Castings from last year
look same this year
Last night in my post, Consistent Gardener, I used a picture of my garden from a past year. I keep forgetting to take a picture of the backyard garden as it is now, and with the breakdown of my new computer I keep going back and forth from my old computer to my wife’s for work on this web page. However, the above is not an excuse. I only wish my garden was as developed as the picture indicates. Sorry about that.
However, local garden vegetables also seem to be growing slowly this year for everyone. Yesterday I went to a big local farmer’s market and today to a small local farmer’s market to find only a few vegetables for sale, mostly salad greens and onions. It is almost July and where are all the early tomatoes, corn, and other vegetables? Maybe Mother Nature is saying “Sorry about that”.
One bumper crop ready this year for yield is castings, black gold, or worm poop. My wife sifted a whole bunch of rich black dirt from the worm box today. These castings are not edible but will organically fertilize the soil and ‘tea’ made from the castings will help the plants grow faster, healthier and larger. I replaced the ‘tea’ bags in my rain barrels the other day and sprinkled some of these fertilized castings around. Time will tell.
Now I need to fill up my worm box again. The worms are already back in with some compost so in 6–8 weeks we will have more castings. Also reports from my grandson up north are that the cow manure, thanks to the working worms, is turning into rich soil.
After sifting castings today my wife asked that I have the soil from castings tested as well as the castings from cow dung we are making up north. That is a good idea. I know from experience and value placed on it from Growing Power that it is good, but not exactly sure of what that means.
With my friends from India and the Pilgrimage of Peace in town and with so many persons talking about composting and castings and looking at all the money being made from our waste by large corporations, I am exploding with thoughts about turning waste into profits — way beyond the home compost piles that we have. For example I see cow dung as a more effective and affordable source of energy than the corn (and maybe wind) promoted by energy companies.
Growing with worm castings, using AIR to insulate, using cow dung for energy, medicine and fertilizer are all very old and natural ecological ways of nature. Maybe there is no way to patent air or dung and this explains why they are overlooked as something for everyday persons to use. This is an area to explore. So to big waste management companies and all those who make money on our waste I say: “Sorry about that.”
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