its been over a month since i last posted. i would LOVE to say i was diligently working at bill birds rental assisting him in his painting chores - but to tell the truth, between scout stuff, work stuff and other stuff, i have gotten about zip done around my house this past month.
my last post showed the rating of several types of tomatoes, and between now and then the garden moved into steep decline and i started to pull out the remnants of the plants. as i started to shred the plant remnants, my shredder began to shudder and made moves that any break dancer would be proud.
the sound - oh the sound - it reminded me of an engine coming apart. i was able to shut it down and the flail parts of the shredder decided to disintegrate and actually punched a hole in the chute housing; i am glad i wasnt downrange of the dismemberment of the shredder. so $150 in parts on order later and my garden cleanup tasks are on hold.....
now for why i am less organic. if you recall a previous post:
http://eldoradogardening.blogspot.com/2009/04/orgainc-on-lawn-too.html
it was april 2009 and i decided to go organic for grass fertilizer. it was the right thing to do. now, 18 months later, i have changed back to 'best turf supreme'. why? you ask? well they started showing up about 10 months ago. 'they' are worm castings. not a bad thing at all, and in fact i welcomed them. from what i have learned from farmer fred's radio and the organic advocate steve zion, worms and the resulting castings are a real indicator of a well balanced soil eco system.
'GREAT!' i thought at the time. well several months later and an increasing volume of castings and i am finding - at least for me in my turf areas - castings just arent going to work out.
really -its me, not you; mr. nightcrawlers. as referenced in my april 2009 post, i am anal for a lush green, leave it to beaver style front yard. and in my zeal for that lushness, i used the dr. earth lawn fertilizer. and it did its job. the lawn responded and so did the crawlers. castings pushed up daily. the subterranean bulldozing - which they do - left an uneven lawn. worst of all - when enjoying the lawn, you would leave it with mud spots on ones derriere.
not cool. i figured i could live with the inconvenience of the castings. but as time went on and it continued to get worse and worse. there is no way i can get rid of the offending critters; however my hope is a return to a fertilizer based upon salts will diminish their numbers and will, hopefully, get my lawn as green as i like - sans the mud spots.
Every day, I have more empathy for the Catholic nuns at my elementary school, who would occasionally bang their heads repeatedly against the chalkboard while remarking, "Why do I bother to even keep trying?"
ReplyDeletefred,
ReplyDeleteas i glean from your show - all gardening is local and if those darn crawlers would have found the raised beds in the frontyard and worked them, instead of my turf - it would be a win/win. but in some areas of my grass, there was more pushed up castings on the surface than grass, and thats just not going to work out. still 100% organic in the vege garden and orchard though! as usual, a good show last weekend.
garry