Hi guys and gals , I have just been watching a programme about a German vinyard. The narrater showed the soil which had broken up slate in it , and said when the sun heats up the slate , the slate keeps the heat in , thus keeping the soil warmer for longer.
Has anyone ever tried this on an allotment. Or are there any advantages in it?
Grapevines flourish in very poor soil, and it wouldn't be dug over very often, so the slate wouldn't be in anyone's way. It's usualy dark in colour, so it would absorb heat. Another advantage I've heard quoted is that stones keep the soil moist; obviously water doesn't evaporate through them so it does make some sense.
hi robert,
so if you were gonna try it just as a test, what could you try it with next year?
something like melons maybe? or something else ???
Same problem as with using old slates to cover the roots of Clematis, SLUGS. they love the dark dampness of the underside of slates, so you increase the population of them.
Plus, the problem we have here where two house roofs were scattered across the land, is a very painful one, slates have extremely sharp edges and a cut, even through a glove, is quite frequent.
oh yeah.... I never thought of the down sides ;D
I never do . Good points there
Interesting to hear about the sharpness, OH wants to build a slate garden as he loves the Lake District and would like a bit of it here. We have already bought a monolith as a water feature, but that is as far as we have got. I will tell him about the slates and think about planting plants that don't need much care as we want to use slate chipings as a mulch, and bigger ones to form a river bed. We have had the monolith for a year now so are not getting very far, we will get there one day...
T.
The slate bits sold for mulching have very few sharp edges so there is not as much of a danger from them.
That's ok then! Thanks Eric! :)