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Wednesday, July 26, 2006 Tony Pumpkin Abbotsford BC

Entry 133 of 229  
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Stopped the neighborhood gardener just now. He was happy to have me take six huge bags of yard trash (mostly grass and leaves) off his truck. It is funny, our conversation was kinda like you'd have at the local produce stand (i.e., where was this grown, do they use pesticides etc.) the only difference was that I was taking trash to dump in my back yard for free instead of produce to eat.

I thought about making some compost tea from the yard trash, but instead I just dumped it in the huge hole behind the stump of my plant. Boy did I sweat hauling that stuff into the back yard! Have to start early for next year. He is coming by later in the week with another truck full of grass. I read somewhere that one well intentioned gardener can produce more compost soil in one year than nature does in a hundred. I also read that worms can eat 15 tonnes of leaves per acre and turn them into worm castings--imagine what this could do for your soil when worm casts contain 5 times more nitrogen, 7 times more phosphate, 11 times more potash, and many more trace elements than the surrounding soil. All the better for compost feeding a plant. Other than the small foliars I have been administering everyday (2 litres diluted fish/seaweed/half tablespoon of Miracle grow) sprayed on the plant leaves of the plant--I have not done any other fertilizing in a couple of months, and gains seem reasonable.

I have a feeling the roots will work their way into this compost before long--hopefully it does not provide too much of a jolt to the growth of the pumpkins. I already saw some roots creeping into the hole a while ago, so I covered them up with the yard trash. Next year I should have 4 feet deep compost/organic matter for the pumpkin stump to root into. i don't think I will till next year at all.
 



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