Waxing Poetic about Garden Volunteers

This is a little note I was sharing with the community garden members where I currently garden, and I thought I would share it with you all as well . . . .


In the garden, wherever I (and others) have used the compost produced by our garden, there have been a bunch of interesting seedlings. At first I thought, hoped really, that they were chives. They had that grass like look of young Allium seedlings.

But, no, what looked like a single seed leaf, divided into two long narrow seed leaves, very typical of the Umbelliferae family, but other than that I had no idea what they were. They didn't really look like carrot seedlings, and I was hoping they were not hedge parsley, often called 'stick tights' or 'miners lice,' which spreads like wild fire. It is totally edible and choice, by the way, but not many people know it or know how to use it.

Meanwhile, the seedlings have been coming in thicker and thicker.

Today I noticed a seed coat still posed on the end of one of the seed leaves. I have been watching to see what the first true leaves look like in an attempt to identify it. That seed coat looked amazingly like a fennel seed, so picked it off and tasted it. Yep, fennel. And it is coming in, in some places, as thick as turf grass.

The good news, is that fennel seedlings are totally edible in soup or salad. They don't taste like much now, and they don't amount to much either. But if you can tolerate them a few weeks, they will be yummy and tender.
 
I can tell you exactly why we have it in our compost. Last year, I was waiting for the fennel seeds to become mature, and I was going to collect them for tea and flavoring--for myself and to possibly share with the food bank if people were interested. But then right before they were mature, someone cut the fennel down. And honestly, I did not investigate further.  But apparently they were put in the compost.

Fennel normally does not have this rampant kind of germination rate, at least not in California where most of my garden experience comes from. Many kinds of seeds, especially but not exclusively those of the Umbelliferae family, have built in dormancy, so that only a few will germinate at any one time, staggering the germination of the seeds over days, months, and even years. It is a built in survival mechanism, which allows at least some of the plants' off spring to survive all kinds of quirky weather changes. Dormancy, however, is built into the seeds at the end of their development. So, if you time it just right, by picking the seeds after they have developed viability, but before they have developed dormancy, you can end up with perfect germination as soon as everything else is in line--such as day length, moisture, and temperature. Apparently, someone caught the fennel, in the exact perfect zone.

For future reference, never ever put fully mature or nearly mature seed heads of any kind in the compost--unless you either want volunteers or you know for a fact that the compost is going to get hot enough to sterilize them. Making truly hot sterilizing compost is an art and a science and it takes a careful blend of materials and attention and work. Yes, it does sometimes happen by accident. But don't count on it.

All gardens get volunteers. Plants that show up, because the seed bearing parts rotted in place or in the compost. Some times the wind blows them in, or they arrive by birds, or perhaps even fairies.  Volunteers are one of the delights of gardening, as far as I am concerned. I love surprises in the garden, and they are often superior to hybrids in taste and color, and nearly always superior to hybrids in vigor and hardiness. Volunteers rock. But not necessarily when they are coming in like turf grass . . . .

Gardening, of course, is a learning experience.  Community gardening is even more so.  We learn together in community.  We learn about gardening and garden materials management not just from our own experience, but from the experience of other gardeners as well.  We learn also, grace; to take the good with the bad and to turn sow's ears into silk purses, to turn a plethora of fennel seedlings into beautiful food.  

Nature abhors bare soil.  Sun light degrades soil nutrients in bare soil, and rain water dissolves them and washes them away.  In nature, if there is enough light, enough warmth, enough soil, enough moisture--the ground is always covered with either green growing things or with a deep natural mulch.  Nature attempts to do the same thing in the garden.  Nature gives us weeds and volunteers to save our soil.  It's our job, in the garden, to accept nature's innate system  and manage it to work in our favor . . .

I've Got Worms!

Here they are, fresh out of their shipping package and on their way to their new home!

One of the first things I did upon moving in to my new apartment was to save one of my smaller moving boxes to start a little worm bin.  I choose a box that a regular plastic grocery bag will easily line.  I filled the bag/box about 1/3 full of organic potting soil, and then I collected a handful of clay and loam rich soil to add to the potting soil.  (That was a gift from a gopher who makes his home along the local river.)

Worms need some fine mineral soil--they ingest it and it helps their digestion.  The clay particles they ingest also supper-charge the worm castings.  It seems that the clay-humus combination excreted by worms provides many plants with exactly what they need as far as nutrition is concerned, and also as far as the delivery method.  Clay also contains cation exchange sites--which hold on to the nutrients until the microorganisms involved with the soil nutrient cycle present them with something in exchange.

There are microorganisms in the soil whose sole business is to trade nutrients they obtain from cation exchange sites with plant root hairs.  What they get in the bargain are the carbohydrates that fuel their lives.  The only source of carbohydrates, of course, are plants.  They make them from sunlight and water using nutrients they exchange with microorganism in their root hairs.

In most natural environments here in North America, this all proceeds without the help of earthworms.  There are very few earthworms indigenous to North America and they inhabit very small environmental niches.  All most all the worms we encounter here were originally from Europe. And in fact, worms are not always a welcome part of natural environments. They can disrupt indigenous soil nutrient cycles and in some areas this is threatening native plant species and the organisms that depend on them.  Just something to think about before you toss out worms leftover from fishing or before you introduce worms to your garden if you live adjacent to natural areas that do not already harbor earthworms. 

Soil nutrient cycles can do what they need to do without earthworms, but where appropriate, worms supper-charge the process!  They do their best work right in the soil of your garden, rather than in a worm bin or box.  If you haven't already, check out my article on gardening with worms here: 

Let Worms do Your Work!   You might also want to check out my related photo album on facebook: 
The Compost Hole Method.

Alas,  having recently moved into an apartment, I am no longer in a position to bury my compostables on a regular basis. Not to worry though, I do have a community garden plot in the next town, I will still be gardening and tending soil!  The only worms available locally  are night crawlers, which I really enjoy in the garden, but I have never raised them in a box before, and I wanted to stick with something familiar.  So I ordered 1/2 pound of red compost worms on-line. 

Before they arrived I made sure that their organic potting-soil-bedding was evenly moist, but not soggy.  Using a soil thermometer, I found a good spot for them in the apartment.  Sixty degrees Fahrenheit up to the high seventies is ideal.  Colder and they become sluggish, hotter and they suffer.  I found the perfect spot in my water heater closet!  Next I buried about a pint of kitchen waste in the potting soil and waited for my worms to arrive.  

Most people use shredded paper for worm bedding, and I do add some paper to my worm boxes if they start getting too damp.  However, I have found that my worms are happier, healthier, and more vigorous if their bedding is mostly chemical free natural materials, like organic potting soil and fallen leaves.  All paper has been through chemical processes and retains traces of these chemicals.  I have seen with my own eyes the difference between raising worms on paper bedding and on natural bedding.  I will stick with using a preponderance of natural material.

My current worms take about a week and a half to processes about a half a weeks worth of my kitchen waste.  I figure that eventually I will want about four times as many worms.  Living in a small apartment, this will take some creativity on my part . . .  but I am sure it can be done!

A word about smells.  A properly managed, maintained, and cared for worm box or bin has hardly any smell at all.  If I put my nose right down in the box, it has a very slight forest earth kind of scent.  If your worm box smells unpleasant, it may be too moist, too hot or cold, you may need a higher ratio of bedding to kitchen scraps, or you may need more worms or less scraps.  It is a learning process.  However there are lots of books and blogs and articles devoted to indoor "vermiposting."   Vermiposting is what composting with worms is called! Almost anyone can use this technique to recycle kitchen waste into supper-charged soil!

If you would like to leave tips, ask questions, or share useful web sites or books, please feel free to leave a comment.  I don't think Blogger will let you put a URL in comments, but you can give the names of useful websites and we can search them out!

Compost Hole Method, Part 3

Please see Compost Hole Method, Part 1. if you haven't already.

Step 11. Plant your seeds (or starts).










Step 11. Continued: cover the seeds with soil, but not too much. Many seeds need light to germinate.















Gently smooth the soil.












Step 12, optional: Plant sticks to mark the spot and to discourage cats and birds.
















Step 13: Make plant labels. Many types of plastic containers lend them selves well to this task.

















Label with the variety and the date.





Step 13. Water gently and make an effort to keep evenly moist, but not soggy.












And wait for your seeds to start growing.

Here are some tiny ruby red card seedlings, they will grow up to resemble the plants in Part 1.









To the right are baby giant red Japanese mustard seedlings. Mature plants are also pictured in Part 1.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in comments, or better yet, add me as a friend on facebook. I have a number of gardening photo albums there that you may find interesting.

If you have a favorite way to process your kitchen scraps, please feel free to share!




All text and photos Copyrighted, 2011, Harvest McCampbell

Compost Hole Method, Part 2

Please see Compost Hole Method, Part 1.

Step 6, on your right: Sweep your floor, or gather fall leaves or twigs, or tear up junk mail. Animal hair (as shown) or even human hair is a great addition. It tends to discourage rodents, it adds slow release nitrogen, and it helps keep the soil from compacting--which allows it to breathe and provides plenty of habitat for soil microorganisms to colonize.





Step 7: Layer dry organic matter into the top of your hole, alternating with crumbled soil. Here we see pet hair, which is a nice slow release source of nitrogen.












Step 7, continued, on the right: Fallen leaves and twigs also make good materials to layer with soil as you fill the hole. They will prevent compaction, provide pathways for roots, and food and habitat for micro-organisms. As they break down they also provide nutrients for your plants.







Step 7 continued, on the left: Layer in dry organic matter . . . here it is a torn up cellulose egg carton . . . Which will have the same effect as dry leaves. Junk mail, newspaper, cardboard, really any dry organic matter you have handy will work.










Step 8, on the right: Top off with a layer of crumbled dirt.


















Step 9, on the left: Smooth the surface.














Step 10, on the right, optional: Build a mini berm to keep the seeds from washing or blowing away. The same effect can be accomplished by leaving the the hole slightly depressed, however as the organic matter decomposes the soil level will subside leaving a nice watering basin at the base of your plants.



Continued in Part 3.




All text and photos Copyrighted, 2011, Harvest McCampbell

The Compost Hole Method, Part 1

This post explores a variation of the technique originally described in this blog way back in 2006, "A Simple Garden Routine - useful for bad backs, no time, short budgets." The primary difference being that the photos show using the method with seeds planted in place, rather than starting with seedlings started inside. This little technique has come to be called "the compost hole method" by my friends, for lack of a better term.

Before we get down to the compost, I thought I would share some photos of a garden grown with this technique. Every plant you see in this picture, started out over or next to a compost hole--including the trees.

All the photos are from my garden in Hoopa, CA, where I lived for over a decade. The photo to the left is a detail from the border pictured above. At the bottom of the photos is a cross between red Russian Kale and an ornamental cabbage. At the top is ruby red chard. Both beautiful, both edible.










On the right is another detail from the same border, pictured is another crossed kale, as well as some parsnips, and violas.














On the left is another detail from the same border. Pictured is giant red Japanese mustard. All these pictures were taken on 5.17.08. Now we can move on to the compost method these plants where grown by.








Below, you see the first step in creating an incredibly productive and diverse garden. Choose a spot and dig a hole. You want your hole to be at least 12 inches deep, and no more than 18 inches. This keeps your compostables in the biologically active zone, so they will properly decompose and not leach nutrients into the ground water.


















Below is step two, add between a quart and two quarts of compostables to your hole. Don't compact them, as the air spaces are important for providing oxygen and habitat for the nutrient cycling soil organisms.

Next, comes step three, below. You can add the grass or weeds that your removed when you started digging your hole. Just bury them deep enough that they can't grow, either at the bottom of the hole, or upside down right over the compost. Many beneficial organisms will be in the soil around the roots of the grass and weeds. They will help cycle the nutrients in the buried organic matter.



















Step four: crumble a shallow layer of dirt loosely over the compostables, weeds, and grass. (Below)
























Step five, below: sweep your floor, gather fall leaves or twigs, tear up junk mail. Animal hair for instance, or even human hair is a great addition. It tends to discourage rodents, it adds slow release nitrogen, and it helps keep the soil from compacting--which allows it to breathe and provides plenty of habitat for soil microorganisms to colonize.

















Continued at the link:
http://harvestsgardeningsecrets.blogspot.com/2011/02/compost-hole-method-part-2.html

All text and photos Copyrighted, 2011, Harvest McCampbell

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