Starting a New Batch of Compost

Over the weekend I emptied my second compost tumbler, and spread the contents over a flower bed and two raised veggie beds.  The flower bed is already planted, so there it will serve as a layer of mulch to help retain soil moisture, as it slowly breaks on down and is incorporated into the soil.  The raised beds in the vegetable garden are those where spring crops are finishing up, and I will soon be replanting. As I pull out the spent plants, I'll dig the compost into the top several inches of soil, to re-energize it for the next crop I plant.

Leaf Mold

I'm looking forward to getting out tomorrow to finish raking leaves.  After raking them up into piles, I use my lawn blower/vac to grind them up into small pieces.  You could also use a mulching mower, and collect the shredded leaves into the mower bag. Then I bag them up in large trash bags, moistening them a bit as I go, poke a few holes in each bag, and tuck them away in an out-of-the-way spot in the back yard for the winter.  In about 6 months or so, those chopped leaves will have become leaf mold, an incredible soil conditioner for my garden.

Got Weeds?

The weather has been so lovely recently; cool, often sunny, but enough rain so that everything outside is incredibly green and lush.  It's a great time to be outdoors, and I treasure my garden time.  So what do I spend my time doing?  Weeding!  I avoid using synthetic products on my lawn, like weed killers or weed and feed products, and so my yard gets lots of weeds.  Weed pollens tend to be a major allergy issue, so I need to eliminate them.  Result?  I spend a lot of time pulling weeds.

There are a few things I can do to try to prevent weeds in the first place. 

Spring Allergies

Spring is such a great time in the garden, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  However, it's also a time when my allergies kick in, so there are things that I do to keep them from taking all the fun out of the season.

There are lots of suggestions out there of ways to prevent or lessen allergic reactions.  I've collected a lot of them from my allergist, books, articles and websites.  From these, I've found those that help me the most.  Which approaches are best for a particular person depends on exactly what things you are allergic to, and  how you are exposed to them--by inhaling, touching or ingesting the allergens. In gardening, allergens include pollen from plants, mold spores, and contact reactions from plant sap.

Compost

I'm just back in from adding my rabbit's daily contributions to the compost bin for today. Earlier this summer I replaced my disintegrating compost bin made from wooden pallets with a new closed plastic one. This is in addition to the rotating composter. The rotating bin produces compost much faster than a static bin, but you can't keep adding new material throughout the process. So I put the new stuff daily into the static bin, and then as each batch in the rotating composter is finished and removed, I move a new batch from the static bin into the rotating one.