The Compost Bin

I know a lot of Bloggers like to do a Wordless Wednesday but I think I prefer doing it on Friday and I like to add some words.

My Wordless Friday With Words picture is of a spider hanging out on the little fig tree that followed me home one day.

Did you know that the average lawn mower produces 93 times more pollution than the average automobile? Don't believe me? Well I got this factoid from this NY Times article that talks about how the effort to make catalytic converters mandatory on lawn mowers is being met by resistance from lobbyists.

93 times is a lot. I've made my lawn smaller with mulched border beds and I maintain it organically and I'm sure that helps a little but I still need somewhere for my kids to play. My lawn isn't going away anytime soon and neither is my need for a lawn mower.

When my Black & Decker Cordless Electric Mulching Lawn Mower died, I decided to go old school and bought a reel lawn mower. That old mower served me well for 8 years without any problems but keeping it plugged in all the time to charge the battery probably wasted a lot of energy. Now the only energy I'm wasting is my own. And I heard that push mowers took more of a physical effort to mow your lawn that a gas power motor but I disagree with that. I really don't see a difference unless the gas powered mower is self-propelled, it's really the same amount of effort.

The best part about the new push mower is that there's no engine, no gas, no tune ups, no fumes and it's pretty quiet. In fact it sounds like it's cutting my lawn with lots and lots of scissors.

You'd think that with all the news about climate change and Al Gore and how everyone is going green that I would get some congratulations from my friends and family on this purchase. I wasn't looking for a parade or anything just a "good for you" or a "wow, that's cool, maybe I'll get one too" would have been nice. But I was just met with puzzled looks.

So I did what any decent blogger would do to spread the word that a reel lawn mower is a viable lawn cutting option. I grabbed my video camera and turned it into a Mower Cam.

I really must get these new strawberry plants in the ground. They're producing berries even though they're sitting on my patio in the peat pots that I bought them in. I'm not complaining and in fact I'm very happy that they aren't dried up and dead due to neglect. I really must invent a way to get 40 hours of gardening done in my free time.

Berries are very popular in my yard. Between the usual garden pests (birds, squirrels, etc) and my two kids (yes, I'm comparing my kids to pests), I don't get to eat too many berries even though I grow tons of them. Although, lately my defense for dealing with the berry eaters is to plant more and more berry plants.

I'm pretty sure that I want to plant these strawberries in the ground and not in a raised bed or a planter. This way the runners have solid ground to run to and in a few years if all goes well, I'll have a gigantic strawberry patch. Maybe I'll even get to eat one or two.

Just like most other plants, strawberries seem to like rich soil amended with compost. I know I sound like a broken record with the compost but this is the Compost Bin after all. If I ever talk about growing grapes, I'll skip the compost advice. My father, who planted a couple of hundred grape vines on his property tells me this anyway. And he's also figured out how to get 40 hours of gardening done in his free time. It's called retirement.

I saw this video about a magic compost bin on GroovyGreen today and I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I'll just let these lyrics speak for themselves.

When Granddad died from drinking gin,
We put him in my compost bin.
I can compost anything,
In my Mama's compost bin.

After years and years of nothing happening with my Climbing Hydrangea, I decided to go with something a little more reliable in the flowering vines department.

You see, I had such high hopes for the climbing hydrangea that despite my wife's suggestion to get a few of them, I told her boldly, "We'll only need one honey. This entire arbor will be covered with flowering vines in a few years and we'll have to trim them to keep them in check."

Well 5 years later and I have a 6 foot vine that hasn't flowered yet. And even though it's a nice looking green plant, it still looks kind of funny growing up one side of my arbor.

Not being a gardener to shy away from failures, I decided it was time to try a different vine and picked up a nice looking clematis on one of my many trips to the nursery. And I'm glad I did.

This Clematis is in it's second year and it's doing great with little or no maintenance. I planted it in rich soil that I amended with compost and occasionally feed it with either fish tank water or some Sea Magic Plant Fertilizer. I just kept it watered and bought a nice trellis that I figured it wouldn't need for a few years and that was it.

I was wrong about that because it grew right up the trellis about three or four feet high within a month or two. Then the flowers came and I became really happy with the purchase. What a great vine!

When spring came around this year, I tried to do some research to see if this was the clematis that likes to be cut down to the ground each season or if I should just leave it be. But that research, like many other things that I could only accomplish if I was independently wealthy and didn't need a 9-5 job, was put on the back burner. But thankfully, the vine starting growing and budding without any help from me. And now look at it.

Easy to grow, great looking flowers, fills in a trellis pretty quickly, a clematis is a great plant. This year I bought four new ones in hopes of growing them up my chain link fence. And just like I told my wife, the entire chain link fence will be covered with flowering vines in a few years and we'll have to trim them to keep them in check.

Just posting a few random blooms today.

I've only been growing blackberries for 4 years now. It started when I bought a cardboard package from a big box store with delicious looking berries pictured all over it. I remember bringing the package to the register and thinking about blackberry pie and blackberry jam. I even thought about buying some lumber and steel cable to build a proper trellis. But I passed on the heavy gear and happily paid for my new plant in a box.

To my surprise, when I opened the box, the plant looked like a stick. It was pretty late in the season but I put it in the ground anyway. This jam might take a few years to make, but I was patient. By the time the fall came, the stick had turned into a 1 foot plant with green leaves on it.

The following spring, the bush got bigger and greener but still no berries. I was still fine with that because I knew that berries only grew on 2nd year canes. Since I planted it so late in the previous season, I guessed that I wouldn't get any berries again. And I was right. But when autumn came around, I had a healthy looking bush that was spreading nicely.

Last year, with the blackberry jungle completely filling a raised bed that was 3 feet wide and 12 feet long, my family gorged ourselves with delicious blackberries. They never even made it back to the house. Each night, after work, my children and I would go up to the garden and pick and eat blackberries. And after days of returning back to the house empty handed, my wife started joining us for our evening berry feast too. These were good times.

So what will this year bring? I think it's safe to say that there will be more feasts. Still not sure about the jam but with last year's canes around 6 feet tall and the huge number of flowers out there already, we'll definitely have enough berries for it.

Spring is a crazy time in the garden. It's sort of a hurry up and wait situation. Getting the yard cleaned up, starting seeds indoors, growing spring crops outdoors, planting annuals and splitting perennials is a lot of work that needs to be done in a short amount of time. Then the waiting begins. When will last frost arrive, when will the seeds sprout, when will I get that first red tomato?

Today is sort of a catch up post because for all this activity that's been going on in the garden, The Compost Bin blog has been too quiet. Here's what I've been working on lately.

The homemade compost tumbler is working out nicely. The other day I stuck my hand deep in there and I could feel the heat. I may use the thermometer from my turkey fryer to check the temperature to get a real reading. They say that weed seeds are killed at about 160 degrees. I'm no where near 160 but it's really doing well since I added some grass clippings.

Speaking of grass clippings, I'm now the proud owner of a reel lawn mower. My cordless electric lawn mower finally died and Black and Decker wanted $140 to put a new motor in it so instead I bought a reel lawn mower with a bag attachment for $100. No gas, no tune ups and very little noise. It sounds like scissors when I'm cutting the grass. It's taking some getting used to but I'm happy with the purchase. I keep repeating that real men use reel lawn mowers whenever people laugh at me.

The mulch pile is down to about 10 wheel barrows left. I stopped mulching my beds when the trees declared war on the humans. What's with this crazy pollen this year? Everything actually has a thick film of yellow dust on it and allergy sufferers (like myself) are dropping like flies. Once the assault of pollen and tree litter is done, I'll finish off the mulch. I'd love to order some more because of course I underestimated again but I don't think it's in the budget this year.

And of course, the vegetable garden. After some good success last year with broccoli rabe and other cold season greens, I really expanded my early plantings. In the garden right now and doing well is arugala, brocolli rabe, turnips, swiss chard and pak choi. This weekend I planted some beet berry and chiaga beets too. The blue potatoes are doing well in both a raised bed and also a whiskey barrel type of planter.

My indoor seed starting rack with grow lights is pretty empty. I only started 48 seedlings this year and they only fill up 1 of the 4 shelves. In fact, my wife has decided that those empty shelves should be filled with laundry baskets and other junk. Of those 48, half are tomatoes and half are peppers. I'm going to start more, probably perennials but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd like to grow some balloon flowers, amber wheels, columbines, lanterns next. The seeds are sitting there waiting for me to do something with them. Poor little guys.

And I'm very happy with my purchase of a 24" iMac. You may have noticed that I've created a movie or two around here lately. It's very easy and actually lots of fun to do this with iLife 08. Plus I picked up a High Definition Camcorder for about $130. These two purchases have inspired the filmmaker in me and I'm hoping to someday get up the courage to start a gardening podcast.

Next up, I have to find time to build more raised beds, get the spring vegetables in, build a cucumber trellis, make a batch of compost tea, and build these cool self-watering planters from Rubbermaid bins that I saw in a gardening forum. It should be a fun season.

What have you been up to in your garden lately?

A while back I made a commitment to participate in The Growing Challenge. The deal was that all participants would grow at least one fruit or vegetable from seed, that they've never grown before. Growing something new is never a problem for me. I'm always trying something different from way back in the hardly ever read pages of the seed catalogs. Nope the hard part for me would be posting about it.

Most of my posts are done off the top of my head at the last minute when I should be on my way to work or late at night when I'm half asleep. Actually keeping track of something and planning posts around that something might be hard for me.

But let's give it a shot anyway. Here's my update. I finally got my seeds in the ground. WooHoo! You may be thinking, hmmm, not very impressive and you're right. When I was wandering around the way back in the hardly ever read pages of the seed catalogs, I picked Beetberry, Chioggia Beets and German Chamomile. But since I picked those three, I got a bit distracted and started growing Pak Choi and Swiss Chard. I've never grown them before either, in fact I've never even eaten Swiss Chard before but saw a great pasta recipe for it and bought the seeds anyway.

With my attention going to these late winter greens as well as the broccoli rabe, red onions, arugala and blue potatoes that I always plant in the spring, my Growing Challenge seeds just kind of sat around.

But in a better late than never moment, I planted the Beets and the Beetberry this weekend. Don't ask me about the Chamoile. I think I lost it in my disaster of a garage. There will be a post is December about how I was getting the Christmas decorations out and I found my chamoile seeds.

Last frost in my area of New Jersey is usually between May 15th and May 30th. So these early spring seeds may have been planted too late but let's see what happens. And if nothing happens, I'll just change my Growing Challenge picks to the Pak Choi and the Swiss Chard, which are doing quite well by the way.

I was driving home from work the other day and had to stop the car to take of picture of this guy's lawn. He must be the most hated person in the neighborhood but to you Mr. Dandelion Farmer, I say, you're awesome!

Now here's a guy who probably hasn't used a lawn chemical in years and that's a good thing in my book. Most of my neighbors are retirees with lawns so green that it looks like someone painted them. If a stray leaf should blow into their yard, they're outside within minutes to pick it up.

Crews come every week to cut, spray, feed and blow all the debris off their outdoor green carpets. Having a "perfect" lawn was something that's important to that generation but thankfully the tradition is fading away.

And because I don't want to be considered the lazy Joe on the block, I'm out there working hard to get my organic lawn to look pretty good. That's my goal, just pretty good. As long as it's green and cut nicely, I'm happy. Thankfully, I have tons of clover mixed in my lawn that covers the looking green criteria. And it holds up better to my kids food traffic too.

But this Dandelion Farmer guy doesn't mind being the lazy Joe on his block. And in fact, in my imagination, I see him as being proud of it. Maybe his entire basement is filled with wine making equipment and he's producing homemade dandelion wine by the barrel. And that's a lot more exciting that having a boring lawn.

One of the best plant purchases that I've made in the past few years was buying these blueberry bushes. I've had berries every year since buying them except when I had to do an emergency transplant to their current location because of my pool renovation. And since then, they recovered nicely and are very productive once again.

And when blueberry plants flower up like this in the spring, that means that berries are on the way. Sure, we won't be eating them for a few months but just knowing that they're on the way is nice.

When the berries do arrive this summer, I plan on getting my share. My kids are notorious for swooping in and eating all the berries before anyone else gets any. I've found that the best solution to that problem is to plant more berries. My latest totals are 5 blueberry plants, 6 strawberry plants and the blackberries are 6 feet tall and 12 feet wide. I think I should be able to eat a berry or two this year. Wish me luck.