The school garden is full of insect life, which we often stop and contemplate in the midst of moving compost or pulling weeds. A huge earthworm is an excellent excuse to pause for a moment and pull everyone else over. On Friday, it was a few rolly-pollys, sowbugs, pillbugs—those creatures that living in decaying matter and curl up in a ball like a possum when disturbed. “I have a terrarium with these in it,” one girl observed. “They’ll eat anything and they are hard to kill.” It’s true; they love to munch.
When
we moved to our home and began a garden, it was my first experience with
long-term soil maintenance. I had grown gardens before but I always moved after
a season or two, so I had no idea what needed to happen over the long term to
maintain fertility. I did know, theoretically, about compost and organic
matter, but nothing about timing. Our third year in raised beds, I tossed a few wheelbarrows of partially decayed
compost onto the bed designated for vines, assuming that it would break down and
improve my soil with no consequences. Then I planted my various vines—zucchini,
cucumbers, a Hubbard squash or two—and went on with life. It was a cold spring;
I was a little hopeful in my planting. A week later, things looked bad.
Munched. Something was eating the stems, right at the mulch line. There was no
slug slime…then I spotted the colony of pill bugs hunkered down under a pale
leaf. Pillbugs. Who knew? I replanted some seeds to replace the munched plants.
They were also destroyed as they came up. I tried diatomaceous earth, but it was washed away with every passing
shower or watering. Finally, the third replant stuck; the weather had turned
warm enough for the plants to outgrow the predation.
The
pillbug spring led to two new ideas. First, chickens, according to the
internet, eat pillbugs. I wanted chickens anyways and this news pushed us over
into ownership. To be fair, chickens will eat pillbugs but they are not, at
least here, a preferred food. Chickens did not solve the problem. Then I looked
further into timing. Pillbugs really like to eat decaying matter. They are excellent
compost heap residents. They leave
totally decayed matter alone because there is nothing left for lunch. So, if I
did not toss partially decayed matter onto the beds, would the pillbugs find
somewhere else to gather? Yes. Problem solved. I pile leaves onto the beds in
the fall, run the chicken tractor over each bed in the winter, depositing some
excellent nitrogen onto the leaves, toss the entire bed when we move the coop,
and there is very little undecayed matter left on the beds in the spring. Then,
if I do not push the season by planting out too soon—another example of timing—I
do not have huge colonies of pillbugs lurking under leaves, searching for
lunch. They go back to being an endearing and useful member of the garden ecosystem.
I
have, like many gardeners, been struggling with the very cold, very wet spring
in the Willamette Valley. I have greens ready to be planted at school, sitting
in my classroom. I have potatoes prepped in the greenhouse, waiting to go into
both spaces. The only thing that is
growing is the grass. I am ready. But then, I think of the pillbugs and the
slugs, just waiting for me to get ahead of the weather and plant something
before it is warm enough to support vigorous growth and I wait. A few more
days, I say, again and again. A few more days.
