Autumn is one of the best times to improve soil health and plant growth, gardening and permaculture expert Kay Baxter says.
The most obvious resource at this time of year is falling leaves, she told Saturday Morning.
Kay Baxter - Kōanga Institute Photo: Kōanga Institute
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“Minerals are contained in leaves and in the autumn they fall to the ground so instead of vacuuming them up and them ending up in the ditches and drains and the waterways, hold them,” Baxter says.
Leaves contain valuable nutrients, she says.
“As home gardeners we can collect leaves, leaves that go colourful contain high levels of potash which is really valuable for fruiting trees and leaves that stay brown have high levels of calcium.
“So, collect them and put them in a big pile in your back yard and they turn to leaf mould which is really amazing for the garden and for the orchard and really high in minerals, so we are holding the minerals in our own back yard.”
Two major minerals that tend to be unavailable in most gardens are calcium and phosphate, she says.
She tends to use this time of year to sow cover crops that will unlock these minerals.
“Oats and lupins are my two favourite winter crops so in spring I’ve got a whole lot of material for making compost which is going to be raising the calcium level and raising the phosphate level.”
She says healthy soil makes pests and diseases in the garden a “non-issue.”
“If we focus on looking after the health of the soil, building the humus levels, building the carbon levels, building the mineral levels and the fungi and microbe levels then the pests become a non-issue – assuming we’ve also got enough water, because water stress can bring them as well.”
Kay Baxter co-founded the Koanga Institute and runs Regeneration Productions.