Compost Heaven

There is a lot of action in the compost pile these days! Ours is a generous size—a railroad tie in length on each side and a couple of ties high. All year, I make pots over pumpkins. I love their irregular curvy ridges and overall great forms. Eventually those pumpkins give way, however, so I make clay molds of the ones with the shapes and sizes I like best. Then I can still make pumpkin pots when pumpkins are not available. The succumbing real pumpkin disappears into the compost until late spring when its seeds germinate to remind me of its heroic past in my studio. By July I have the biggest tangle of vines you’ve ever seen, with magnificent leaves of myriad shapes and sizes not only from pumpkins but other seedy sources too. Then we dig all the new compost into one side of the pile and let the verdant vines cascade over the other sides of the compost square and into the yard. I cut the largest leaves off to use to shape platters and plates. Their veining is wonderful, their shape pure summer-- talk about organic! Who says pumpkins are only about autumn?

Arctium Lappamay?

I found this year’s first haul of burdock leaves along the driveway where we recycle our non-compostables. I got some odd looks from drivers of big trucks as they drove by me merrily clipping the weedy leaves with my husband’s Leatherman.  Arctium lappamay may be maligned in the books as a “troublesome weed,” and it lacks any American botanical market or cultivation potential – although some Brits and Europeans make tea with the roots. It casts burrs (hence the name) that tangle into any passing animal’s fur, and is about as unpopular a plant as one can find. But those lovely, dark green leaves are big and leathery, and their beautiful veining makes incise fascinating ridges when pressed into my clay.

I made a dozen great platters, bowls and pots with my gleanings from the recycling center! Soon the burdocks will practically come to me in several places along our lane and then in the deeply shaded roots of a huge old maple beside the creek. I aim for the patience to let those leaves grow hefty and great. A weed may merely be a plant out of place, but I know where the burdock can find love.

Searching for something to do in July? Come and visit me at the Art on Cullers Run 2014 event.