January thaw.

Last weekend we had a run of days over freezing and it melted all the snow. Warmer temperatures are good for the compost but it hardly looks like winter any more. The cats were trying to use Bed #7 as a litter box when there was snow on it so I put down an old folded dog crate we had laying around and the metal mesh has seemed to put a stop to that.

West side.

East side.

Compost Update

There's not much to be done in a garden like mine while it's covered in snow...

but the compost always needs taking out. 

Obligatory before shot. Please note the multiple inches of snow, and the slight excavation in the centre.

Some critter had decided to dig for buried treasure but it wasn't very disturbed. I scraped off as much snow as I could before putting the kitchen scraps and used pine based cat litter down and covering it all with shredded newspaper. The cats were using the great outdoors as their litter box but it seems the cats have decided it's now too cold and snowy to go outside so they're using their litter again.

Yay me.

I moved one of the stick bundles and a log to the in-use pile as cover. It probably won't keep the snow off but it will keep the newspaper from blowing around and discourage digging.

You can see a bit of the snow layer left around the edges. 

Fluffy Blanket

It snowed a lot last night. 

There's at least a couple inches covering the garden and more drifted up against the compost.

Fertile Beds

Urea now shovelled into the beds. It came in water-soluble pellet form and looks like little hailstones. Hopefully the spring 2013 testing will show awesome nitrogen levels and we won't have to do any more store bought additions. I have a friend who's willing to give us straw for mulch, and Fall 2013 will be the first time we can add some of our own compost to the beds so that will be cool. :)

West side

East side

closer view

Wrapping Up for Winter

Did a bunch of work in the yard today including flipping the rain barrel so it wouldn't fill & freeze.

Obligatory before shot:

We harvested what we could of the parsley and kale before pulling everything up and turning in the leaves.

I know that kale and parsley could have survived til next year but we're going to most likely be turning in a lot of things to the beds and it's not like they were hard to grow.
The cauliflowers found in the centers of the plants weren't even big enough for a snack.

Tiny

Less Tiny

We already have two big mason jars of dried parsley, a large container in the freezer of frozen parsley... so hopefully we can find this fresh bunch a home with friends.

What was left of the parsley.

And of course, the obligatory after shots:

Shed & compost piles

Trellis tied for wind stability

Lonely potted calendula.

Closer shot so you can see, the new compost pile is off to a good start.

Weedy Saturday

The little path between our house and the neighbour's driveway was becoming over run with weeds. I fixed it.

Before

After

And for my troubles I got a PILE of green stuff to compost. Win-win.  :)

Compost goodies hauled off.

Critical Compost

My mini hoops were drying out quickly, and I didn't have confidance that (separately) they had the critical mass needed to keep working properly, so I combined them as one larger hoop and gained a lot of room for more materials.

Before (close up with squirrel)

After (far left corner)

Also, the pile of autumn leaves I had been using throughout the winter is reaching it's end.(Peak-leaf, if you will) I mentioned this to Megan and we talked through my reluctance to use our abundant newspaper/junk-mail due to the possibility of it becoming a solid, soggy, mat that prevents air circulation when wet. I'm going to use shredded newspaper mixed with other things and see how it goes.

Happy Squirrel Saturday

I'm told it's the new thing...

Re-reading and Remembering

This will save a ton more water than switching to a "low-flow" faucet or shower head.

"No electricity is needed and no water is required except a small amount for cleaning purposes. One gallon of water can clean two five gallon receptacles. It takes one adult two weeks to fill two five gallon toilet receptacles with humanure and urine, including cover.

This requires one gallon of cleaning water for every two weeks of humanure toilet use as opposed to the standard thirty gallons per person per day used to flush a water toilet."
~ Joseph Jenkins

Lets do the math for an average person for a month:

Normal Toilet:
30 gal./day X 30 days = 900 gal. of drinking water (& whatever they use at the treatment plant) wasted.

Humanure Toilet
1 gal./2 weeks X 2 = 2 gal. of rain or grey water that should be added to the compost pile anyway


Wow.

Planting the Midnight Soil

Okay I know that title's just way off but I'm too tired right now.

Just finished planting the backlog of seeds from these past few lazy weeks and up-potting the seedlings that have been desperately waiting... some didn't make it.

John and Meg both said it was late and to do it tomorrow but I know me... and I had to do it then or it would get put off another week.

We got most of the verticals in today. Netting can go on as needed.

Just the side beds left. Pretty eh?

John's first comment when we got the first one done was, "Wow that's a lot of real estate. It's like another full bed of room!" That's the idea folks and I sure hope it works out well.

Something I've been thinking about for MUCH later(we won't be doing it here) is humanure to save water, soil nutrients, and money (on water and soil amendments). Done properly it's perfectly safe and better for the environment than creating sewage.

Here's a link to the book that started it all The Humanure Handbook so you can read for yourself.

G-nite folks.

Getting into the Swing of Spring

I got plenty of weeds pulled this weekend and a bunch more seeds started. (see calendar for details)

Tree sprouts from a neighbor's box elder.

Don't know what these are but I didn't plant them.

Beds Ready, and I'm Ready for Bed

Dug in the alfalfa / rye and covered with compost. Squares will be marked and compost dug in when it's planting time.

Also did the seeds. Glad I did them first cause I'm wiped.

Crappy Weather

This is what thirty 28lb bags of composts looks like when piled in front of a Lada Niva

So now I'm the proud owner of over 800lbs of composted manure, shrimp shells and peat moss. At a rate of about 3 1/3 bags per 4X4 bed, we should get about 6" of compost mixed into the top 12" of dirt. This blend seemed ideal for our current situation seeing as peat moss that had not yet been composted (the common big bales turned in in the fall) would leach nitrogen away from the plants for a few months as it broke down.

I was going to start tonight but as you can see, it was raining. Tomorrow should be interesting as it should be warm enough, and dry enough to start mixing this stuff in... and I just remembered that I was going to do the seeds on Sundays... Too late. I'm going to bed. Five am comes WAY too early so they'll be planted tomorrow.

G-nite folks!

Geting Things Done?

This is how today feels.

I got to the garden center and bought thirty bags of peat/shrimp/manure compost (6th bag free so only paid for 25!) and it'll all be delivered Monday. I wanted it this weekend but I obviously wasn't proactive enough.

Had lunch out with Meg and John then came home with the intention of bundling sticks til dark and moving bedroom furniture to preferred arrangement after dark.... Got home and had a nap til 5pm instead. At that point I decided against bothering for the last hour of daylight and for doing it tomorrow.

I hope to one day change which graph represents me best.

Updates from December / January

• Started a paper route with the intention of earning extra money during this slow period at work.
• The compost pile actually got warm enough one day to melt the snow off it(kinda impressive for something that size). We're working on building it properly so when spring comes there will be a good pile ready for the worms and microbes to do their stuff.
• I got to visit with my mom & lil sis for a week and get mom's opinion on what to plant in the canning bed(since she's getting half). Turns out peas don't can well so there was some rearranging done.
• The sprouts in the containers are gone They didn't wilt or wither away... they just disappeared. I'm blaming the cats.
• The big tree branch that was blocking a lot of sun and tugging on the phone lines has been professionally removed. We now have a whole lot of wood for summer fires that needs to be cleared off the garden before any amendments or planting can be done.
• I quit the paper route because it was way too much work for the money offered.
• The seeds were bought with one minor change. We hadn't actually tried Swiss chard yet so we swapped it out for jalapeno peppers with the agreement that we'd get some chard soon and if it was liked, order the seeds later.
• We're changing our eating habits to focus more on real food like meat, veg, and homemade baking instead of prepackaged convenience "food"s

The Plan Looked Wrong, So I Fixed It

Final draft... I hope.

Now there's easier access to the compost, #8 has got itself vertical space and the yard should look nicer without paths that just go straight through the garden and smack into the fence. Also, when checking out the shadows in the yard yesterday John and I determined it's Bed #7, not #9 that should be the "hot house" bed. #9 is actually shaded by the houses most of the day this late in the year which means it will be in early spring too. #7 is the first to get sun and keeps it til late.

Also, some of the measurements on the west side were off. That's also been fixed.

Ran Out of Light, and Now Rain.

Yesterday I woke to find:

Friday night we had visitors.

And the neighbours had visitors of the human kind.

I reburied the scraps. Everything they've pulled out has been from when I cleaned the slimy stuff out of the fridge and I haven't seen any bite marks. I'm hoping that finding inedible stuff is teaching the critters to leave the pile be... if not it's a squirrel buffet and as long as they don't spread it too far I don't care. :)

Busy, Busy Friday

This morning has been fairly full of ideas, plans, purchases, revelations, etc.

When I was scooping the kitty-litter this morning(it's the very first thing I do every morning, even before putting the kettle on) I topped of the box with the last of the litter from the container and realized.... the empty containers would be perfect for indoor planters.

Look at the perfection. I could fit carrots in there.

And this window is far to perfect to go to waste

I almost forgot.

See that cardboard box? That's the start of our very own compost pile! 

The veggies were getting gross (ick) but now they will transform into soil(yay!).