Soybean meal has been so highly touted as a fertilizer that I traipsed to the feed store and returned with a 50-pound sackful. The meal smelled good, and believing anything that smelled so good must be beneficial, I applied it to the grass.
Then while spreading some sawdust on the rose beds I realized I had no nitrogen, so I decided to substitute some of this fine soybean meal.
To the sawdust, I mixed a generous portion of the soybean meal and distributed it thoroughly among the hybrid teas. The remaining mixture went on the strawberry beds.
Anticipating Concoction
For a couple of days, there was nothing to do but anticipate the wonders of my concoction. Then, while dining outside with the family, we noticed an odor. At first, we disregarded it; then, deciding something had died in the honeysuckle hedge, I made hands and knees search. Nothing there.
The next morning as I sipped my first cup of tea on the back stoop I noticed flies buzzing around the rose bed. I bent down to inspect the area and the odor hit me with a blow that promptly brought me upright.
The soybean-sawdust mixture had fermented. Then it rotted overnight and created an overwhelming stench!
“Stir it up,” I thought. “Cover it up and no one will know.”
But some things you just can’t keep to yourself.
I tried stirring the mixture deeper into the beds. Everything from malathion to sulfur was used and like garbage disposal, the mixture absorbed them all with no effect. My wife even sneaked a call to a professional nurseryman.
“Keep it dry,” he said (in a rainy season), “and tell Bill not to try these new ideas in such large quantities.”
We hoped and prayed for dry weather. It rained daily.
The strawberries tasted like the mixture smelled and nearly gagged some unsuspecting guests who were unaware of their richness. Most of the plants, but none of the guests, died.
Gradually the mixture was absorbed into the soil and the flies left for other barnyards. Today everything is nearly normal.
The roses? They’re doing excellently. Two feet higher than at the same time a year ago, blooming like mad. They have beautiful foliage. superb form, and on this day of odorless roses, a mild aroma. A rosarian I respect said they grew tall in search of refreshing breezes, but I believe the mixture deserves the credit.
44659 by William Hull