My compost piles are not well kept. I don’t turn them like I’m supposed to do. I don’t even use the compost as much as I should. Still the piles do pay their dividends. Last year I got pineapple plants. This spring I had an incredible crop of earthworms.
Other stuff grows around my compost piles — ferns, jewelweed, wineberries to name a few and assorted saplings. About ten feet behind and to the left of the pile is a large cherry tree. At one point I figured out what kind of cherry, but I’ve forgotten. I don’t get the cherries anyway. The squirrels do.
Because of the proximity of the cherry tree, I assumed that the sapling coming up right next to the pile was another cherry tree. It bloomed this spring at about the same time, but it didn’t bear cherries.
Today, as I went to dispose of some yard clippings, I looked at the sapling and was joyously surprised to see– of all things — peaches. The little tree has at least a dozen peaches. Had I actually planted and nurtured a peach tree, it would, undoubtedly, be dead by now. As a counted the young fruits, visions of peach cobbler immediately began to dance in my head, warm with ice cream.
As quickly as that vision appeared so did another. I saw fat, happy raccoons eating my peaches.
Now I have a new project: devising a raccoon-proof shield for my peaches. I suspect that if I am successful , I will have a marketable product. Success, however, is highly unlikely.
Still, you can bet I’ll be checking the crop each day. Maybe I can get at least one little treat from my lovely, new peach tree.
Compost+Snow=Magic
I have a piece of land that I am trying to rehabilitate on the cheap– no store bought soil enhancers, no store bought plants. I’ve turned compost into the dirt and planted by dividing bulbs, rhizomes, and plants, and I’ve moved volunteers. When the snow came and the snowplows pushed four feet of snow onto this area, I thought my work was all for naught. Continue reading The Continued Joy of Composting-Treasure under the Snow
I’ve noticed that a lot of viewers seem to be interested in composting these days. I don’t have anything scientific to add to my last post, but I can tell you about some unusual outcomes since then.
Last summer, I had filled a flower bed with the black gold from the compost bin. As the summer days warmed the soil, and the rain provided some much needed moisture, I was pleased to see that the iris rhizomes I had transplanted to the new bed were thriving. They were putting out beautiful green leaves creating a bed of graceful “V’s” in the landscape. But there was more. Continue reading A Golden Treasure from the Compost Pile
Crownsville’s biodiversity is rich by my standards — growing up in an industrial city, I saw a few squirrels and the occasional rabbit. We had robins, sparrows, starlings, blue jays and rare cardinal now and then.
Here, we have so much variety– plants and animals. I enjoy trying to grow some of that variety in my yard. I have hostas and all manner of day lilies. I wait for them to grow and bloom all through the winter and spring. With the first warm days, I start checking the foliage for developing buds.
In the last few years, my anticipation has been tempered. I’ve gone from raising beautiful daylilies to raising lucious, or shall I say, deliious day lilies.
The local deer are a persistent if lazy lot. I see their hoof prints almost daily as the lily blossoms develop. They don’t munch the leaves. They don’t even go after the immature buds. They just check each night. They wait until the stems are tall and the buds are ready to burst open. They don’t have to even bend over. They just chomp — daylily salad.
I know that garden centers have commercial preparations for dissuade the deer, but does anyone out there know of a home brew that will make a nasty salad dressing for the lilies? If you do, send me your remedies with a comment on this article. I’ll share your wisdom in a future post. Looking forward to hearing from someone out there with just the cure!
Garbage? Art? Useful -- definitely!
I’ve been composting kitchen garbage and yard waste for a long time. As I have mentioned before, I am frugal so composting “feeds” that need in me. I love getting something for nothing. I am equally fascinated by making something from nothing. That’s compost — in a nutshell.
Like anything else that’s good for us and reasonably easy, some folks have thought of ways to make composting expensive. Sort of like walking shoes. We were able to walk just fine for years until shoe makers decided we needed special shoes.
The photo is my compost in waiting pile– one meal’s worth a veggie and fruit scraps (plus an over-the-hill banana) ready to be tossed onto the pile. Starting with this material formerly destined for the landfill, you can engage in the art of composting. And, like walking in the ol’ days, you, too, can do it cheaply but with purpose. Continue reading The Fine Art of Composting – how to be an artist
My compost piles are not well kept. I don’t turn them like I’m supposed to do. I don’t even use the compost as much as I should. Still the piles do pay their dividends. Last year I got pineapple plants. This spring I had an incredible crop of earthworms.