Mother Earth heard my intentions to start a backyard compost pile, and started one for me, naturally!

Date:   6/5/2005 4:11:07 AM ( 19 y ago)

Photo by Leslie Goldman AKA Your Enchanted Gardener 2005 http://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=92&t=4176

Friday late afternoon I was doing a little clean-up in the side yard where I keep all of my empty clay pots. I saw an old plastic "Welcome" mat lying upside down on the concrete. I lifted it up, ready to rinse it off and find a place of use for it, when I saw underneath it a small, flattened, pile of old potting soil, the plastic bag it had come in long since thrown away. "Oh, wow, look at this nice soil! Perfect!", I thought, as I wanted to pot a small bit of jade plant that had gotten knocked about and accidentally unearthed by the gardeners that had come and gone that morning. Jade plants are succulents, and extremely easy to grow. You can put a small broken-off branch of it in water and it will grow roots, or you can put it directly in the soil and it will root.

I scavenged around and found a small plastic pot, then scooped up a hand full of potting soil and put it in the pot. Something wriggled in the soil. I looked closely and saw, much to my amazement and pleasure, little red earthworms! How on earth did they make their way into this small pile of potting soil on the concrete? I have no idea how long they've been there. Maybe they were refugees from the rains we had this winter, washed up and out of their usual habitat, floating across the concrete on a wave of water until they found this bit of potting soil-island to save them from drowning. I smiled at them, then put the "Welcome" mat back down over them to keep them moist.

I finished my clean-up and went in the house. Tomorrow I'm going to scoop them up, soil and all, and put them in a bucket and feed them some nice avocado skins I saved from the trash today. I promised myself a week ago that I was going to start a compost pile; it looks as though Mother Earth and the worms have already started one for me!

 

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