Copyright Harvest McCampbell 5/23/07 Published in the Hoopa People News
Diatomaceous earth offers organic farms, gardens, and households a non-toxic way to control many pests. It is made up of the fossilized remains of microscopic diatoms that once floated through ancient tropical seas. This product is mined from naturally occurring deposits, then purified and prepared for a number of uses. Food and agriculture grade diatomaceous earth is non-toxic to humans, mammals, and other higher animals. It is so non-toxic that it is sometimes added to food. DE, as it is often called, provides pest control by microscopic razor like edges that lacerate pest’s exo-skeletons and tender tissues. Death, generally by dehydration, is the fate of the pests that are susceptible.
Many common house and garden pests are equipped with an exo-skeleton. Think about the hard shells on ants, fleas, and beetles and you will get the idea. Even those squishy aphids and flour moths have exo-skeletons; theirs are just thin – making death by DE a quick proposition. In addition to its use in the garden, it can be used around the house, and diatomaceous earth can be added to stored seeds to prevent insect infestation.
Some organic packaged food products made for people and pets actually contain tiny amounts of food grade DE to prevent insect infestation. Diatomaceous earth is not readily digestible. What we do metabolize provides minute amounts of calcium and trace minerals. The undigested DE actually has another benefit. As it moves through the digestive track it lacerates any intestinal parasites it comes in contact with! It may seem a strange role reversal, but parasites equipped with an exo-skeleton are soon digested by their host.
DE is also inexpensive and easy to use in the home and garden. First, there are some careful considerations we each should make before adding it to our environments. One has to do with its possible irritant affects, and the other has to do with its permanence. Prolonged breathing or eye contact with the dust can be very irritating. While this is more of a problem for workers on organic farms than for those of us who are puttering around at home - it is still a good thing to keep in mind. Dust masks are advised as well as some care to avoid using on windy days and those with asthma or other respiratory ailments.
On the permanence factor, once diatomaceous earth has made its way into your soil, it’s there for good. Since it only works on contact and must be reapplied when it washes off, lots of DE can build up in the soil with repeated use. Think of it as teeny tiny grains of rock or sand. It is not a chemical that will degrade over time and it’s not likely to leach out by the actions of irrigation or winter storms. That longevity is both good and bad. The DE is there working for you - but it is not selective. It harms both the pests that attack our crops as well as the good bugs that attack the pests. While I have not heard of any pests adapting thicker exo-skeletons in response to exposure to DE, it is bound to happen. The pest species are always more adaptable than the predators, so when it does happen the DE will still be killing off the good guys while the bad guys reproduce out of control. Something like this is already going on with commercial farming. Farmers need more and more poison to control rapidly adapting pests, while the chemicals quickly wipe out the predators.
All that said I have used DE around my homes for the last 30 years. I am selective about where I use it because I want to encourage beneficial insects. Many beneficials spend their larval stage as grubs in the soil, so I try to keep the DE out of the garden. However, I find it very useful on my back porch, where my young seedlings are just getting started. It effectively discourages slugs, aphids, and most other pests. I also add DE to the seeds that I save from the garden. So far there have been no bugs in my DE treated seeds. Last but not least, I use DE on my pets for its flea controlling effects. I have a certain spot in the back yard that I use when I dust them with DE. It is a spot where they spend lots of time. The DE that hits the ground will control flea larva, which helps break the flea infestation cycle. (DE alone doesn’t seem able to solve the flea problem, but it definitely helps. If enough people are interested in natural flea control we can cover it in an upcoming article.)
When I use DE, I generally fill a small muslin bag with the powder, hold my breath or use a mask, and shake the bag to apply. It can also be dispensed from an old salt or pepper shaker that is labeled and kept with your garden supplies. You can sprinkle DE along base boards, behind furniture, into cracks and crevices in the kitchen, bathroom, and along windows and doors. This will help eliminate ants, fleas, cockroaches, and other pests at their points of entry and along any travel routes they may have established. They will also carry the dust back to their nests, helping to control the pests right at their sites of origin. If fleas are the main problem, besides dusting your animals, you can also dust their bedding and even your own mattresses (but not your bedding- you don’t want to breathe the dust all night).
Dusting your mattress is also recommended for control of bed bugs. You may come across recommendations to use the dust on furniture and carpet, having done it I don’t recommend it, unless there is no acceptable alternative. I find it quickly ages fabric and carpets, especially in high use areas. The friction of walking on the carpet and using the furniture causes those tiny razor edges to abrade the fibers. Your fabric will look dull and frayed before its time.
DE can be purchased in bulk and is sometimes available as prepackaged combination products. It is available from many organic nurseries and larger natural food outlets. If you can’t find it locally check out St. Gabriel Laboratories at http://www.milkyspore.com or call to request a brochure (800) 801-0061. They carry DE (both wholesale and retail) in bulk as well as a product made to use in the kitchen called the AntEater. The Anteater contains food grade DE and clove oil, but it is not meant to be consumed. This product smells great and it is safe to use around stored food. The packaging is equipped with a special dispenser that makes it easy to apply to the cracks and crevices where insects lurk and where simply shaking wouldn’t be effective. They also have a number of other products available for organic farms and gardens. Check them out--but always do your own research or ask experienced gardeners before using unfamiliar products.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Thwarting Corn Worms
Copyright Harvest McCampbell, 2007, published in the Hoopa People News
Fresh corn on the cob is one of the delights of summer. Whether you like it boiled or roasted, drizzled with butter or olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper or chili powder; I know your mouth is set for a taste right now. Nothing is more disappointing than pulling a plump ear off the grill, impatiently waiting for it to cool, shucking off the husk, and finding you have cooked yourself up a bunch of fat grubs.
As unappetizing as those bugs may be, they won’t hurt you one bit. I am not suggesting you actually eat them, although my grandmother used to suggest that to me. I would get lectures on how nutritious bugs were; and she would further ruin my apatite with stories of all sorts of bugs Native people used to eat. I was not convinced and I won’t try to convince you. Instead I will give you some pointers to reduce the infestation in your corn and a little advice on what to do if you find corn worms on the ears you planned to eat for dinner.
An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure. If you’ve had worms in your corn before, it may not be too late to thwart them this year. Check your plants to see how the ears are coming along. If they are just beginning to put out silk, here is a simple and inexpensive trick that will greatly reduce the number of disgusting worms burrowing through your favorite summer treat. All you need is a little vegetable oil, a small jar, and an eye dropper or bulb syringe. Castor oil is supposed to be the best, because it is the thickest; but any vegetable oil will work just fine.
First take a close look at your developing ears. At the top you simply squirt a dropper full of the oil into the opening through which the silk is emerging. You want to wait until the silk is at least an inch and a half long. It is important not to get any oil on the tips of the silk, because that would interfere with pollination necessary to develop plump ears.
This little trick works two ways. First of all, the worms emerge from eggs laid by moths which crawl through that same opening where you just squirted the oil. Those that are fool-hardy enough to crawl through the oil usually don’t survive the experience. Moths breathe through pores in their abdomen. The oil can clog the pores and suffocate them. If they manage to survive suffocation, the oil also ruins their wings, making it impossible for them to fly to the next young ear and lay a few more eggs. Second of all, should a moth have beaten you to the ear, the oil will also suffocate the eggs and tiny young worms. For best control, you can repeat this trick every three to four days from the time the silk emerges until the corn is ready to pick. However, if you have lots of corn and little time, you might just want to invest in the castor oil and make the application a single time when the corn is most vulnerable; just after the silk has emerged.
There is a product advertised for single application treatments that contains oil mixed with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is marketed as a disease that only affects caterpillars, grubs, and a few other insects. It is incorporated into a number of products that are popular with many commercial organic growers and some organic gardeners. Bt gives the bugs a deadly case of the flue. Unfortunately it also kills native species and the bacteria can multiply and spread. If that weren’t bad enough news, recent research has shown that people can become infected with Bt. While fairly uncommon; there are well documented cases of folks with lesions in their eyes, lungs, and skin. (For more information search the Internet on “Bt / Human Infection.”) Bt infection is a greater concern for workers on organic farms, the elderly, the very young, or those with impaired immune systems; than it is for the rest of us. However, if my only choice was between those icky worms that never actually hurt anyone and bacteria that might, I would stick with the worms.
There is also a beneficial insect that can help control corn worms. According to research done by Cornell University some farmers have found that a tiny (non-stinging) wasp that goes by the unwieldy name, Trichogramma ostriniae, provides better control of corn worms than provided with commercial pesticides. These wasps parasitize the eggs and larva of a number of crop pests including cabbage worms, corn worms, and a number of borers that tunnel into the stems and fruits of our favorite crops. Home gardeners can easily attract these little guys to their gardens.
Adult Trichogramma feed on pollen and nectar from clover, golden rod, and carrot family plants. Queen Anne’s lace, fennel, and parsnips are a few carrot family plants very popular with Trichogramma wasps. To make sure your little wasps have plenty of fuel for their hunt, one plan is to plant the borders of the garden with nectar producing plants. Other options include inter-planting nectar plants in your rows or beds, or sowing the walk ways between the beds with white, rose, or red clover. These clovers can be mowed, they add nitrogen to your soil, and they may help keep weeds down. However, clover also attracts bees of the stinging kind. If you or the grandkids like to walk out in the garden barefoot, clover is best kept out of the walk ways and assigned to do its work in the border or in its own bed.
For those growing lots of corn for market, you might consider purchasing Trichogramma for release in your fields. The best crop protection with the least monetary expenditure is supposed to come from releasing 30,000 Trichogramma wasps per acre when the corn is in the 4-6 leaf stage. Unless you are growing late corn, you will probably have to wait until next year to make this experiment. That will give you time to establish some nectar bearing plants to help your Trichogrammas thrive. These little insects are cold hardy, so once you get them established they just might keep working for you for many years. If you are interested you can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichogramma
Trichogramma ostriniae and other Trichogramma species may be available through your favorite organic gardening supplier or catalog. If not, IPM Labs grows out Trichogramma and other beneficials by special order. You will need to contact them well in advance. They can be reached by e-mail or phone: ipminfo@ipmlabs.com / 315-497-2063.
Meanwhile, if you do find a few bugs, just remove the infested and fouled part of the ear by breaking or cutting it away. Rinse the remainder well, and boil; or wrap in the rinsed husks and some foil and pop them on the grill. While this little task may not be for the squeamish, if you get it accomplished well before your meal it won’t gross out your guests. That’s a mistake I recently made, and I definitely learned my lesson.
That’s all for now folks, but stay tuned. Next week we will be talking about the very flavorful Greek oregano. Meanwhile, you can find probably find me out in the garden, Digging the Dirt.
End
Sources:
Personal experience and Cornell University research on beneficial wasps, some of it located here: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/public/comm/news/archive/clean-corn.cfm
P.S. I know this post isn't timely for Northern Hemisphere readers--but I am sharing it here as part of a conversation on facebook about controlling caterpillars. Please feel free to add me on facebook and join in the conversations . . .
Fresh corn on the cob is one of the delights of summer. Whether you like it boiled or roasted, drizzled with butter or olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper or chili powder; I know your mouth is set for a taste right now. Nothing is more disappointing than pulling a plump ear off the grill, impatiently waiting for it to cool, shucking off the husk, and finding you have cooked yourself up a bunch of fat grubs.
As unappetizing as those bugs may be, they won’t hurt you one bit. I am not suggesting you actually eat them, although my grandmother used to suggest that to me. I would get lectures on how nutritious bugs were; and she would further ruin my apatite with stories of all sorts of bugs Native people used to eat. I was not convinced and I won’t try to convince you. Instead I will give you some pointers to reduce the infestation in your corn and a little advice on what to do if you find corn worms on the ears you planned to eat for dinner.
An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure. If you’ve had worms in your corn before, it may not be too late to thwart them this year. Check your plants to see how the ears are coming along. If they are just beginning to put out silk, here is a simple and inexpensive trick that will greatly reduce the number of disgusting worms burrowing through your favorite summer treat. All you need is a little vegetable oil, a small jar, and an eye dropper or bulb syringe. Castor oil is supposed to be the best, because it is the thickest; but any vegetable oil will work just fine.
First take a close look at your developing ears. At the top you simply squirt a dropper full of the oil into the opening through which the silk is emerging. You want to wait until the silk is at least an inch and a half long. It is important not to get any oil on the tips of the silk, because that would interfere with pollination necessary to develop plump ears.
This little trick works two ways. First of all, the worms emerge from eggs laid by moths which crawl through that same opening where you just squirted the oil. Those that are fool-hardy enough to crawl through the oil usually don’t survive the experience. Moths breathe through pores in their abdomen. The oil can clog the pores and suffocate them. If they manage to survive suffocation, the oil also ruins their wings, making it impossible for them to fly to the next young ear and lay a few more eggs. Second of all, should a moth have beaten you to the ear, the oil will also suffocate the eggs and tiny young worms. For best control, you can repeat this trick every three to four days from the time the silk emerges until the corn is ready to pick. However, if you have lots of corn and little time, you might just want to invest in the castor oil and make the application a single time when the corn is most vulnerable; just after the silk has emerged.
There is a product advertised for single application treatments that contains oil mixed with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is marketed as a disease that only affects caterpillars, grubs, and a few other insects. It is incorporated into a number of products that are popular with many commercial organic growers and some organic gardeners. Bt gives the bugs a deadly case of the flue. Unfortunately it also kills native species and the bacteria can multiply and spread. If that weren’t bad enough news, recent research has shown that people can become infected with Bt. While fairly uncommon; there are well documented cases of folks with lesions in their eyes, lungs, and skin. (For more information search the Internet on “Bt / Human Infection.”) Bt infection is a greater concern for workers on organic farms, the elderly, the very young, or those with impaired immune systems; than it is for the rest of us. However, if my only choice was between those icky worms that never actually hurt anyone and bacteria that might, I would stick with the worms.
There is also a beneficial insect that can help control corn worms. According to research done by Cornell University some farmers have found that a tiny (non-stinging) wasp that goes by the unwieldy name, Trichogramma ostriniae, provides better control of corn worms than provided with commercial pesticides. These wasps parasitize the eggs and larva of a number of crop pests including cabbage worms, corn worms, and a number of borers that tunnel into the stems and fruits of our favorite crops. Home gardeners can easily attract these little guys to their gardens.
Adult Trichogramma feed on pollen and nectar from clover, golden rod, and carrot family plants. Queen Anne’s lace, fennel, and parsnips are a few carrot family plants very popular with Trichogramma wasps. To make sure your little wasps have plenty of fuel for their hunt, one plan is to plant the borders of the garden with nectar producing plants. Other options include inter-planting nectar plants in your rows or beds, or sowing the walk ways between the beds with white, rose, or red clover. These clovers can be mowed, they add nitrogen to your soil, and they may help keep weeds down. However, clover also attracts bees of the stinging kind. If you or the grandkids like to walk out in the garden barefoot, clover is best kept out of the walk ways and assigned to do its work in the border or in its own bed.
For those growing lots of corn for market, you might consider purchasing Trichogramma for release in your fields. The best crop protection with the least monetary expenditure is supposed to come from releasing 30,000 Trichogramma wasps per acre when the corn is in the 4-6 leaf stage. Unless you are growing late corn, you will probably have to wait until next year to make this experiment. That will give you time to establish some nectar bearing plants to help your Trichogrammas thrive. These little insects are cold hardy, so once you get them established they just might keep working for you for many years. If you are interested you can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichogramma
Trichogramma ostriniae and other Trichogramma species may be available through your favorite organic gardening supplier or catalog. If not, IPM Labs grows out Trichogramma and other beneficials by special order. You will need to contact them well in advance. They can be reached by e-mail or phone: ipminfo@ipmlabs.com / 315-497-2063.
Meanwhile, if you do find a few bugs, just remove the infested and fouled part of the ear by breaking or cutting it away. Rinse the remainder well, and boil; or wrap in the rinsed husks and some foil and pop them on the grill. While this little task may not be for the squeamish, if you get it accomplished well before your meal it won’t gross out your guests. That’s a mistake I recently made, and I definitely learned my lesson.
That’s all for now folks, but stay tuned. Next week we will be talking about the very flavorful Greek oregano. Meanwhile, you can find probably find me out in the garden, Digging the Dirt.
End
Sources:
Personal experience and Cornell University research on beneficial wasps, some of it located here: http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/public/comm/news/archive/clean-corn.cfm
P.S. I know this post isn't timely for Northern Hemisphere readers--but I am sharing it here as part of a conversation on facebook about controlling caterpillars. Please feel free to add me on facebook and join in the conversations . . .
Friday, October 09, 2009
Compost Hole Method and the possibility of rats
A friend who I introduced to the compost hole method of gardening recently asked about the possibility of it attracting rats. What follows is my answer.
As long as you have at least four inches of soil over the compostables, you shouldn't have a problem with rats. Put anything that actually smells like food in the very bottom of the hole, cover with a little dirt, then throw in the scraps that haven't been cooked, and cover with dirt. An open pile is more likely to attract rats, and those compost bin thingies are a whole other issue in themselves. If you find that you are attracting rats, even with your compost covered with four inches of dirt—you probably have a rat overpopulation problem and the poor things are dang hungry. If you have a rat problem, it is useful to reflect on natural nutrient cycles and the rats place in the food web. In nature, no nutrient is allowed to go to waste. The buildup of toxins that would happen in the environment by organic matters piling up and rotting is eliminated by creatures like rats. It is their job to clean up anything in excess, anything that might rot. However, all animals, unless they are kept in check by a predator, will reproduce to the limit of the food supply—and beyond. Basically, the rats, which may not have appropriate predators in urban environments, will keep reproducing until they begin starving. In the mean time, they are going to be eating everything that they can see or smell. If rats are digging up your compost, they are very hungry. It might be time to get a big cat, a rat terrier, or some native snakes. You need predators to keep the ecosystem in balance.
Now, about those compost bin thingies. Most commercial compost bins really are just a place to keep rotting vegetable matter. They usually aren't big enough to really get hot and truly compost, and most people just throw a bunch of wet food waste in there anyway. To truly make compost, you need a balanced combination of dry matter and wet matter—so material isn’t sodden, and a balanced ratio of carbonaceous matter (about 60%) to nitrogen rich matter (about 40%). You also need to build the pile carefully, so there is plenty of air circulation within the pile. The carefully thought out inclusion of sticks, cardboard, shredded paper, and other porous material is necessary to the healthy functioning of a compost pile. The pile needs to be about four feet by four feet, and eventually four feet high, and it needs to be carefully managed for moisture content and air pathways. (I have a book in progress called “One Day at a Time in the Garden, a Recovery Plan for the Planet.” I will be sharing tips on tending the compost pile in that book. If you start now by reading “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide,” by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin, Story Publishing you will be well on your way to really utilizing my tips when the book comes out. The thing I don’t find adequate about the “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide,” is that they don’t address the environmental hazards of an improperly maintained compost pile—and some of their options are clearly improper. Anyway, start with their book, use the tips here, and then read my book when it comes out. In the mean time ask questions if you have any. You will soon be an expert on making and tending a healthy compost pile. {Or skip the pile entirely and use the Compost Hole Method!})
Most people are not really making compost in their bins or piles . . . they are making sludge. This sludge, as it rots, releases methane and nitrogen into the atmosphere—both are virulent green house gasses. The sludge also leaches nitrogen into the soil and potentially into ground water where it can form toxic compounds and encourage disease causing organisms. And it can travel, with the ground water, to streams and rivers where it is a pollutant which feeds alga blooms and interferes with natural ecosystems. If that wasn’t enough, the anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition of organic matter is known to foster potential disease casing organisms, and the resultant break down compounds of this rotting sludge can also be toxic. Composting is a good thing, just make sure that what you are doing is really making compost.
The compost hole method, not only avoids releasing nitrogen and methane into the atmosphere, avoids leaching nutrients and toxins into the soil and ground water, it gets you to plant, and therefore eat fresh from the garden, year around. (At least in the places the weather allows for that.) Gardening, instead of being an event that starts and ends, becomes tied to your life. You make compostables simply by living, then you go out to the garden and reflect on what you want to plant and where the best spot is. While you do this, you observe the life of the garden and what it needs from you—as its steward. You make mental (or actual) notes about what you need to do. Then you dig a hole-- considering the roots and nutritional needs of established plants, the light and moisture needs of what you are going to plant, as well as where the plant will best contribute to the life of the garden.
Now, you put your compostables into the hole—loosely to provide plenty of air space and habitat for worms and micro-organisms. If you can see worms or sow bugs in your pile of dirt, you carefully place them on your loose compost, and cover with an inch or two of loose dirt. Next, in a perfect world, you are going to look for some dry material to layer in with the dirt. If you have pets in the house it might be time to sweep the floors to capture shed hair, if there are dried leaves or twigs around the garden you might use them. All these things contain nutrients and structure that will add food and habitat for micro-organisms to your soil. They will create pathways for roots and worms to follow, contribute to soil tilth, and to the nutrient cycle. As you layer the dirt, loosely, with dry organic matter, break up any clumps. Mound the dirt loosely over the hole. Flatten the top, and create a tiny berm around the edges. Plant a few seeds in the center and make a plant label out of a recycled take-out cup or other container. Mark the spot with a crown of sticks to keep cats and birds from disturbing your soil. Sprinkle lightly with enough water to just moisten the surface, or wait for rain. If you choose to water, do so very sparingly. You just want to keep the surface moist enough for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow. Once the plants begin to get established, they will tell you when they need more water. Within a few weeks they will sink their roots down into the moist compost, and they will probably need very little supplemental irrigation.
When you live, garden, compost, and eat in this model, you can’t help but realize that we are all part of a nutrient cycle. Do a little reading about nutrient cycles and civilizations—say Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (published by Viking) and you will begin to realize how imperiled our nutrient cycle’s are. Our lives depend on topsoil, and commercial agriculture is destroying our top soils at very alarming rates. This brings me to mention my new power point program, “Decolonizing Soil,” which takes a look at the problem, as well as solutions we can all begin applying today. (See: http://www.biodiversegardens.com/DecolonizingSoil.html )
So, I hope this answers your questions about rats and compost—as well as giving you tips on finding more information. Eventually I will be putting some of the information in this note together for a power point presentation: “Gardening with Worms, and other Soil Building Practices,” but not today. I have other projects waiting for me today, including some compost to bury!
Here are links to more of my writing on “The Compost Hole Method,” which is not the official name of what I do, but it will work for now:
http://harvestsgardeningsecrets.blogspot.com/2006/01/simple-garden-routine-useful-for-bad.html
http://harvestsgardeningsecrets.blogspot.com/2006/07/let-worms-do-your-work.html
You will find links to even more information at the second link posted above.
Photos of the “Compost Hole Method” are available here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124895&id=588082483&l=dc54e9c2a6
If you check out my other photo albums you will find garden shots where the plants were all grown with this method.
For direct links to the various albums see:
http://www.biodiversegardens.com/PhotoLinks
Copyright 2009 Harvest McCampbell
As long as you have at least four inches of soil over the compostables, you shouldn't have a problem with rats. Put anything that actually smells like food in the very bottom of the hole, cover with a little dirt, then throw in the scraps that haven't been cooked, and cover with dirt. An open pile is more likely to attract rats, and those compost bin thingies are a whole other issue in themselves. If you find that you are attracting rats, even with your compost covered with four inches of dirt—you probably have a rat overpopulation problem and the poor things are dang hungry. If you have a rat problem, it is useful to reflect on natural nutrient cycles and the rats place in the food web. In nature, no nutrient is allowed to go to waste. The buildup of toxins that would happen in the environment by organic matters piling up and rotting is eliminated by creatures like rats. It is their job to clean up anything in excess, anything that might rot. However, all animals, unless they are kept in check by a predator, will reproduce to the limit of the food supply—and beyond. Basically, the rats, which may not have appropriate predators in urban environments, will keep reproducing until they begin starving. In the mean time, they are going to be eating everything that they can see or smell. If rats are digging up your compost, they are very hungry. It might be time to get a big cat, a rat terrier, or some native snakes. You need predators to keep the ecosystem in balance.
Now, about those compost bin thingies. Most commercial compost bins really are just a place to keep rotting vegetable matter. They usually aren't big enough to really get hot and truly compost, and most people just throw a bunch of wet food waste in there anyway. To truly make compost, you need a balanced combination of dry matter and wet matter—so material isn’t sodden, and a balanced ratio of carbonaceous matter (about 60%) to nitrogen rich matter (about 40%). You also need to build the pile carefully, so there is plenty of air circulation within the pile. The carefully thought out inclusion of sticks, cardboard, shredded paper, and other porous material is necessary to the healthy functioning of a compost pile. The pile needs to be about four feet by four feet, and eventually four feet high, and it needs to be carefully managed for moisture content and air pathways. (I have a book in progress called “One Day at a Time in the Garden, a Recovery Plan for the Planet.” I will be sharing tips on tending the compost pile in that book. If you start now by reading “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide,” by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin, Story Publishing you will be well on your way to really utilizing my tips when the book comes out. The thing I don’t find adequate about the “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide,” is that they don’t address the environmental hazards of an improperly maintained compost pile—and some of their options are clearly improper. Anyway, start with their book, use the tips here, and then read my book when it comes out. In the mean time ask questions if you have any. You will soon be an expert on making and tending a healthy compost pile. {Or skip the pile entirely and use the Compost Hole Method!})
Most people are not really making compost in their bins or piles . . . they are making sludge. This sludge, as it rots, releases methane and nitrogen into the atmosphere—both are virulent green house gasses. The sludge also leaches nitrogen into the soil and potentially into ground water where it can form toxic compounds and encourage disease causing organisms. And it can travel, with the ground water, to streams and rivers where it is a pollutant which feeds alga blooms and interferes with natural ecosystems. If that wasn’t enough, the anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition of organic matter is known to foster potential disease casing organisms, and the resultant break down compounds of this rotting sludge can also be toxic. Composting is a good thing, just make sure that what you are doing is really making compost.
The compost hole method, not only avoids releasing nitrogen and methane into the atmosphere, avoids leaching nutrients and toxins into the soil and ground water, it gets you to plant, and therefore eat fresh from the garden, year around. (At least in the places the weather allows for that.) Gardening, instead of being an event that starts and ends, becomes tied to your life. You make compostables simply by living, then you go out to the garden and reflect on what you want to plant and where the best spot is. While you do this, you observe the life of the garden and what it needs from you—as its steward. You make mental (or actual) notes about what you need to do. Then you dig a hole-- considering the roots and nutritional needs of established plants, the light and moisture needs of what you are going to plant, as well as where the plant will best contribute to the life of the garden.
Now, you put your compostables into the hole—loosely to provide plenty of air space and habitat for worms and micro-organisms. If you can see worms or sow bugs in your pile of dirt, you carefully place them on your loose compost, and cover with an inch or two of loose dirt. Next, in a perfect world, you are going to look for some dry material to layer in with the dirt. If you have pets in the house it might be time to sweep the floors to capture shed hair, if there are dried leaves or twigs around the garden you might use them. All these things contain nutrients and structure that will add food and habitat for micro-organisms to your soil. They will create pathways for roots and worms to follow, contribute to soil tilth, and to the nutrient cycle. As you layer the dirt, loosely, with dry organic matter, break up any clumps. Mound the dirt loosely over the hole. Flatten the top, and create a tiny berm around the edges. Plant a few seeds in the center and make a plant label out of a recycled take-out cup or other container. Mark the spot with a crown of sticks to keep cats and birds from disturbing your soil. Sprinkle lightly with enough water to just moisten the surface, or wait for rain. If you choose to water, do so very sparingly. You just want to keep the surface moist enough for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow. Once the plants begin to get established, they will tell you when they need more water. Within a few weeks they will sink their roots down into the moist compost, and they will probably need very little supplemental irrigation.
When you live, garden, compost, and eat in this model, you can’t help but realize that we are all part of a nutrient cycle. Do a little reading about nutrient cycles and civilizations—say Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (published by Viking) and you will begin to realize how imperiled our nutrient cycle’s are. Our lives depend on topsoil, and commercial agriculture is destroying our top soils at very alarming rates. This brings me to mention my new power point program, “Decolonizing Soil,” which takes a look at the problem, as well as solutions we can all begin applying today. (See: http://www.biodiversegardens.com/DecolonizingSoil.html )
So, I hope this answers your questions about rats and compost—as well as giving you tips on finding more information. Eventually I will be putting some of the information in this note together for a power point presentation: “Gardening with Worms, and other Soil Building Practices,” but not today. I have other projects waiting for me today, including some compost to bury!
Here are links to more of my writing on “The Compost Hole Method,” which is not the official name of what I do, but it will work for now:
http://harvestsgardeningsecrets.blogspot.com/2006/01/simple-garden-routine-useful-for-bad.html
http://harvestsgardeningsecrets.blogspot.com/2006/07/let-worms-do-your-work.html
You will find links to even more information at the second link posted above.
Photos of the “Compost Hole Method” are available here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124895&id=588082483&l=dc54e9c2a6
If you check out my other photo albums you will find garden shots where the plants were all grown with this method.
For direct links to the various albums see:
http://www.biodiversegardens.com/PhotoLinks
Copyright 2009 Harvest McCampbell
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