My favorite stump dirt tree
My favorite stump-dirt tree has been good to us
this year. I've already used about six gallons of beetle
castings, and B.J.
and I easily brought home another seven gallons or so Monday
afternoon. I figure there are even a couple more bucketsful left
for later seed starting, and of course the tree will fill back up over
the summer, fall, and winter and give us the same again next year.
If I look like I'm
praying to the tree, I kinda am. Who wouldn't be grateful for
such perfect humus? This individual tree makes the best potting
soil I've ever used --- just the right levels of nutrients and
water-holding capacity. Stump dirt from box-elders isn't even in
the same ball park, and tulip-trees and apples are head and shoulders
below this beautiful old beech.
The best stump dirt is
really little balls of beetle poop, and nearly everything spilling out
of this tree fits the bill.
More on what I used my
stump dirt for in a later post.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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for some strange reason, this post made me tremendously homesick for the east- where things are green and lush, and where you might find such a treasure as stump dirt. What a grand old beech tree. What kind of beetles produce this hummus? The quantity that you've pulled out of the tree is simply amazing.