it will get pretty comfortable. Putz around
with power and filtered searches a couple of times and you'll be amazed at
what you can find. Lots of lawn and garden stuff out there, for sure.

About the lawn:

I'm kind of indifferent to what most people consider to be weeds, so I
can't help you a lot on that score. But one way to build the soil is to let
the clippings rot in place: adds organic matter and a little bit of
nitrogen back into the soil. Why remove all that stuff just to add back
organic matter and nitrogen in some other form?

One thing that people commmonly use for an organic fertilizer is cottonseed
meal.

Regards,
Bill

--
Bill Morgan
wtmorgan@pilot.msu.edu
Center for Room Temperature Confusion