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Composting...
May. 12th, 2016 12:29 pmSo this is a topic I'm only vaguely knowledgeable about.
Having been raised in the city, I learned nothing about gardening and all the years I have lived in the forest, my relationship with the plants around my house is one of predominantly benign neglect. We hire day workers to come pull Scotch Broom, an invasive pest species all too abundant in our area, and other than occasionally watering plants in the planters on my decks, I have all too little experience with growing things. Not a black thumb, but certainly not a green one either. Besides, shady forest setting for the past 33 years have not been condusive to growing much. I've got chives and rosemary growing on my deck, dwarf meyer lemon and satsuma mandarines which bore nothing last year, though they are now in full flower, and tons of alpine strawberries which self seeded 1/2 of the planters on my deck. The move to Lake County and plenty of direct sun on a full acre of land will afford a new possibility of gardening.
I have never composted in my life. I'm aware its a positive thing both for sparing our landfills as well as enriching the soil for greater productivity, but further than that, I know almost nothing. I have asked a number of friends who do garden and compost and have gotten conflicting information of what to compost, and how to do it. Further, one of them has a major rodent problem on their property in large part from the compost heap, at least according to one of their housemates. I'll admit, while a bit nervous about doing it 'right', I'm feeling almost eager about doing it. I've felt guilty for years whenever James has visited, watching him shake his head as I've tossed out coffee grounds and used tea leaves into the trash, rather than into a compost heap. The prospect of home raised, and hopefully low cost organic produce has me bordering on giddy. Growing heirloom veggies? Canning excess for winter time use? Gertting a workout, working out in the yard? It sounds good to me. (Where did I put that sunscreen?)
So, anyone reading this who has good experience with composting, please feel free to chime in with your recommendations. I'm currently leaning to some of the rotating compost bins I have seen on stands, which will insure the contents gets turned regularly, as somehow I'm not sure I want something open I'll be turning with a pitch fork, but any personal experience with this that others have will be appreciated.
Oh, and I just picked up the Sunset Western Garden Handbook 2001 edition. According to it, I'm moving to Zone 7.
Having been raised in the city, I learned nothing about gardening and all the years I have lived in the forest, my relationship with the plants around my house is one of predominantly benign neglect. We hire day workers to come pull Scotch Broom, an invasive pest species all too abundant in our area, and other than occasionally watering plants in the planters on my decks, I have all too little experience with growing things. Not a black thumb, but certainly not a green one either. Besides, shady forest setting for the past 33 years have not been condusive to growing much. I've got chives and rosemary growing on my deck, dwarf meyer lemon and satsuma mandarines which bore nothing last year, though they are now in full flower, and tons of alpine strawberries which self seeded 1/2 of the planters on my deck. The move to Lake County and plenty of direct sun on a full acre of land will afford a new possibility of gardening.
I have never composted in my life. I'm aware its a positive thing both for sparing our landfills as well as enriching the soil for greater productivity, but further than that, I know almost nothing. I have asked a number of friends who do garden and compost and have gotten conflicting information of what to compost, and how to do it. Further, one of them has a major rodent problem on their property in large part from the compost heap, at least according to one of their housemates. I'll admit, while a bit nervous about doing it 'right', I'm feeling almost eager about doing it. I've felt guilty for years whenever James has visited, watching him shake his head as I've tossed out coffee grounds and used tea leaves into the trash, rather than into a compost heap. The prospect of home raised, and hopefully low cost organic produce has me bordering on giddy. Growing heirloom veggies? Canning excess for winter time use? Gertting a workout, working out in the yard? It sounds good to me. (Where did I put that sunscreen?)
So, anyone reading this who has good experience with composting, please feel free to chime in with your recommendations. I'm currently leaning to some of the rotating compost bins I have seen on stands, which will insure the contents gets turned regularly, as somehow I'm not sure I want something open I'll be turning with a pitch fork, but any personal experience with this that others have will be appreciated.
Oh, and I just picked up the Sunset Western Garden Handbook 2001 edition. According to it, I'm moving to Zone 7.
