If you scrounge 19 overstuffed bags of leaves two years ago and pile them up
in an out of way space, will they compost over that period of time into
black humus? The answer is yes.............I finally pulled the bags of
leaves I'd scrounged in Sevierville along side of the road on my way home
when I worked up in Gatlinburg, and then tossed under the kitchen deck until
I had time to dump them into my compost pile.

I actually had scrounged about 29 huge bags of leaves, but had actually used
ten of them over the last year or two when I thought of it, but the lion's
share of them sat quietly under the deck decomposing. I noticed yesterday
as I was cleaning off the downstairs patio slab that is in front of the
laundry room/den that one bag was almost decomposed completely and what was
inside was black and there were huge earthworms. That's all it took.

Today I planted the four althea's along the northern edge of the first ridge
behind our house and was wondering what I'd fill the holes up with. The soil
was worse than concrete with the dry spell we've had recently. All the rains
we've gotten have done their best and worst but now with NO rain, there are
huge cracks in the soil now. I couldn't get the shovel into the soil to
even make a hole. It took the maddock.

One althea had too much soil and provided it's own top fill, but the other
three were looking like they were going to be living out the fall and winter
in their nursery pot when I decided I'd plug them under the walnut tree in
the walnut box with the hardy begonia, Ladies of the valley, Sum and
Substance hosta, and bronze ajuga. But there wasn't adequate soil at the
northern end of the box. Ahhhhh, never mind, I will at least be able to dig
a hole for the bushes, and topdress them with a bag or two of the leaf
compost under the deck. I took them all. It was wonderful. Every bag was two
thirds less than what it had been. But each one had rich, damp, black
compost.

The box now has two altheas. One pure white one called Diana. The other is
Aphrodite, a deep pink with deep burgandy pink throat. The other ones are a
double red and a double pink-purple one that I planted on either side of the
other two doubles. When they grow together, their combination of double
puffs of color will be intriguing. And the pure white Diana is the cleanest
white one I've ever seen, standing next to the deep pink Aphrodite will be
kinda neat too.

Down in the tomato box I planted "Magic Carpet" spirea to join the Goldflame
one I'd plugged in the corner three weeks earlier. I am slowly making my
way away from the constipated front and side beds. There's hope for me yet.
And oh joy, oh joy, I got my baby Deutzia from Brudder John today in the
mail and it's tucked against the northern side of the tomato box near a
rich, composty area where the soil slowly leeches out, and a cedar stump has
finally given it's life and is providing it's own compost. As I dug out the
spot for the bush, I had to return fat earthworms back in the hole with the
little bush. I can't wait until it tastes the rich soil and takes off into
growth......Life is good!

madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler where the hummers are
straffing each other like little Red Baron's right now just outside my nook
window, where I can see English Mountain in the waining sunset, the sides of
the mountains slopes lit up and the textures evident, here in Easterh
Tennessee where it's going down to the low 50's tonight......great sleeping
weather! g