6th Jan 2025 Facebook

From last year’s loss comes this year’s hope...a victim of ash dieback had to be felled – and the chainsaw then magically transforms the stump into a wildlife riverside scene for inspiration and joy for people. But more to come! Not just more... but better! Our kind neighbours dropped the wood over the fence by our compost heap – for firewood (once well dried out*– very important!). Then, between plates of wood and sawdust (Photo 2) lay the real treasure!! 

The timescale was summer until mid-November - life had arrived (Photos 3,4).

Golden sawdust (see bottom of photo 1) had transformed to brown earth. Wondrous creatures were transforming death and destruction into plant heaven. Helped and speeded up by chainsaw-created sawdust, worms of all sizes (photo 2) were consuming, burrowing, digesting all the dead organic stuff from powdery wood, mixing, oxygenating and leaving wormcast granules of airy, fresh earth (vermicompost) improving soil chemicals and physical properties and creating vital air channels and allowing water to drain away. Channels visible right and bottom photo 2.

Research shows soils without earthworms are no good for soaking up water, in fact 90% less effective...  and waterlogged soil is something we have far too much of just now! 

Charles Darwin’s studies included 40 year’s-worth of observations on earthworms which he described as “living ploughs”.   He calculated 50,000 of them per acre (10-12 new-build plots) shifted 7.56 -18.12 tons of soil in a year! Modern investigations have shown these numbers were too low... it’s actually one million! They are now described as vital “global ecosystem reworkers”. 

 (Photo 5, 6 Reworked freshly made compost full of worms, good for your flowers,veg and birds !)

Lift the top layer off post-Christmas food scraps in your compost bin/heap. Watch worms ploughing through old coffee grounds, potato peelings and clothes dryer lint. Marvel at their quiet potential to benefit your next meal (Photo 5), whether from garden, allotment, field or supermarket... and our planet’s future. 

 

Photo 7 

Good omen! This iris flower appeared on 1st January - Happy New Year!

Environment notes:* wood burning on a wood burner stove or traditional open fire needs to have less than 20% humidity within its structure – increasing its efficiency to give less smoke, more heat, less air pollution (can be reduced by 50%). Simply push the needle of a moisture meter into the wood to get the info (meter costs around £15) and if too damp, store logs in airy wood pile to dry...