After a week of thunder, lightning, hail and endless rain, it all stopped today. Very cold, but I own warm clothes and strode out into the garden this afternoon without any care for the state of the house. I planted the two blueberry plants I bought earlier this week. I bought two varieties: 'Blueberry Powder Blue' and 'Blueberry Rahi'. I had to buy two because these are rabbiteye types and require cross-pollination. The plentiful worm activity in the soil when I was planting the blueberries was very encouraging.
I then dug out the last of the tobacco plants and tipped the bags of seaweed I've been collecting over the last week over the vacated garden patch. Using loppers and scissors I chopped all the seaweed into pieces of about 10cm or less and left them scattered over the patch. Given the huge volume of rain we've received of late and will likely receive in coming weeks, I preferred to leave the seaweed to rot in like this rather than make a seaweed brew.
I've been reading that wood ash is very alkaline. Which particularly interests me because pine needles are quite acidic. So I'm thinking of collecting some more pine needles from the local rugby field sideline this week and layering them with the wood ash on my new compost spot. I will then top it with Raelene's discarded chook litter from her hen house.
Unless the weather improves and the roads to take Fionn to his grandparents' home open, tomorrow we will be killing, plucking and gutting two roosters. Other times I have put the feathers on the compost, turned the bones to stock (and eaten the meat obviously) and then placed the used bones in the rubbish bag alongside the various bits I gut from each bird. I am wondering whether we should toughen up a little more and bury those innards in the garden. They would probably do something good for the soil. The back garden is fenced off from local dogs and NZ doesn't have foxes, so there should be no risk of it all being dug up again. Wonder how deep I'd have to bury it...
Where happiness is lurking
1 week ago
3 comments:
Hi Sandra,
It's interesting you mention the possibility of burying the bones and such in the garden. I recently ran across a site where a man shows burying a lot of scraps, straw, manure, etc in what he calls a "trash heap" covered with earth, and plants a tomatoe over it...it gets about 10 or more feet high and really produces. It got my husband and myself into discussion about what we'd do with the remains of our slaughtered animals (when we have them), especially the viscera, etc. If we do the slaughtering ourselves, we'd use the bones for stock, and would try letting them dry out and either putting them through a chipper (to make them more like dust) and then using it in the garden soil, or chopping them into small bits and burying them. At any rate, we're thinking of digging a trench in what we hope will be 8 or 12" raised beds, and putting some of the viscera, fluids, and bone dust in them, along with what you're talking about...pine needles, leaves, ash...something in good balance, and then covering it over and planting some sort of green manure for overwintering...then spading it under lightly and planting the next season. Don't know if it'll work, but since we don't eat offal, we thought it might feed the beneficial microbes and help ensure healthier plants in the garden. With animals that are not our slaughter animals...such as a cow that we've milked a long while, pets, other animals we'd not eat...we'd bury them intact, but likely beside a fruiting tree...and mark the place with a stone and their name. It's strange how things may sort themselves...all now for us is theoretical, but we're thinking through many of what will be practicals in that day. Let's see if what actually happens matches up in any way to what we think now that we'd do then :)
P.S....forgot to mention...the man who grows the "trash heap tomatoes" says that if you bury the animal offal deeply and then cover it with the other components, you should then make sure it's covered well with a soil layer. He assures that if it's buried beneath soil with no exposure to the surface, dogs and animals will not dig for it if they cannot smell it.
Well now I've gutted them, I've put aside the various innards (not confident enough of which is which so don't cook any of them) and I'll bury them deeply this week. For now, the bones will end up in landfill as I lack the motivation (and equipment) to grind bones.
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