They worked well, but time took its toll.  They [...]]]> Build Yourself a Compost Corral

About fifteen years ago- geeze time flies—we bought two large heavy, black plastic  rectangles perforated with one inch holes.  When the ends were brought together to create a cylinder, they became compost containers.  With two we could turn the compost from one to another.

They worked well, but time took its toll.  They eventually collapsed.  Needing to replace them, we used the opportunity to increase the size of our container.

Rather than buy a container, we went to our local big box home improvement store and picked up four sections of split rail fence including four corner posts, a roll of wire fencing, and three angle steel fence posts.

After clearing out the old plastic pieces and moving the remaining compost aside, we built a square enclosure with the split rail starting at one corner and building our way around until we met the original post.    We did it this way instead of planting the corner posts first.  Our method was more forgiving when working with the vagaries of the terrain.

Once the split rail was in place, we lined the interior with the wire fencing. We fastened the fencing to the split rail with nails that we pounded in part way and then bent over the wire of the fence.   We took another piece of fencing and ran it down the center to create two compartments.  We reinforced this center piece with the angle steel fence posts.

With the finished compost on one side ready to be used, we’ve started filling up the other side with “fresh” veggie and fruit leavings.  The area is large enough to toss in mulched leaves.  With plenty of worms in the finished pile, we’re confident that this new arrangement will have us in lots of compost soon.

Other stuff grows around my compost piles — [...]]]> 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.

Last summer, I had filled a flower bed with the black gold from the compost bin. As the summer days [...]]]> 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.

When I looked a little closer, I found a pepper plant.  No question in my mind, I let it stay put.  Next to it, I noticed that the top of a pineapple was lying cut side down in the flower bed.  The pepper plant looked like a plant.  The pineapple looked like garbage.

As a I picked it up to toss it back in the compost heap, it resisted.  It had rooted itself in place.  I was growing my own pineapple.

I cleaned up and went straight to the Internet. Indeed, with care I could raise my own pineapple. It would only take three years!

It seems that the pineapple is a bromeliad.  A plant that grows so well in Puerto Rico and Hawaii isn’t likely to appreciate Crownsville winters.  I knew I’d have to bring it indoors.

With the summer, the plant grew more leaves.  I could taste that fresh pineapple.  I even went compost diving.  I found two more pineapple tops with roots.  I offered them to colleagues– we would all grow pineapple.  Could be a new industry for Crownsville.

As the days grew colder, I purchased a suitable pot for the plant’s wintering over. I filled the pots with soil suitable for bromeliads.  I now had three.  I gave two away and took the original into my office.  The lighting there seemed to favor plants, and the temperature would be constant.

I only had two more seasons until the beautiful red and blue flower would bring forth my pineapple.  I looked for pineapple upside down cake recipes.

The green, spiky leaves shone from their home in the new pot.  All was well — or was it.  Gradually, the shiny green began to dull– no, I denied it.  Then, I saw brown on the tips.  Probably just a phase due to the change in location.  Green with brown tips became brown an wrinkled and with it wrinkled my dreams of pineapple upside down cake.

My golden treasure, a gift of my compost pile, was dead, dried up, dead- dead and good for only, what else, compost.

I just bought a pineapple at the grocery store.  It cost $2.99.  I have a lovely holder for it– the $15 flowerpot I bought for my treasure.  As for the pepper plant, shortly after it set a nice green pepper, the deer got it.  Oh well, at least my irises bloomed this spring — 5 out of 30 minus 1 that the deer got.

Here, we have so much variety– plants and animals.  I enjoy trying to grow some of that variety in my yard.   [...]]]> 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!

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 [...]]]>

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.Anyway, you don’t need a special cylinder or other gadget, you just  need an enclosure.  If you have room, having two enclosures is even better. Depending on where you live you may need a way of keeping the critters out of the compost pile

Composting needs stuff– non-fatty food, plant waste.  It needs moisture, air, and worms.  The worms help speed up the natural process of decay.

So, get an enclosure.  You can buy a simple one that’s nothing more than a long sheet of heavy, but pliable plastic with holes punched in it.  Pick a flat spot in your yard. Wrap the plastic sheet composter back on itself and clip it together.  The bottom is your yard.  The top is the fill opening.   If you’ve positioned everything just right, you can learn to toss your compost from the back door right into the pile — a handy skill in the dead of winter.

You can also construct a compost structure from chicken wire. Get a length of chicken wire equal to the circumference of your intended enclosure and some wire with which you can wrap the two ends together.  Form a circle — don’t make it much wider than four feet.  Use the wire to lash the ends of the chicken wire together.  Stand the cylinder on end on the ground.

Now you have to get started.  Make a salad, but don’t throw away the brown pieces of lettuce, the ends of the tomatoes, the onion skins, or the cucumber peels.  Collect them and put them into your composter.  Eat an apple, throw the core in the compost pile.  In fact, a healthy compost pile is the outcome of healthful eating. If you are throwing lots of vegetable and fruit waste in compost pile, that means you’re eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

You can toss in egg shells and coffee grounds, too.  You can even add shredded paper or cardboard.    Personally, I don’t think I’d want a lot of inky stuff in my compost.  That’s not based on anything, just doesnt sound like a good idea. Yard waste can be good, but don’t overwhelm your compost with lots of heavy lawn clippings or whole dead leaves. It will compact and cut down on air circulation.

What you don’t want to put in are seasoned foods, foods with fats especially meats.  Composting experts warn that it takes a heavy duty composting operation to compost these sources.  I warn that chicken bones and beef fat will bring you raccoons!

Now, your building up layers of organic waste in your compost pile.  Water and air circulating through the openings in your enclosure.  If you want to move on to vermiculture, just add worms– that’s adding vermin by my deconstruction of that word.  Red worms or wrigglers are the vermin of choice.  They feast on the organic material and return worm casting to your pile.  Worm castings is a euphemism for worm, well, manure.  One site cautions worm users to not just dump the worms on top of the pile, but rather to dig down and sort of, “tuck them in.”  If you live in an area with worms in the ground, you can just let them find your compost pile– worm their way in as it were.  That’s what I did.

The process is aerobic– air is important.  Turning your pile every once and a while helps aerate it and keeps the process going.  You can do this with a pitch fork and a  motion like tossing a salad.  Having two bins makes the process easier.  Take your pitch fork or a shovel and transfer it from bin to another.

The advantage of two bins, besides ease of movement, is that turning it over exposes the “black gold” –the stuff gardeners love– for harvesting.   Compost augments the soil.  That is, it adds organic matter to your soil making it more suitable for growing anything. And, it’s free!

How do you use compost?  It’s really no more complicated than mixing it with your garden soil, potting soil, anywhere you’re growing plants.

I would add some warnings, however.  Compost is not only black gold, it’s a pile of surprises.

About a dozen years ago, my husband gave me a narrow flower garden along our driveway.  Our yard dirt was awful so we used almost 100% compost to fill the garden bed.  I, then, carefully planted my day-lilies. They were my gift from our traditional Mother’s Day activity — a trip to the local garden center.

I had a vision of orange, yellow, and maroon profusion edging my driveway in my compost laden garden. I got exactly that — plus, yellow grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, green peppers, squash, gourds. In other words, I got a little bit of everything I’d tossed in except chickens from the eggs.

Frugality won out.  I couldn’t pull those potentially bountiful plants so I had day-lilies, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  I continue to be surprised.  Last year, I ended up with three pineapple plants that I’m trying to nurse to pineapplehood.

I also learned about tomato worms and the saddleback catepillar.  Tomato worms are bright green and about the thickness of my index finger.  The saddleback catepillar is beautiful and painful. The lightest brush of its hairs sends a painful stingy cold shooting through you from the point of contact.

Anyway, I digress.  My compost pile is still percolating after about 14 years.  I use it whenever I pot a new plant.  With composting and recycling, I add very little to our local landfill.  I watch what I throw in so I don’t get critters.  And, I feel good about it.  Sure I’d like to have a $500 compost drum that turns with a handle– but that doesn’t feed my frugality.  My plastic enclosure is doing just fine.  It’s sort of the palette for my compost art.