Talking Dirty

Soil Management: Phosphorus Collection and Extraction Mechanism

Ok, I’m going to talk dirty. You may want to stop reading. I get a bit racy.

If you do decide to read on, be prepared, you may read things that make you say ‘ewww’ or think I may be too radical for your taste. But listen up, I’m going to wax prophetic here….there will be a time in the future that you’ll be saying, ‘what a forward thinker she was’.

At least I can reassure myself with that last thought!

I just finished reading an article about the race for resources. Natural resources like gold, oil, uranium, and phosphorus. The world is running out.

That’s what happens when we use things up without replacing them.

Phosphorus is of particular importance to farmers, gardeners, and people who eat food. It’s classified as a macronutrient and plants gobble it up. It’s what makes a plant grow vigorously, mature earlier and develop healthy fruit or flowers. Without it plants don’t grow well.

Unfortunately, we are running out of phosphorus.

But wait you say, if it’s a mineral doesn’t it somehow get recycled? Yes….animals that eat the plants use some for their own body functions, then relieve themselves of excess by peeing it out. Yes you heard me right….they micturate and get rid of it.

Hmmmmm! Do you see where I’m going here!

Urine contains significant amounts of phosphorus. Plants need phosphorus to grow. So we can minimize the dangers of running out of phosphorus by … you got it…peeing in a bucket!

I have one downstairs filled with sawdust. The boys pee in it as I am on medication. Every other day or so we empty it into the compost pile or under one of the new raised beds. As the sawdust breaks down it releases the collected phosphorus. Perfect!

John asked me the other day about creating a soil management program. Well I said……if you want to talk dirty first you have to pee in the bucket.

Educating the Lookie Loos

Willie Pining at Fence

I live on a schoolyard. A big soccer field and baseball diamond are feet from my chain link fence. Sometimes the noise of screaming kids gets to me, and in the spring the ping of metal bat on ball can be a little annoying.

But today at noon with the May sun streaming down on the garden I braved the cacophony and decided to create a new potato bed.

Let me share a bit of background. Willie the border collie, at recess and lunch, begs to go outside. Groups of girls and boys meet him at the fence and throw sticks for him…right in the garden sometimes. I don’t mind in the least. He has a job and his tail wags non-stop.

Today was no exception, a group of boys were playing baseball in the diamond and three 8-9 year old girls were at the fence petting Will and throwing sticks. The noise level was abnormally high, probably due to the clear blue sky, warm temps and smell of spring and the end of school.

I lay down the newspaper, not easy on a windy day. I got the sprinkler out and hosed them down but wet paper and fetching dog don’t mix. Willie made great swaths of holes in the paper letting the grass poke through. I finally got the papers laid using far more then I intended and then started cutting potatoes getting them ready to lay on the wet newspaper.

The whole time I’m waiting and waiting.

I almost gave up, mentally questioning the lack of curiosity in youth today. But finally a small voice piped up, “What are you doing?” she asked.

Great Question!

New Potato Bed

I answered….with a three minute lesson in growing potatoes and a sample of freshly picked lettuce.

Yes!

Okay, so the sound of kids screaming may get a little tiresome sometimes, but when they see food growing, and taste a freshly picked vegetable, a kernel is planted. A small seed of curiosity and knowledge is nestled in their fertile mental soil and perhaps, hopefully, it will blossom into an understanding and interest in growing food.

What’s a little noise compared to that?