Horse poo and some calendula

I have finally got my shit together (worm shit that is) and made my worm juice concoction. I have a 250L container which I filled with water and added worm castings tied up in cloth, as well as 2kg of molasses and 200mL of fish emulsion. The brew was then aerated for 24 hours with a little aquarium pump attached to an air stone in the bottom. The idea is the bacteria in the castings pass into the water and breed up in great numbers fuelled by plenty of oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. I watered the garden with it this evening and the bacteria will keep feeding on their brew before looking for organic matter to eat. As they chomp through the organic matter, converting it into rich humus, generations of bacteria die leaving their nitrogen-rich bodies in the soil, attracting earthworms to incorporate it into the layers of soil below and releasing carbon dioxide for the plants.


I used to think that if I sorted the worms out I’d have great soil, but now I think it’s the bacteria that I have to foster. The worms inoculate the soil with bacteria, and are also attracted to bacteria in the soil so it’s easy to concentrate on the wrong thing - focussing on the finger and not what it’s pointing at. I am a bacteria farmer with a guitar and a harmonica but no single-celled songs. I read today that a tonne of humans eats about 50 pounds of food in a day, a tonne of worms eats 1000 pounds, a tonne of fungi eats 4000 pounds, and a tonne of bacteria eats 40,000 pounds.


I turned my compost too as I’m going to a singing weekend tomorrow and won’t be back until Sunday night. I have two heaps going at the moment, both quite exciting. The more mature one is bracken, horse poo and privet and the other is bracken, horse poo and some calendula, well…a little calendula, well…I say a little but not much at all really. Anyway, they’re both lovely and hot, breaking down with reckless abandon. The bracken and horse poo heap is working well but I think it needs more variety, leaning as it is towards being a monoculture heap. I’m contemplating growing herbs especially to put in my compost but perhaps this is one of the signs I’m taking it far too seriously.


Noah and I went down to the creek the other day and found a little waterfall and a bit of a kiddie pool. I was astounded how full of weeds the whole area is. Nothing but weeds really - if we took all the privet out there wouldn’t be much left. I’m hatching plans to take it back.

“I’m grateful that Morrow came over.”
(Confused? Look)