My Black Goldmine

I have two large garbage cans full of sweet smelling compost that has been cooking all fall and winter and they are full of worms plus I have 75 lbs of earthworm castings and 10 lbs of bat guano plus peatmoss and bone meal all waiting to be mixed up together and put in my garden. The only thing I need is for this cold weather to be gone and spring to get here so I can get out and start digging. My family think I'm crazy because I get so excited over my compost. To quote my son "It doesn't take much to make Mom happy just get her some rabbit poop."

Did you purchase your earthworm castings or compost your own? Where did you get it from? As anxious as I am to start growning, I think I may take another season to amend my soil. I have a batch of compost ready too (after it thaws) and I like your formula for amending.

I get my castings and bat guano from K and M farms in Wisconsin and Dirt Works in Vermont, both are excellent to buy from.

I was looking at the Dirt Works website just the other day. Have you used the castings in the past? Did you just broadcast the castings or did you mix it with topsoil? Sorry for all the questions but I've been trying to amend my soil for three years now. I don't want to invest any money yet until I'm satisfied with the soil. I'm trying to amend hardpan soil after construction of our house 4 years ago.

Carol

Carol, I use Gardenia soil conditioner as my mulch, you can get it from walmart, it is very finely shredded pine bark, then each spring I mix all of the above together and dig it into the soil with the conditioner, then when I have finished my plantings I mulch again with the soil conditioner. hope this helps.

Oh boy, stetchworth, this certainly does help. I told my DH just the other day we are no longer going to pay for mulch, we're going to use our ground up leaves from now on to help enrich the soil. He doesn't like the look of the leaves, he would prefer a more formal look but I'm looking more towards a wildlife gathering place. A brand new Super Walmart just opened down the street from us with a HUGE gardening center right next door to my favorite place HOMEDEPOT!!! I'll have to check out the Gardenia soil conditioner and give that a try. Thanks again!

Carol, this picture of my callas somewhat shows you what the soil conditioner as mulch looks like. The casinos around here use it as mulch in their landscaping.

As to weather or not I'm crazy, for getting into composting, I guess the jury is still out on that one.I do want to pass along an idea that I am having about enriching hopeless groung spots, and generly yucky soils.Last year I went with lazania(sp) beds, and found that the ones I left the worms with the dirt, as oposed to seperating the worms from the dirt, I found that there is no contest as to whitch is the best solution, and I don't miss the worms from the pile, if anything, I have more worms, and the poor soil, is now begging to be planted.I have a heavy tine digging fork, and I couldn't begin to stick it in the soil, when I first started, now I "sink" it, and the worms are everywhere in the soil.MY vote goes to useing;paper,(about 4"thick), and mulch, that I got from a chipping crew on the power line, and worm filled compost.All this was 10 Mos. ago, and I ready to plant. Mike

Stetchworth -- Bee-u-tee-ful. I love that! I use the leaves, too, but by the time they go through the winter, get scratched around by the birds, and I plant annuals, the leaves are pretty well mixed into the soil and I have to put something else down...I believe that Gardenia soil conditioner is just the thing!

MQIQ -- So you used newspaper and got those results? I got the same results -- so many worms I couldn't turn the soil without them yelling in pain. No matter where I put the shovel I killed 2, 3, 4 or more worms with each shovelful. The difference is I used corrugated cardboard. I just was going to ask on the forum if there was something about cardboard that they found unbelievably delicious.

Now, after reading what you wrote I am wondering if it's the PROTECTION of the paper or cardboard from maurading birds and other worm-eating creatures. They have a nice big section of ground here where they have complete protection from above-ground threats, and I believe that in addition to not being picked out and eaten, that they are multiplying very quickly. I think it's one big love-in down there for the worms.

Thanks for the tip, Sketch.

Suzy

This message was edited Feb 23, 2007 2:01 AM

Ok. I'm hooked. Tell me how to use the newspaper/cardboard to get worms into my soil. Also, tell me how to start two garbage cans of your Black goldmine compost, please. I can at least look toward next summer! When do I start the two garbage cans. We rake a lot of leaves during the summer and my DH bags them up. I also can get bags of leaves from my neighbors on both sides, so leaves and grass clippings are plentiful. What else do I need? the Gardenia soil conditioner? This goes in the cans, too? Or directly on the soil? Please post compost recipe soonest. Thanks.

I use newspaper and cardboard as the base layer in sheet or lasagna composting. I also use it under my straw bales. It prevents grass and weeds from growing upward, but my desirable plants' roots can penetrate it growing downward. Corrugated cardboard will attract worms a little better because it doesn't pack down as hard as newspaper, and because the small of glue in the cardboard contains a little nitrogen.

OK,so you do learn something new every day! Please ellaborate on this Gardenia soil conditioner. I've not heard of it until I explored this wonderful website. We have a slope on our property that I want to turn into a rock garden rather than having to mow it. In our old age, we are trying to reduce the amount of lawn that needs to be mowed and concentrate more on the gardening.

So I'll be working with soil that is absolute garbage!!! We had the house built almost 5 years ago and since then all of our topsoil has washed away because of the sloping and I'm left with nothing more than hardpan with barely any topsoil to hold what little grass we have. I will be basically be doing "lasagna" gardening until I'm satisfied with the soil to begin planting. We are surrounded by rock so I can "steal" rock from empty lots to help anchor the soil and hopefully reduce the erosion. Then I'll plant with groundcovers and plants that will hold the soil.

But back to my original comment, tell me about this Gardenia Soil Conditioner. Where can I get it, how to disperse it and any other uses. This is exciting!

I put everything I can get my hands on into the compost pile, after saying that of course I do not put in any meat or dairy products. Leaves, grass clippings, some shredded newspaper, old vegetables and fruit, potatos peelings, coffee grounds. I do shred or chop up everything into small pieces that way they decompose faster. I bury the rotten fruit in the compost so as not to attract the flies. I bring home the coffee grounds from my office plus what I have at my house the worms love them. I never put any worms into my compost they just come naturally. I do not put weeds into the compost pile.

In the spring I mix up the compost with some peatmoss, worm castings, bat and seabird guano ( I get that from Dirtworks, ) and I put in some bone meal and if I have any rabbit manure I put that in to, I mix all this together and dig it into the garden. The soil conditioner that I used as mulch last year I dig that in also and I will replace that with new mulch (soil conditioner) this year.

The soil conditioner that I talk about you get at walmart, it is cheap enough it is about $2 a bag. Gardenia is the brand name it has nothing to do with the flower. It is finely shredded pinebark.

Hope this helps.

Yes, stetchworth, you helped me out again. Because of you, I ordered 50#s of wormcastings from Dirtworks. Now with the new SuperWalmart that opened up down the road from us, I gotta keep an eye out for the soil conditioner. I did a Google search and came up with nothing. Now I hope they sell it in the Northeast. Anyway, I'm ready to do some lasagna gardening this spring to get things rolling here. I am so excited about this new venture, I can't wait for the weather to warm a bit so I can start. I'm chomping at the bit, here!!!!

Thanks for your help

Carol

sketch, You don't put any weeds in the compost? How come?

Weeds are a major element of my pile is why I ask.

Suzy

Hi Suzy, I really cannot give you a good reason why, my mother never put weeds in her compost pile so I have never done it.

Although I have not used the "Gardenia" brand that Stetchworth discusses, my local nursery carries their own brand of superfine mulch. It is sold as a soil coniditioner, and does an incredibile job on clay.

I used it last year when I took up part of my lawn. I was barely able to till the ground with my gas tiller. The soil condition made all the difference. Just as Stetchworth says, it is just pine mulch, but ground very fine. You should be able to find it at any nursery. In fact, you may even find it at HD. I wouldn't worry as much about the brand name. I could tell the difference in a matter of minutes, because I could finally work the soil.

Keep adding your compost to enrich your soil.

I really can't answer the "early bird" question, or if the papers protect them, but do know, from observation, that birds in general, and robins in particular, have to be able to hear the movement of the worm in the ground, and the softer the ground, the less they hear. Now let me empty a bin, and the robins are waiting, and they are turning their heads side ways, to catch their fill, at the bottom of the pile.
Now, I have been doing some thinking about bat droppings, in compost.I have noticed that under the low, dark crawl space under my house, that bats are starting to roost.NO, I won't call the extermenators, or tell DW, but have hit on the idea of making a "string" of bat boxes over the compost piles, and let nature do the rest. Any one heard of this, being done? Mike

No not heard of it, but a very COOL idea. Talk about labor saving :~) I've been thinking about hanging bat houses on trees in my area just for bug control. That won't help get guano to the compost pile but will help with skeeters.

Lana

Tell me about BAT houses, please. We have a gazillion mosquitoes, as we live in front of a bayou dropoff in the back yard. The waterway gets plugged up, and you know what standing water does for mosquitoes! I stopped going outside mid-summer, I'd get so eaten up. When I toughed it out, I'd come inside in tears because the mosquito venom from so many bites started itching and burning, and I'd be in tears...If bat houses will help with the mosquito population, I'm all for it!

Please advise, soonest. Thanks.

Try a google search, or maybe someone will know more than I do about how they are built.
Lana

Hang on I saw a way to make them from towels (maybe in a forum here) I will try to find a link for you.

I have not found the link yet ... will keep trying as time permits.

Here's Bat Conservation International's page about bat houses and attracting bats:


http://batcon.org/home/index.asp?idPage=47

There's a couple pdfs, one is plans for a simple bat house

Gymgirl, you could also try your state's department of natural resources web page. Or any other state's webpage for that matter. I know I've seen bat box plans at Wisconsin DNR.

Hey,
I got a catalog over the weekend (Duluth Working Women's Clothes) and it had BAT HOUSES! Assembled or not....

Who'd a thunk it would be in a clothing catalog :~o LOL

Lana

i found a link tonight - for bat houses

http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/greenacres/wildones/handbk/wo26bat.html

Great!!, Thats the best design, for the idea of going across the pile, the lenght of the pile.Will start with one across the main pile, then add, if necessary. Thanks, Mike