Fun with Compost and Straw Bales. Flowers and Vines Sprout from Compost and Straw Bales

Let me guess -
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Above is one of those ideal compost piles, with layers of soil, grass or greens, and straw or dried leaves. Why is it in the bright sunlight? Compost belongs in the shadiest spot, but this one may have been posed for a gardening article.

All those ingredients are fine to use. Various manures are good in for introducing moisture, organic matter, and bacteria. However,  dog and cat manure are avoided because they may carry pathogens that hop into the human system. Raise some rabbits and you will never lack for Rabbit-Gro.

The fertilizer salesmen and their puppets warn that the NPK rating is low for manure and compost, but NPK is misleading. Dow Chemists used to laugh at how little the ingredients cost and how much they could get for them in the right packages. Besides, inorganic fertilizers are not good for the very creatures that make soil productive and healthy.

To show that the layer cake is not required, some of us plant on damp straw bales. The are Lego blocks for gardeners. Now that the potatoes are growing, I am fond of the homely lumps.

Flowers and Vines Sprout from Compost and Straw Bales
Last year I planted a pumpkin vine, rather late, in the compost. The vine grew slowly at first and really took off after establishing its roots.

This year I have already planted strawberries on top. My contributors (Mr. Gardener and our helper) know I do this, so they add their contributions around the newest plant.

When it warms up I will plant pumpkin or gourd vines in the compost, since little will be added on top for a period of time.

I have already planted flowers in the straw bale sides. Some things are sprouting already.

The fun comes from seeing how well the plants do in compost and straw. That can only happen because the soil creatures - fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa, earthworms, slugs, springtails, and many more - work together to decompose the material and swap soluble elements.

The plant roots do far more than grow and absorb moisture. They attract this Vanity Fair of microbes with stuff they exude from the root hairs. In return for the carbon and materials offered by the roots, fungi draws the needed compounds from its decomposing mechanism. Fungi do not tear and chew and rasp, the way earthworms and slugs and springtails do. Instead, fungi dissolve into the food and take what they want. They can trap nematodes and pull out the high nitrogen insides. Bacteria help in all this, but fungi are the giant digesters needed to make it happen.




Earthworms mix and tunnel and sweeten the last stage of decomposition.

A gardener can get seeds to sprout in wet paper towels, but it takes a growing medium for the plant to be established and productive. Compost and the straw bale are two ways to create that medium.

Apart from getting straw wet and starting to decompose for a few weeks, I truly doubt the bales need any more "conditioning" - as various people suggest. They sit on soil and get the creatures they need from the soil. They do not need soil added on top. Nor is a nitrogen product needed. Soil can be put on the top, but why? Adding inorganic fertilizers? That is really crazy. "Let's get all the creatures going in this ideal growing medium and then stun and kill them with inorganic salts."

Rove beetles eat the creatures living on decay.

FAMILY Staphylinidae NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES 3000+ 
This family has the honor of being one of the largest families of beetles in North America. A distinctive feature of most rove beetles is the short wing covers that leave their segmented abdomens exposed. When threatened, many species of rove beetles curl their abdomens upward in scorpion fashion. No need to worry, though, as these beetles have no stinger. They are generally brown to black and measure 0.08–0.78 inch (2–20 mm) in length (though some species can reach much larger). 

Rove beetles are predators of insects that feed on decaying organic matter (a handful of parasitic species exist as well). They commonly consume bark beetles, slugs, snails, ants, termites, root maggots, and many others and are found in plant debris, in manure and compost piles, under stones, and in woodlands. Their fast-moving larvae feed on the same prey species by capturing them with sickle-shaped jaws. A few species can produce skin-blistering chemicals or defensive odors when attacked.


Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1035-1043). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

I suggest using straw alone to grasp the concept
of decomposition as designed by the Creating Word, the Son of God.

Birds Eye View

"I am not black," says the grackle.
"I have metallic colors. If you feed me often,
you might catch the display. Don't be lazy."

Our Perspective
"Birds are really smart and easily trained."
"True. I give them food whenever I go outside. Now they clamor and chirp for me."
"Our hummingbirds are so smart. One went to where the feeder was last year and hovered there, looking for his food."
"I have learned to put a lot of different foods out there. I am seeing many more species than I did before. Some like nuts, some like fruits. They like various seeds, too. Some leave corn and eat the rest. Then grackles come and eat the corn."

"If you are this beautiful, don't give it away.
Make your human fill the feeders and plant your favorite flowers and vines."

Birds' Perspective
"Humans are fairly smart. They can be trained."
"How so?"
"All my pals wait for ours to come out. We cheer, flutter, chirp, and tweet. He looks up at the trees, smiles, and feeds us."
Hummingbird - "All I had to do was hover around the place where the feeder was last summer. My human ran inside, filled the feeder, and put it where was before. Naturally, I waited. I want that full each day."
"I am tired of black oil sunflower seeds. They are good, but pluck my tailfeathers, I can only eat so many."
"Bring a new friend every so often, especially if something new is out, like some strawberries. Eventually he will learn that we want a lot of variety."
"Good call."
"We will sing Matins every morning for fresh food, and Vespers at night, so it is all refilled."

"Don't just bathe. Splash and fuss with your friends.
Make a lot of noise and we will get fresh water each day."

Hosting the Beneficial Army. Sobering Thoughts about Plants Requesting Airborne Support

The ichneumon wasp lays eggs on destructive pests.
The wasplings feed on the pest to get their growth spurt.

Many pest-infested plants emit semiochemicals known as herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPV) or green leaf volatiles into the air to lure in the particular species of natural enemy most likely to prey upon the specific pest present on the plant. These scents, which travel anywhere from a few inches to hundreds of yards from their source, are detected by the predator and/or parasitoid and used to locate its prey. Several studies have found that female parasitic wasps are not attracted to aphids alone but rather to the semiochemicals produced by the infested plants. The plant, in essence, is sending out an SOS...

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 511-516). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

I often return to my Kindle book collection to support the information I provide. Each time I learn a little more.

The quotation above only enhances what I wrote about the complexity of plants. They ask for the nutrition they need from fungi, and they send out chemical distress signals to draw in the ichneumon wasps.

That is why Jessical Walliser says the pest infestations should be given time to attract the good guys who will clean it up. Reach for the Raid bug bomb and you rip food away from the beneficials while slaughtering the spider population. The pests and pest-eaters will reach a balance, because every creature is food for another. That is the design of the Creator.

One fetish on the Internet is the fear of spiders. Finding a large spider and trying to kill it is a favorite video. No wonder people think nothing of spraying down their flowers and wiping them out with the insects. Of course, the pests will happily return to a safer, more toxic garden, minus thousands of spiders.

One reader wondered why she had so few butterflies. I asked about spraying Malathion for mosquitoes. Yes, the city sprayed as a matter of policy, every year, and the truck went by her garden.
That wipes out the ladybug and butterfly population. Mosquitoes are annoying, but they are also food for many animals, including bats. (Pause for several readers to freak out over bats. "Oh, I hate bats. They scare me.") One can hardly find a  more fascinating creature than the bat, the twilight bug remover.

"Scale insect" by Vijay Cavale .
Wikipedia article on scale insects.

California banned Malathion because it kills off the ladbybug population, and ladybugs are death on cottony citrus scale, an insect that sucks the life out of citrus groves. I had maple scale on my maple tree (fancy that) and the ladybugs flew in by the thousands to devour it.

"Oh, why not use non-toxic oil?" It is also called miscible or edible oil, which suffocates the pests. But it also suffocates the pest eaters. This oil is not toxic but it is still lethal to spiders and beneficial insects.

Some like systemic toxins, which kill anything living on the plant that absorbed the toxins. That is not as extreme as burning the garden to remove the pests, but the logic is similar.

Man-made devices look worse as they are magnified by scanning electron microscopes. Everything in nature looks better, more beautiful, more skillfully designed and produced under the same magnifications.

Bee head.
Bee wise and bee friendly to this magnificent pollinator.

Hosting the Beneficial Army
Good Creation gardening practices are the opposite of human tendencies. We want to clean up. clip, spray, burn, and Brady Bunch the yard. The Brady Bunch had astro-turf for a lawn, and people do install that in their yards.

Many of these practices attract beneficial birds, insects, spiders, and creatures at the same time.

• Leave part of the yard with long grass, weeds, and herbs.
• Stop hating on dandelions. They are herbs.
• Place logs or firewood on the ground, to serve as soil, insect, and bird feeders.
• Use many birdbaths at various levels.
• Create Jackson Mulch for garden areas: newspapers or cardboard topped with wood mulch.
• Save bush trimmings cut in small pieces for mulch (but not with roses).
• Feed birds daily at various levels. The more varied the food, the more varied the birds attracted.
• Buy suet and bags (or large metal cages) for the insect eating birds. Meat markets are the best source for suet by the pound.
• Leave cut grass, leaves, and dryer lint where birds can re-purpose them for nests.
• Grow insect friendly plants, such as sunflowers.
• Select butterfly and bee plants when planning the garden.
• Save broken clay pots for toad homes.
• Never spray for insects. Never use fungicide. Avoid tilling. Never use herbicides (RoundUp) or inorganic fertilizers.

Bee balm is also an herb.