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All spent plant growth from the garden.
Leaves can be stripped from the prunings and used. Heavy prunings
should be shredded.
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Avoid using bulbous weeds including
oxalis, onion weed and nut grass, as enough of these will either escape
or survive the heat to cause weed problems in the mulching compost.
Couch or kikuyu runners and Wandering Jew invariably survive unless
they happen to be in the hottest centre of the heap, so it is as well
to spread these in the hot sun for a few days before using them.
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Grass clipping are valuable, especially
when used as suggested earlier. Use all vegetable and fruit peeling in
the mulching compost but meat or processed food should be avoided. Egg
shells are good particularly if crushed. Newspaper or cardboard can be
used, providing it is shredded and moistened. Mix it as much as
possible with other ingredients so that it does not predominate in
areas. Objections about lead in newsprint are unfounded, especially in
these days of cheaper synthetics.
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Gum leaves and most other leaves are
excellent, providing they are moistened before being added and are
confined to thin layers, or mixed in with grass clippings or other
material. I hesitate to use large amounts of camphor laurel or she-oak
(casuarina) leaves because they seem to contain substances that at
least inhibit seed germination. However, these can still be useful as
surface mulches in other parts of the garden.
Remember that it is hard to make really
bad mulching compost but some brews are better than others.
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