Digging New Beds 3

Alright..... Here we go again!

After digging the leaves into the soil, I dug one to two inches of soil from the path on the left side of the bed and added it to the bed. This was to be sure all of the leaves were covered with soil. As I dug it out I sloped the soil toward the bed, so when we get heavy rain any excess water can drain into the bed and hopefully get stored in the loose subsoil.

After grading the path, I laid down a double layer of cardboard.

I'm leaving the path on the right side of the bed bare until I complete the second bed. Then I will use soil from the path to top off the second bed.


After laying down the cardboard, I covered it with a 3 inch layer of wood chips. I'm leaving the stakes on the corners to help guide hoses when I'm watering the beds.

So this bed won't need any more work until I need to apply compost about the second week of February. Hopefully my compost will be ready by then. Its not decomposing as quickly as I would like. When I built this pile I used a lot of Palmetto fronds and they aren't decomposing as fast as some of the other materials that I've used before....like oak leaves or banana leaves. I probably won't use the Palmetto leaves again when I'm trying to make compost quickly. But I will still use them for something.... I use all the organic material from my property some where.

So, I won't bore you with more step by step on the next bed, but I will post some photos of the completed project when it is finished.

Thanks for reading my blog!


Soooo...... Until next time......HAPPY GARDENING!

Practice What You Preach !!!

In a recent post I encouraged you to pick up bags of leaves on the side of the road. Well ...... yesterday I was leaving my neighborhood and what did I spy?  A large stack of black bags on the side of the road! I stopped and felt the bags to see if I could tell what was inside..... I had struck the MOTHER-LODE!

14 bags of leaves! I call it the Mother- Lode because I'm going to transform this find into BLACK GOLD!  The Gardener's Gold!  These came from in front of a house that had several Sycamore trees in the yard. I had to make two trips to get it all. And there were more leaves that had fell from the trees.....I'll be able to get more soon. All I have to do is wait for the owner to rake them up for me...Hehehe! Now I'm going to hit up some coffee shops for coffee grounds and build a few compost piles. I'll have plenty of compost by summer.

 I just wanted to show you that I do.... Practice What I Preach!:)


Soooo......Until next time......HAPPY GARDENING! (AND COMPOSTING)

USE YOUR LEAVES!

 The leaves have finally started falling! Its starting out slow, but they are falling. At this point I can't get enough to cover my new bed at the south end of my house, but it won't be long.

Leaves are a valuable gift from our trees. I know... a lot of people, especially non-gardeners, probably wouldn't agree with that statement. But its true.... they are a gift. Leaves are nutrient-rich. Trees put down roots deep into the soil and absorb nutrients and minerals that aren't available at the surface. The roots send these nutrients and minerals through the tree to the leaves, where they are stored. When the tree drops its leaves, it is dropping this free fertilizer at our feet. All gardeners should take advantage of this gift.

You can rake the leaves and just pile them up and with time they will decompose and make compost. They can be used as mulch, but whole leaves can pack down and not allow water to penetrate to the soil. Alas, there is a better way! Shredded leaves aren't as likely to pack down and they will also decompose faster.

 Leaves can be shredded in a few different ways. The most common is to run over them with a lawn mower, and a bagging mower means.... no raking!  Another method is with a leaf blower that converts to a leaf vacuum. With these the shredded leaves are blown into a shoulder bag.... again.....no raking! Then there is the least favorite method..... raking! Rake the leaves and put them into some kind of container. This could be a cylinder made of chicken wire or a large garbage can. Then use a weed eater to shred the leaves in the container. (Be sure to use eye protection with this method). After the leaves are shredded they make a great mulch or can be used in a compost pile.

When composting leaves alone, it can take quite a while to get compost from them. We need to mix the leaves with a nitrogen source if we want to speed up the process. Kitchen scraps aren't really all that rich in nitrogen.  They are too old to have a high level of nitrogen. But, one source from the kitchen is an excellent source of nitrogen....coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and also high in phosphorus and potassium. Coffee shops are always willing to give away used grounds.... so here is another source for free fertilizer. If you're like me (a tight wad), free is always good!  So build a pile 4 feet across and 4 feet high and mix in 10 - 15 pounds of coffee grounds....the pile will heat up, then you can use it as a hand warmer when you are doing your winter chores in the garden. Its probably better to feed your kitchen scraps to your worm bin if you have one. This produces the only thing better than compost for feeding a garden....worm castings. But that is another story for another post.

If you don't want  to use the leaves, shred them with your mower and leave them on your lawn. They will decompose and help build fertility for your lawn. Whatever you do, don't bag them up and put them at the curb. I know we have all seen the bags by the road, waiting to be picked up and hauled to the landfill. Mike McGrath, who was the editor for Organic Gardening Magazine at one time, called these bags--SPGs-- Stupid People Bags. These people are throwing away free fertilizer! Why not use this fertilizer on their property?!.If you don't have many leaves in your yard, you can collect these bags and have all the leaves you need. If you can't shred them, use them anyway. I don't shred all my leaves. Some I use as mulch in my ornamental beds. The soil under them is black and crumbly and full of earthworms. With the help of the worms, I don't have to fertilize and almost never water these beds.

So, I hope this post has made you look at your leaves through different eyes. Don't forget....Leaves are a gift. Use your leaves!

Soooo......Until next time......HAPPY GARDENING!

Composting 2

As I mentioned in my last post, to build hot compost piles we need to mix brown (carbon) materials with green (nitrogen) materials. Brown materials are usually dead plant matter such as fallen leaves, straw, corn or sunflower stalks, saw dust or aged wood chips. Green materials can be garden waste, kitchen scraps, hedge trimmings, grass trimmings, spent cover crops or manure (even though manure is brown, its considered green because of its high in nitrogen content). All of these will attract earthworms which will build tunnels that help oxygen get into the soil and provide fertilizer with their castings (poop).

Manure is probably the best green material for heating up a pile. But I have read a lot recently about using manure from outside sources. Apparently, if  the livestock has been fed on hay or grass that has been treated with herbicides, these herbicides can pass through the animal and the composting process and effect crops that this compost is used on. So we must make sure the manure we use is free of herbicides

In my piles I try to use material from my own property. For brown material I use oak leaves, pine needles, banana stalks and leaves and palmetto leaves. For green materials I use lots of kitchen scraps and grass clippings. At this time I'm searching for a clean source of manure. Next year I'm going to start planting cover crops to grow materials for feeding the soil and composting.

If all of this seems like too much work, you can just start a pile with what ever you have. Keep adding material as it becomes available until your pile is 3 - 4 feet high, then just let it sit. After a year or so it will decompose.

 If you have an abundance of leaves, just pile them up. After a year or so they will rot down and provide what is referred to as leaf mold.  Leaf mold is a very good soil additive. It may be necessary to dig into the pile to find the leaf mold..... the outside layer doesn't decompose as quickly as the inside. A method to get leaf mold faster is to stuff leaves into a big yard waste bag and add a little water. Store them somewhere out of the way, laying the bags on their side. Then flip the bags over every couple of weeks and make sure there is still water in the bag. This speeds up the decomposition of the leaves and it won't be long till you have a bag of leaf mold. It can be dug into the soil or used as mulch. Either way it is great for your garden. Try some of these methods and see if they help. If you know of other methods, please comment and share them.

Soooo..... Until next time...... HAPPY GARDENING!