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if I were a plant
Sunday, April 18 2010
In augmenting the inferior clay soil of my new tomato patch, I've been using a range of organic materials that seem likely to contribute to a good topsoil. One of my favorite of these is the black stuff that is formed when the heart of a tree rots away. This black material looks identical to top soil and, in stumps, usually has plants growing in it. A large quantity can be generated by a single tree, and since it accumulates in a pile inside the base of the hollow tree, it is relatively easy to harvest (if there is either a hole in the side of the tree at the bottom or it has been cut down). Today I gathered a whole five gallon bucket of this stuff and then spread it over the surface of the nascent tomato patch (which is maybe 25 square feet in size). I also gathered all the dog poop I could find (in our yard, down near the greenhouse, and on the shoulder of Dug Hill Road), and then mixed this into the soil. I've heard people who don't really know what they're talking about saying things like "never use carnivore shit for plants," but that defies logic. As it ages, dog shit gets white and powdery with what looks like ground-up bone dust. Maybe it's something else, but one has to imagine it's full of useful minerals. If I were a plant that shit would be like heroin to me.
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