My sunflower patch will not match the one above.
Freed PDF - The Wormhaven Gardening Book.
We dug a shallow trench on the sunny side of the house, which was going to host more roses. I used mushroom compost on top to amend the soil, then covered the row with wood mulch. Accuweather predicted rain, so I watered the row. No rain fell.
Mrs. Ichabod correctly observed that roses should be in the front where she could enjoy them, not hidden on the side of the house with no windows.
Dreaming - Sunflowers - Corn
Dreaming is an important part of gardening. No muscles are strained. No dollars are spent.
I decided the putative rose garden extension would make a good sunflower patch. I had just enough seed for a row along that side of the house. Most plants do not like to bake in the sun, but corn and sunflowers use sun power more effectively and unreservedly than any other plants. They convert solar energy into nutrition too.Sunflower seeds are packed with nutrition and oil.
Americans burn up corn alcohol so they can drive to the store to pick up Fritos.
That part of the yard is ideal for corn, since it is great for sunflowers. However, corn in the front yard seems
extreme. The alternative is the area near the compost pile.
Ideal Compost Production
Compost needs soil, dampness, shade, and organic material.
High nitrogen materials like green grass and rabbit manure will heat up the compost and break it down faster. That happens because the bacteria that likes the nitrogen heats up the pile of leaves, grass, soil, and manure. A pile of sod turned upside down will shrink and warm up as it composts. High nitrogen materials will grow so hot that "steam" will rise up from the pile.
Large heaps of wood and coal of will catch fire - one of the theories behind the extreme speed of the Titanic, by the way. The ship was racing to burn up coal because the Titanic had one of those common coal-bin fires. They doused that fire by sinking.
Soil helps because a soil floor or layers of soil will provide bacteria and soil creatures to decompose the organic matter. Manure (not dog or cat, because of transferring disease to humans) is good for bacteria and organic compounds. Cow manure is cool (low-nitrogen). Chicken and rabbit manures are hot (high-nitrogen).
Since you asked - my grandfather earned an agriculture degree at the University of Illinois.
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| Shaken, not stirred. |
Decomposition is increased by aeration and by heat. Some people stir or mix their compost. There is even a compost shaker, seen above, being dedicated at Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, ELCA. LSTC may go bankrupt, but they still have their compost turning drums. Amen? Amen!
The big guys stay out of the way when the compost is heating up. The bugs and finally the earthworms arrive to feast on all the good stuff inside compost. The bugs are not pests, but the very creatures God designed to take care of garbage and manure, reducing it back to an aromatic soil-friendly amendment.
Soil is a great antibiotic. In fact, some of the antibiotics we taken for infections come from the soil itself. If the compost smells like a sack of garbage or a pile of manure (ammonia), not enough soil is layered in or on top.
Organic gardeners do not put meat in compost, because that attracts the wrong critters. Raw meat would add a lot of nitrogen. That nitrogen can come from manure - and will definitely come from the tragic deaths of thousands of earthworms as they complete their life-cycles in that earthly paradise.
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| Springtails are tiny helpers in reducing organic material. Alas, they are preyed upon, and their predators are also preyed upon. |
Why Is Compost Good?
Compost is loaded with live earthworms - and more importantly - their egg cases. The egg cases survive a long time. So using compost means distributing the progeny of those venal earthworms.
Since earthworms multiply in rich soil, distributing compost will enhance the lifestyles of those earthworms, who constantly improve, plow, manure, aerate, and rain-enhance the soil. A hard rain will run off baked clay soil, but soil softened and tunneled by earthworms will soak in the rain.
Earthworms are a synecdoche - a part for the whole. Gardeners judge soil by the number of earthworms because that means all their soil-buddies are hard at work as well. Some are 1/25,000th of an inch long, so they are difficult to see. Others, like the springtails, are more abundant than all the humans on earth put together, but the hexapods do their work without seeking or receiving recognition for it.
The soil is healthy when it contains a lot of humus, and compost is very rich in humus. Soil without humus is either a brick for the kiln or sand for the sandbox. Sandy soil will humus added will grow a lot. Clay will be even more productive. God planned it this way at Creation.
Humus is jelly-like, which means super-rich soil will feel jello-like when walked on. Rich soil will also stay warmer and hold moisture better.
Corn and Spinach in the Future
I can prepare the future corn patch in the fall. I will do that by spreading out compost and mulch to kill off the turf, making it easy to turn over in the spring (I hope). It will also be rich in earthworms and humus.
I can open up the compost pile (chicken wire in a circle) and spread it out.
Another area will be reserved for fall spinach planting. The spinach plant is very hardy in cold and sad in hot weather. The answer is to start spinach in the fall, cover it with leaves when frost approaches. The leaves can be pulled away in the very early spring. When the spring rains arrive and the bugs have not yet hatched, spinach will grow up and be crunchy with moisture.
