As you may have suspected by now, your task this week is again to TURN your compost. Add water as needed to the dry spots. Remember: “wrung-out sponge.”
It’s very hot here now, so I will only turn very early in the morning or after the sun has gone down, and with plenty of water to drink. If it’s too hot where you are, just let your compost sit again until a break in the weather. Don’t overdo it.
Last week, we learned about the microorganisms that are decomposing our compost for us. This week, I’d like to take a look at the invertebrates that are doing their thing.
This article from Cornell University has an excellent overview of the creepy crawlies in compost.
Watching them work for my garden gives me new respect and tolerance for these things that often seem just gross, but are actually as helpful and functional as the much-lauded earthworms and the venerated pollinators. Decomposers are distinctly unglamorous, but they are hard-working little mini-gardeners and the backbone of soil fertility.
I know. Invertebrates don’t have backbones. Choose another metaphor, Dais.
They are the tiny workhorses of soil fertility. Good enough.
I’ve seen a million sowbugs, springtails, and beetles in mine.
What’s crawling in your pile?