We bought poop.
Okay, technically, we bought Mix from Tagro, Tacoma’s homegrown, city-sanctioned nutrient booster. It’s a composted blend of yard waste and biosolids (that’s the polite term for what you’re imagining). They describe it as “earthy.”
Look, beets are earthy. Dirt is earthy.
This was poop.
Enrichment, by the Shovelful
Dean took the tractor out to scoop and dump bucket after bucket of the steaming pile onto the garden beds. Yes, it really was a steaming pile of poop. It smelled just as great as you can imagine.
Still, we persisted. We top-dressed all the beds, trying to pretend this was glamorous, or even tolerable. I tried breathing through my mouth. That made it worse.
We reminded ourselves:
This will help the soil structure.
The plants will love it.
Come on, this is funny.
(Maybe. We’ll see.)
You have to respect the system. Still, nothing about this process felt elegant or even composty in that stinky-bark, delicious organic-smelling sort of way. This was surviving the smell and hoping for the best.
What’s Next
Water it in. (Hose ourselves off while we’re at it.)
Wait for the soil to settle and mellow.
Let nature work its magic: microbes, worms, all the underground wonder-things.
Hope the neighbors weren’t downwind.
The garden is fed. The beds are dressed. And we… are trying not to think about it.
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