Some Rot is Good

I worked and turned the compost pile yesterday, before I added the jack-o-lantern and straw from the scarecrow that I took down from Halloween. Black and crumbly dirt, rich and smelling of clean wet soil. A 'crust' had formed on part of it, of ash from the woodstove and sand, but when I shoved the shovel through it, what came tumbling out was loose and damp and rich. I could probably use it to fill my flats this winter to start my vegies! It looks and smells like the bags of potting soil you buy at the store. All of the kitchen compost; the eggshells, the rotted vegie peelings, have mixed with the sawdust and ash and coffee grounds, and the green cuttings from my discarded plants, and the horse poop, so that there is nothing recognizeable any more.
The raked up leaves are even starting to rot from less than a week ago!

I was puzzled when Nancy said that they raked their leaves - to take them to the dump. Take them anywhere? Why? Leaves are blankets of warmth and rot for plants; I mulched the red-twig dogwoods, the strip garden along the fence, the garden around the pond, and the two by the front porch, with them, stomped and wetted them down. That will hold water far better than the processed bag mulch, and will keep their little feet warm for next year. Maybe some folks don't think that they are as pretty as a clean-swept yard with summer-green twigs popping up everywhere? I don't understand the concept or the motivation. I like BIG luscious gardens, falling over themselves with green, and flowers, in the spring and summer; not little sticks struggling to survive in sand that drains water as swiftly as you pour it on. And a simple thing like dead leaves piled around them in fall will give me that. A few weeks ago, Enid saw me pouring coffee grounds on my roses and asked me why. Well, roses like acidity - they got enough of it when I was in the south surrounded by pine trees that covered them in the mulch of pine needles, but here in sandy soil, not so much.

I know most of the folks here probably have a sneaking suspicion that I am crazy, wanting to move here to grow things when it is so much easier to grow things in a Zone of "9" instead of a "6". It IS easier to grow things there - if the ordinances and neighbors aren't complaining, or if you can keep the invasive weeds down (a constant struggle - what is good for plants is GREAT for weeds!) or if you can keep away the mold and rot that hangs in the humid air like summer fog. My roses here have all lost their black spot and fuzzy white fungal growths, thanks to the drop in humidity. So SOME rot is good - but plants that rot while they are still trying to grow is NOT good. Once I get my garden system set up, I'll work far less here than I ever did there - because I won't be constantly spraying fungicides, trying to balance watering with discouraging mold.

Got a call from Boo today; she'll be starting her drive out here this Friday and should be here by Sunday night. We are soooo excited - she hasn't seen the house since before we moved in, in March. Oh, I send her pictures of what we've done, but still! Mike is busily making a bedframe off of the old iron headboard and footboard we found next to the garage; it should be ready by next weekend. Then we carry it upstairs, inflate the air mattress, and make the bed in the spare room upstairs.

Well, today I am going to the school to quietly organize my little office without interruption; it is so full and frustrating to deal with, everything shoved here and there, and so disorganized. I have a tackle box to organize the kids' meds - the plastic container there is so helter-skelter, it drives me NUTZ! - and I am going to dust and clean and redo a lot of stuff. I simply can't work in such a small and disorganized space! So I'll take my vitamins, drink my coffee, and get started.