Don't you just love compost! I mean, come on, it's so exciting! Right? Not so much. Yes, compost is awesome, it is great, it does great things for your soil and your plants but it isn't something people get all excited over.
If you're anything like me you're like "eh, too much work" when someone suggests composting. About this time last year I started my first compost bin. It was a trashcan outside and I just tossed everything into it. It was a horrible stinking sludgy mess! I dumped it out on the side of my house that we don't use(into a hole that my kids dug) and it sat(and grew potatoes.) I'd say about 3 months ago I decided to give it another shot and this time, I decided, would be different.
This time I'm adding stuff to my compost every single day, I'm turning it every single day. I must confess that the idea of shredding up newspaper(it's non toxic and compostable) doesn't thrill me so I just rip it up. I figure I'm not wasting energy running that noisy shredder; so what if it takes a teeny bit longer to break down? I'm not going to waste time shredding it. Period.
The most important things that I've learned while composting: dry out your grass before you add it to your compost and turn it often. It should go without saying but I'll just get it out there: No waste from meat-eating animals! No, your cat's poop will not help out that compost heap! Or your Dogs! And for goodness' sake not yours either! The reason for these exclusions are simple: disease. You can have bird poop(including chicken), cow poop, worm poop, but not your poop.
Moving on.
Remember how I said that compost is great? Well, it is, let me tell you why. When you compost material it shrinks down to one-tenth the size that it was. Let's let that sink in for just a moment. This isn't something that I've given much thought to until this week(hence, the post) I have probably 200 lb of compost from the last 3 months. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out what 10 times 200 equals... My family has saved over a ton of garbage from going into our landfill just in the past few months. How is that possible? There are seven of us and you can compost anything that came from plant matter. You already know that I garden, whatever I pull out of the garden goes where? Into the compost heap! Egg shells. Into the compost heap! Bread crusts. Into the compost heap! Tortillas. Into the compost heap! Pancakes, too.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Pull Me!
I swear to you plants must say to kids: pull me! They must scream it! I've recently experienced a rash of children pulling my plants! First it was my jalapeno plants, then my basil plants, today it was onions and garlic(which I plunked right back into the dirt. I had to chase my niece and my daughter out of a planter today. I'm not really sure what it is about plants but kids HAVE to mess with them. /sigh.
My daughter, she's 3, decided to pick some peas this afternoon while I was preparing Dinner. I can tell you this: she is learning. Every time she has picked peas before she had a ton of little peas that weren't even an inch long. Today she picked nice big ones. That's my girl!
My daughter, she's 3, decided to pick some peas this afternoon while I was preparing Dinner. I can tell you this: she is learning. Every time she has picked peas before she had a ton of little peas that weren't even an inch long. Today she picked nice big ones. That's my girl!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Rain
Well, it's raining! Free water!
One good thing about doing square foot gardening (SFG) is that one uses far less water than with typical gardening. I think I use 4 gallons a day for 48 square ft of garden. That isn't 48 feet including aisles; I have 48 ft of just plants! Some days I don't even have to water because of the nature of the mix that I use, it holds water like crazy but still drains. I definitely recommend the book.
I turned my compost, which was a bit heavy due to the rain, but it's coming along nicely. I've got tons of potatoes growing- I'm actually giving out some seed potatoes to friends today! I have five yukon gold and five red potatoes, so far. The great thing about potatoes is the way that they grow. If you plant a potato six inches deep you'll have six inches of potatoes but if you keep adding dirt onto the plant once it's above ground it will keep growing and you'll get much more out of each plant. So far I have two red potatoes peeking out of the dirt, I'll be adding more soil to them when they are about six inches high.
My garlic and onions are growing like crazy! I have one square foot of garlic(sixteen plants) so far but its so easy to plant that I'll have tons by the end of Summer. I have eight sq ft of onions, two of green onions. Onions are grown sixteen to a sq ft. Do you think I like onions? In two weeks I'm adding another sixteen sq ft! I can't wait! Guess What. It's going to have another three sq ft of onions! Yes, I know that is a lot of onions but the great thing about them is that they keep for months all you have to do is cure them. (No, I've never cured them but it doesn't sound hard. I'll let you know when I actually do it.) Another thing that I like about onions is that you can just yank them out of the ground whenever you'd like and make dinner. It's fantastic! Oops! Out of onions? Right to the yard and Bam! Dinner!
One good thing about doing square foot gardening (SFG) is that one uses far less water than with typical gardening. I think I use 4 gallons a day for 48 square ft of garden. That isn't 48 feet including aisles; I have 48 ft of just plants! Some days I don't even have to water because of the nature of the mix that I use, it holds water like crazy but still drains. I definitely recommend the book.
I turned my compost, which was a bit heavy due to the rain, but it's coming along nicely. I've got tons of potatoes growing- I'm actually giving out some seed potatoes to friends today! I have five yukon gold and five red potatoes, so far. The great thing about potatoes is the way that they grow. If you plant a potato six inches deep you'll have six inches of potatoes but if you keep adding dirt onto the plant once it's above ground it will keep growing and you'll get much more out of each plant. So far I have two red potatoes peeking out of the dirt, I'll be adding more soil to them when they are about six inches high.
My garlic and onions are growing like crazy! I have one square foot of garlic(sixteen plants) so far but its so easy to plant that I'll have tons by the end of Summer. I have eight sq ft of onions, two of green onions. Onions are grown sixteen to a sq ft. Do you think I like onions? In two weeks I'm adding another sixteen sq ft! I can't wait! Guess What. It's going to have another three sq ft of onions! Yes, I know that is a lot of onions but the great thing about them is that they keep for months all you have to do is cure them. (No, I've never cured them but it doesn't sound hard. I'll let you know when I actually do it.) Another thing that I like about onions is that you can just yank them out of the ground whenever you'd like and make dinner. It's fantastic! Oops! Out of onions? Right to the yard and Bam! Dinner!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
I haven't posted in forever and a day.
I haven't posted recently because I haven't been able to do much. On September first I fell down my stairs and tore a ligament and a tendon in my ankle. This was, understandably, devastating since I'm a very active person. At the time I was running up to 24 miles a week(Ironically I'm fat but that's a different blog).
I just had my first pain-free day yesterday but that hasn't stopped me from playing in the garden! I have put in more boxes, my cabbages are doing well, my beets, turnips, and kohlrabi didn't do well at all. I just pulled it. My kohlrabi never developed and then it started to go to seed so I pulled it.
Right now my peas are setting fruit(finally!) so I've been out there collecting them daily. I had planted carrots with them but since the box was only six inches deep they grew about three inches and started to turn off to the side. I think part of my lack of success in my winter garden was the fact that for a couple of weeks I could barely walk, even on crutches, so the garden didn't exactly get watered. I was in too much pain to care(have I mentioned that I have two small children at home?)
It's amazing to me that two weeks ago I was still in a lot of pain and now I'm digging holes, turning compost, and planting trees. Back story: we had this god-awful cottonwood tree in our backyard(which is about thirty feet deep... INCLUDING THE FIFTEEN FOOT PATIO that spans our entire backyard!!!) Needless to say: the people who planted it were less than informed about the nature of these particular trees. So, Saturday we spend the day with a father and son who have their own business- see where this is going?- removing trees! These guys were awesome, very green, very open- minded, we had a really good time. I ended up giving the son a piece of my spearmint plant to take home. Saturday- tree disappears. Sunday- bought a new tree from a local family-owned business. We decided to get a rotundiloba and since we now have absolutely zero shade on our back yard we bought a big one. It's fifteenish feet right now so hopefully next year we'll get some shade out of it. Monday- we plant a lemon tree. Which brings us to today- I'm not doing anything! It's starting to sprinkle a bit but I'm going to check for peas and see if I have any(new) sprouts.
I just had my first pain-free day yesterday but that hasn't stopped me from playing in the garden! I have put in more boxes, my cabbages are doing well, my beets, turnips, and kohlrabi didn't do well at all. I just pulled it. My kohlrabi never developed and then it started to go to seed so I pulled it.
Right now my peas are setting fruit(finally!) so I've been out there collecting them daily. I had planted carrots with them but since the box was only six inches deep they grew about three inches and started to turn off to the side. I think part of my lack of success in my winter garden was the fact that for a couple of weeks I could barely walk, even on crutches, so the garden didn't exactly get watered. I was in too much pain to care(have I mentioned that I have two small children at home?)
It's amazing to me that two weeks ago I was still in a lot of pain and now I'm digging holes, turning compost, and planting trees. Back story: we had this god-awful cottonwood tree in our backyard(which is about thirty feet deep... INCLUDING THE FIFTEEN FOOT PATIO that spans our entire backyard!!!) Needless to say: the people who planted it were less than informed about the nature of these particular trees. So, Saturday we spend the day with a father and son who have their own business- see where this is going?- removing trees! These guys were awesome, very green, very open- minded, we had a really good time. I ended up giving the son a piece of my spearmint plant to take home. Saturday- tree disappears. Sunday- bought a new tree from a local family-owned business. We decided to get a rotundiloba and since we now have absolutely zero shade on our back yard we bought a big one. It's fifteenish feet right now so hopefully next year we'll get some shade out of it. Monday- we plant a lemon tree. Which brings us to today- I'm not doing anything! It's starting to sprinkle a bit but I'm going to check for peas and see if I have any(new) sprouts.
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