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| Our helper's children came over and played with Sassy, who loved the petting and ball tossing. She wanted to play catch after they left, too. |
We switched over to mulching the new garden, the future corn patch. Sassy got petted by two children she knows well and grinned the whole time. When the kids got restless, I got the squeaky ball, and she played catch with them from then on.
I am opening up new garden areas by laying down newspapers and covering them with wood mulch. We only dig where needed for new plants or seeds. When the seedlings come up, more mulch can be used. I used to do that with extra lawn clippings, long ago in Midland. I asked for lawn clippings and autumn leaves wherever I could, and often picked them up from the street. LI said about my pick-ups, as he hid in the backseat, "Why couldn't I have a normal dad?"
But he ate the sweet corn and everything else.
I was always impressed at the volume of organic matter swallowed up by the soil creatures. No matter what I put in the yard, and kept in the yard, I always needed more. Pet rabbits contributed with their wire cages over children's swimming pools. Instead of water in the rigid pools, we had soil and earthworms. The soil and worms provided the sanitation, and the worms grew faster than excuses at WELS headquarters.
As all gardeners know, rabbits have hot (high nitrogen) manure, and earthworms have no trouble using it, taming it, and converting it to casts and wormlings. I often had masses of earthworms in one ball as I hauled the bounty out to the garden and got fresh soil plus a few starter worms.
The water holding quality of humus was demonstrated today when I stuck my hand in the garage rain gutter overhead. I had no living maple treelets, but I had handfuls of maple seeds and leaves trying to compost. By holding onto water, they became effective corks in the gutter, finally oozing down to the bottom as I shook it, knocked it, and poured water down.
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| Hydrangeas are another flower I do not grow. |
That is why humus rich soil does well when rain is sparse. The humus holds it between particles and keeps the cycle of life moving along. Humus and mulch mean my plants do not easily get the droops on a hot, dry day.
The scientists think in terms of N-P-K, but the soil is far more complex than three chemicals.
Forty bags of mulch have cost only $80, and they will become composted soil in time, as earthworms and soil creatures break down the woody residue and digest it, mixing it with the heavy clay in our yard.
I think of the mulch as compost on the spot, forcing the dying lawn to compost as well. The soil will be much richer in the spring, when the serious gardening begins. Worked soil is far more productive, because a large volume of plant material grows in it, digs roots down, and returns as compost when all the crop trash is re-used.
