WHY Decomposition Uses Nitrogen (or, What I Learned Today #2)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about what happens when sawdust decomposes. But the account was incomplete, and I am here today to rectify that error. Call me honest, call me obsessive; I’m going to set the record straight, sawdust-wise.

I wrote then that sawdust makes a lousy lawn fertilizer because it requires so much nitrogen to decompose, and it contains very little. So far, so good. But when I wrote that “it requires nitrogen to break down, and it’ll make use of whatever it can lay its sawdusty little paws on,” I misspoke.

I know what you’re thinking: sawdust does not have paws. But that’s not where I’m headed. No, what’s at stake here is not anatomy, but agency. It’s a mistake to refer to sawdust as making use of nitrogen or to suggest that sawdust “gets” nitrogen whether with paws, hands, or any other part of its being.

It’s a mistake, in a sense, even to refer to sawdust (or anything else) as decomposing, as if this were something that it did all by itself. In fact, of course, something decomposes it. And not just one something; lots of somethings. These somethings are called—brace yourself—decomposers.

The Worst Amendment for Lawns: Sawdust. (Or, What I Learned Today #1)

Refusing to be scared off by unfortunate acronyms, I’m starting a whole series of posts to be titled What I Learned Today. This is the first.

As you can see from the #1 in the title.

Though I could have put that there just to confuse you.

But I didn’t.

I’m beginning to sound like Esther. Or Winnie the Pooh. Yippi!

Down to business:

A couple of years ago I read that sawdust was the last thing you wanted to sprinkle on your lawn (unless you liked that sickly yellow color), but I’d completely forgotten why. This did not keep me up at night until recently, when I was working on the soil amendments part of my endless organic lawn care article (I’m up to page 112, and counting), and wanted to say something intelligent about sawdust as an amendment.*

A Lighter take on Heavy Metals

Given that my "Heavy Metals in Wood Ash" post appears to have gone over like a lead balloon (yuk, yuk), I thought I’d try a shorter version and see if that flies.

To start at the end: a fair amount of research has been done, all of it concluding that it is safe to use wood ashes in gardens in moderation. The ashes contain only trace amounts of heavy metals, and the metals do not move into whatever is grown in them. And yet, on-line question and answer gardening sites often do not mentioned this research or its conclusions.

That makes me mad. I expect people handing out advice to know their stuff. Silly me.