CHECK IT OUT! Last year I decided I wanted to have a garden. I envisioned gigantic sunflowers bordering my fenceline, roses trailing on trellises, lavender and daisIes swaying in the breeze. I saw sprawling cucumber vines ladened with cukes, and towers of tomatoes. I wanted tons of cantelope I could share with the neighbors and plenty of flowers I could cut and arrange for gifts.
What I didn't envision was Oklahoma's nasty red clay that clunks up and hardens like a potter's clay in a 5000 degree kiln. The soil ain't soil, it's just plain clay. It does nothing for a person's gardening efforts. After spending hours in the April sun, digging through 6-inch deep broadleaf grass roots, I unearthed some soil I felt might have possibilities. It even had a few earthworms wiggling their way through the dirt. So I dug and dug and dug some more. But deep in my heart I knew the ground was lousy. I decided to start a compost heap.
My husband wasn't keen on the idea. Can't blame him. He thought the garbage I was lugging out to the little pile of dirt I'd mounded up as a starter was going to stink up the neighborhood. But it didn't. I went to a friend's farm and picked up dry cow patties to add to my mix. My next door neighbor has her grass professionally mowed. When I saw that the lawn-folk were bagging the grass, I asked if they'd just toss it over the fence onto my pile. It was great "heat" for cooking my compost. This year we have two truckloads of black fertile soil for our efforts. However we also have some other things.
GIGANTIC Grub worms. And I do mean gigantic. If you click on the picture at the left, you can see the size of the ones which come from my compost.
They are the big ones on each end. The one in the center comes from a garden bed I had last year. They are bigger around than my size 5 ring finger. Shudder, ick, yuck, disgusting. They are the ugliest worms! They give me the heebie-jeebies. Last year my geraniums kept croaking because those chubby grubbies sucked the life out of their roots. As I turned over my flower beds this year, the beds were full of the grotesque things. Anyone know how to get rid of them? Without dumping a five-gallon drum of insecticide on my ground? (I've already picked out some and tossed them to the birds, but we're not talking ten or fifteen worms here! There are a bunch of them!
I don't want to mix that great compost soil into my garden beds until I've destroyed those gigantic monsters that will devour every seedling I plant. Help!
