#2
Post
by apochronaut » Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:07 pm
Anywhere there is water that has been standing for a while. One thing you can do is put some small transparent containers out in the sun, those plastic ones that carry deli products are good, or glass bottles. Add a bit of old leaves and or vegetable peels in them, and a tiny amount of sugar to start and if the sun gets hot, don't let them overheat because it will kill the culture. Loosely cover them. They will turn green in short order and be quite full of life. It is still around freezing here and we have had some light lake effect snow over the past few weeks, so it seems very wintery still. I have a plastic tray, I set out water in, for the bees.I came across that tray, the other day. It had about 2" of water in it, with lots of snow crystals floating in it and a thin skin of ice. It also had a noticeable growth of algae on the plastic ...quite thick in places. The water was icy but the inhabitants were happy.
The water under plants is verdant, scrapings from the under side of decomposing leaves is verdant. Areas where eave troughs drain, sometimes have a bit of back water and a community. Any moss or lichen on tree trunks, especially during extended humid or misty days and nights is a civilization! .Do you have a composter? Drainage from that. Areas around and under bud scales of perennials, just as they are emerging in spring and sections of dormant buds themselves. Lichens on rocks.
If you have a back yard, you have lots of microbiology out there. Pretty much, scrapings from anything outside, will yield something; even crystals , if you are interested in those.