10:28 AM  [11 Nov 2007 | Sunday]

Catfish are Jumping and so are Worms!

This morning at 7:30 AM ET in the Catskills it was 16 F. We are dropping into the teens and I've yet to plant my shallots and garlic. No need to panic, I'm sure it'll warm up again soon. We also had our first snow that actually stuck to the ground. Here are my leeks.

But there is reason to panic about something else. Worms, killer worms, some as big as a ploughman's forearm are coming to chew your forest to bits. Could this be the beginning of Frank Herbert's vision? A dried up planet where worms rule the world. I read the first Dune Book in college and have seen many incomprehensible incarnations of it on the Sci-Fi channel. I never thought I'd experience it. Am I excessively panicking, you bet I am. There's not much to do in the garden and it's the weekend.

Fisherman refer to them as "Alabama jumpers" because these annelids can jump (scientists call them Amynthas agrestis). They are great bait because they wriggle and have more verve and panache than your standard earthworm. They are the "Little Richard" of the live bait genus. That popularity could be what's causing them to spread out. With their obvious physical skills can worm jumping competitions be far behind?

They are a threat because they voraciously eat the leaf litter on the forest floor, some which has taken up to hundred years to form, in a manner of minutes. Maybe not minutes but quicker than the docile worms we've grown to know and love. My undying love for the earthworm stems from it status as a master composter, a welcome addition to my garden that tirelessly aerates the soil, chomps up organic matter and passes it into the garden, filling it with nitrogen, phosphates and potash (not sure what potash is, I rank it with myrrh).

Now I must keep a steely eye out for these creatures. They're described as 5–6 inches long and a bit fatter than your average worm, no doubt a result of their bad eating habits. I don't know what it is, groups migrate to the US and immediately put on the pounds. In certain parts of the country they're known to wear a top hat and a monocle, outside of that, no big difference from your average worm.

When you find them, um, don't do anything. It's still a worm, it's good for your garden! I mean what can you do?  Professor I. L. Heiberg of State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry has stated that in optimum conditions, the worm population may even reach 250,000,000 per acre (thanks wikipedia). 250,000,000 an acre! Is he crazy? Can that really be true? That's many more worms than we have in the US house and Senate. And look at the damage they've caused!

Some of the facts in this post may be inaccurate. Read the excellent story by reporter Lee Sheer of the Athens Banner-Herald (Athens GA) by clicking this Read the full story

I'll be hiding under the bed.

12:12 PM  [08 Nov 2007 | Thursday]

Our first snow shower

12:03 PM  [06 Nov 2007 | Tuesday]

All 3 Gardens Tilled!

Friday afternoon November 2, I tilled the final garden. No glitches, roto-tiller worked fine. Now it's time to plant the garlic and the shallots, then fill in the rest with winter rye and we'll be all ready for winter. Most of the leeks are still out there (I always seem to leave something out there) but everything else is in the root cellar. Now that the temperature has finally consistently dropped, most mornings are in the mid 20's F and the root cellar is starting to cool off. Right now it's 52 F in there. During the summer it never got warmer than 68 F but now we'll be able to store milk, beer, wine and of course all the vegetables.

Our root cellar is connected to the house. We poured a basement under our house in 2003 and the root cellar sticks out of it. It's 8' x 8', shut of from the rest of the basement by studs, drywall and a metal door (so the door doesn't rot). The floor is dirt, then a layer of the leftover stone we spread around the foundation and ultimately on top of that we'll put pea gravel so you can walk around in your bare feet. There is an air pipe that goes from the bottom, under the foundation footing and up the other side. This is the first winter the first floor has been connected to the basement, so I don't have to go outside in the snow to get the vegetables. A staircase to the basement, that's living baby. It never freezes down there, it's below the 4 foot frostline but it did drop into the mid 30's F last winter. That's the first time it's ever really been shut off from the rest of the house. At that point we were still under construction so we'll see how low it gets this year. Here's a shot of it being prepped for backfill.

The root cellar is such a luxury and of course I was against it, my wife was for it. She was right, again. I love going down there and getting our summer produce all winter. I read that you can store your carrots and beets in sand and it keeps them fresh longer. I have to experiment with that. I hope it works. The problem with the carrots is they start growing again and rot. I also have to remind myself to check all the produce to make sure nothing is molding up.

Like many Northern Hemi folks I'm checking out Gardening Blogs from the Southern Hemi for vicarious kicks. Here are two good ones from Australia. http://www.gardeningtipsnideas.com/ and http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/