the bark tree

Compost completed

With almost no effort, my first batch of compost is ready!

Using my lazy method it took about a year.  I simply dump yard debris and kitchen scraps as they accumulate.  Last fall, I saved two large brown paper bags of leaves so I layer them over mushy kitchen scraps to keep a decent carbon/nitrogen ratio.

This pile was turned just once when I moved my first bin farther back in the yard, but otherwise it has broken down on it's own.  I added a second bin so I could leave one alone to rot.  The lazy process would be somewhat faster if I could keep the pile moist.  I occasionally leave a sprinkler on the bins, but they are generally out of sight, out of mind.

In all my flower beds around the yard, I dumped about six buckets of mostly finshed compost.  At one point, I noticed an anole lizard on the wall of the house watching me as I spread.  He jumped down twice and gobbled small beetles that were mixed in with the other organic matter.  To make plants and other creatures happy with what once was unwanted debris is very satisfying indeed!

Baby gardening steps

I put my new baby in a sling the other day and did the tiniest bit of gardening!

The weather has been quite dreary this whole month so I was really craving sunshine and a few moments out of the house.

At first I thought I'd just sit a while in the sun, but after a while I decided to try a task or two. I kept my goals simple — one job at a time.  I started with cutting back this old hydrangea.  The one that is always surpassed in beauty by my neighbor's nicer one on the other side of the fence.

I got it all done with baby Augie still sleeping happily.  Yes, it contributed to my debris problem, but what's new?

 

Next, I popped this pretty ranunculus into the ground near the front fence.  Brandon brought it to me from a trip to the farmers market.  That was about all I could accomplish, but I felt wonderful to spend time outside and tend to a few things.

Garden provides respite from waiting

A week past my estimated due date, I'm consumed by anticipation waiting for our baby to arrive.

Trying to balance restfulness with activity, the obvious solution is to spend some time in the garden to get my mind off what isn't happening.

First, I tackled some long neglected compost chores. My compost set up is an ongoing problem...

 

I have homemade bins, an Envirocycle tumbling bin, impromptu buckets filled with debris and more piles tucked in where ever I can hide them.  Still, all this never seems to contain the amount of stuff I accumulate.

I did a little sifting and spread it around the yard.  This made a little room in a few buckets for more debris.

 

Then I got started cutting things back and raking the soil to remove leaves.

 

Brandon came out to help me and together we got most of it cleaned up so you can see bits of spring emerging. 

I haven't had this much energy to expend out there in a good while.  Yes, of course I am hoping it's a final burst of nesting before I go into labor!

This work feels good on multiple levels.  It keeps my mind in the present tense.  It provides a sense of accomplishment.

 

And seeing the lovely little spring beauties is always uplifting.  I'm so grateful for my garden.

Compost sifting

Compost hasn't been discussed here in a while.  I've been procrastinating the big, messy, daunting project of sifting through my multiple bins, all of which are completely stuffed and sprouting new plants of their own.  There are even a few arbitrary containers holding more overload.

From one bin I got 5 tubs worth of nice chocolate-y compost which I spread immediately around the whole garden with a little help from Brandon.

One down and two to go. We shall see when I muster the energy to tackle the other bins. For now I have some free space and everything is relatively clean and organized.

Worm winter

The worms in my tumbling compost bin have survived the winter! I sifted a batch and found lots of them wriggling about. Thanks to them, I have a little more room in the bins for debris.

Spring cleaning

The excitement of spring is kicking in. I spent all day outside during the sunny weather last weekend and got everything cleaned up.

While not a drastic improvement from a distance, the details make the difference when I walk through each day. The messy dead leaves are gone to reveal tiny pretty things emerging. Here are some before and after pix.

I'm planning to cut back the grasses soon, once a few new things emerge, so they'll sprout fresh.

Last spring's new holly shrub is doing fine and did it's part to improve the bleakness of winter.

I can't wait to fill this barren side with new plants!
New flower seeds arrived last week. I'm direct sowing everything when the soil begins to warm.

Winter cleanup

I got in over my head in an attempt to get a winter cleanup done in a matter of hours. One day off, unpleasant weather, guests arriving soon, trip out-of-town after that, much to complete.

Even though it was December, it feels like winter came early this year with temperatures already in the 20s and 30s. It was cold and cloudy, a combination I detest, but I bundled up and started hacking down or digging up everything dead or dormant, creating quite a pile of debris in the process.

What to do with all this material?

In my small garden I try and compost all my garden waste and much of our kitchen waste as well. This usually means chopping up everything by hand into small enough pieces to fit in one of my 3 compost bins. In small doses this can be a weirdly satisfying, if obsessive activity. With a great amount of stuff, it is overwhelming.

In order to keep some space free in my limited containers I must sift (more obsessive satisfaction) the contents of the most broken-down container and spread it. I usually try and do this in spring and in fall when I have a more-or-less finished batch. Due to the aforementioned fall laziness, this did not happen. My 3 bins were already full.

After a minor fit of frustration indoors, I sipped some tea, warmed my frozen hands and tried to think of a way to clean up this huge mess. Brandon came out to help me.

He went to the store and got some large trash bags. We stuffed everything into some bags and left them near the compost bins in the hopes that I can perhaps sift compost later and make room for this new stuff. Not a great solution, but it got the job done and I was able to sweep up and get indoors before the sun set (4:30 p.m. these days).

It looked much better when we finished and I sure was grateful for his help.

Neighborhood nursery!

Walked over to a new nursery yesterday IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD called Outside NY.

Most gardeners get enthusiastic at the prospect of a new nursery to peruse, but in the NYC area where your options are more or less limited to bodegas and mail-order it's downright wonderful. The plants there were interesting and the staff was friendly, but I was most excited about bagged compost, mulch and fertilizer near enough that I can inexpensively use a car service to lug it home.

Mini worm bin

One of the girls in the education department at my job gave me this little worm bin, complete with worms, made from a plastic crayon box. I poked some more holes in it and then got a little crafty covering the logo stickers with some more aesthetically pleasing postcards. I realize this reveals me to be a huge dork if it wasn't already obvious.

Succulent fortification

Not forgetting about my succulents! Today I mixed them up a nice batch of compost tea with a touch of fish emulsion fertilizer and gave them all a fortifying drink. In the warm months when the windows are always open, I water them by placing them on the outer sill so the water can run out.

Not that you care, but to make the tea I put a big blob of compost in this disgusting jug and let it steep for 24 hrs. Then I strain the contents into a watering can and dilute it by at least half.

Started a big compost project – dumping out the contents of one of the wire bins, sifting and spreading finished product and looking for worms. At least 30 worms (!!!) were unearthed and relocated to the tumbling bin. Notice I said started. Still need to return the remaining contents to the bin which should now have a lot more room for more garden debris.

Edible focus

With the long-awaited arrival of baby tomato plants, I spent some time over the weekend focusing on the vegetable side of my garden which always seems to play second fiddle to my flowers.

Due to a bit of hesitance to use my compost or to pay for some other amendment, I must admit that I haven't really added much to the soil this year and all the plants look hungry. I went ahead and sifted a big batch of my most finished compost, which is still not completely broken down, and took a chance using it as a top dressing for the whole vegetable bed. Though sifting removes the largest particles, I'm a little concerned that the leaf matter in particular will tie up nitrogen while it continues to decompose. However, there is lots of good humus in there and I think it's worth the risk rather than leaving everything starving for nutrients.

It appears I still have just the six worms I found and added to the tumbling compost bin. I was hoping that by now they would have, well, gotten to know each other and started a big family. They just need some time, I suppose.

What else is going on? Collard greens are coming up just fine and the thyme I was wondering about seems to be ok too. Cilantro looks more or less happy, but needs thinning. Yummy greens – especially the arugula have been providing us with wonderful salads.

Oregano is always too monsterous while rosemary and dill along with a self-sown marigold are progressing rather slowly. We finally had a good rain just after I spread the compost so hopefully we'll see some results.

Composting friends

As planned, I added another cylindrical compost bin to the slab area. I had buckets of compost debris in various locations so I consolidated all of that into this bin and found 3 worms (!) who will hopefully reproduce and help my decomposition efforts as they did last year. Brandon gets photo credit on the hand shot.

New camera!

Even though it was terribly chilly, I had a productive gardening day.

After a leisurely morning, Brandon and I went to the farmer's market to get a few things for tomorrow's goat roast. Since I'm dying for a little color, I was planning on getting some pansies, but ended up choosing these beautiful ranunculus instead.

Dang! We keep forgetting to bring our cloth shopping bags from home - they ended up in plastic. So much for eco-consciousness.

As we left the house, my neighbor was out planting her new things from Bluestone. I had been thinking I needed to keep my poppies, which arrived the same day as hers, indoors until these 30 degree nights passed. But, unlike me, she had bothered to read the planting sheet that came with the order which said, "don't baby them," they would be ok down to 28 degrees. Well, I felt stupid and overprotective, but anyway - glad to be able to plant today.

After we arrived back home, and enjoyed a few snacks from the market, I sifted a bit of compost to spread around the plantings using my dollar-store wire bin. These things work well for sifting small amounts. Then I started trying to figure out where to put the plants - twelve in all.

When planting in the spring while things are dormant and cut back to nubs, it's difficult to visualize how it will look later. There seem to be bare spots, but I know there are plants there too, and I typically underestimate how large they will grow - especially when lustfully purchasing new flowers.

Looking back at the catalog for reminder height information I wondered - why had I chosen 'Brilliant,' which is red, instead of 'Matador,' which is orange - my favorite color? Red can be a difficult color to blend with others and I usually pair it with just greens or maybe whites and pale yellows. But now I have red poppies to find a spot for in an area with lots of pinks and other colors I've undoubtedly forgotten.

Also at some point during my winter planning, I decided to eliminate yellows in order to simplify and harmonize my color scheme, but here I am with these irresistible, yellow ranunculus. In other words, it's the beginning of April and my plans and ideas have flown out the window.
Who needs plans? It'll all work out great, somehow.

Did I mention that I got a new camera? My heavy, broken, old clunker of a free-gift camera has served me well, but it's wonderful to replace it and finally take some decent close-ups. Nobody minds if I include a bunch of photos, since I was trigger-happy today, right?

Well, I found a place for everything and it remains to be seen whether or not I made good decisions. By the time I finished planting the ranunculus, which were last, it was nearly dark and 35 degrees. My toes were froze(!) and the pics I quickly snapped on the auto-setting used flash and looked rather eerie so I'll show you this lovely pre-planted image instead. They certainly provide a nice color-fix now, regardless if they later clash with existing plantings!

Compost

It's fascinating and satisfying to turn dead and discarded things into something nutritious and usable. Making compost is one of my favorite garden activities.

As mentioned earlier, my compost setup includes a plastic tumbling bin and a cylinder made of hardware cloth. Sometimes other containers are used for excess and it's likely that a new wire bin will be added to the group this season. When I sift out and spread finished compost from the plastic bin, which is the final cycle, I begin adding things from the cylinder which are already somewhat decomposed.

Since I don't have much room, I try and keep everything chopped up into small pieces. This way it fits more easily into the bins and breaks down faster. Sometimes I just throw heaps of material on top and chop it up later. I don't make careful layers as they advise you to do in most of the books. I just toss it in as it piles up and sift it using a wire container from the $1 store.

In the last year or so I have been greatly aided in this decomposition by some uninvited, but welcome guests - earthworms. They just showed up at some point and I discovered them when sifting through the contents. It's wonderful how much faster everything happens with their help and I am amazed that they somehow figured out there was food all the way across that slab of concrete.

I wish I could show you a photo of my worms, but I am sad to report that it appears they didn't make it through the winter. I have been meaning to create a set up to overwinter some of them indoors, but since they made it through last winter ok somehow I decided to see what happened. One of my neighbors mentioned a surplus last fall so perhaps I can start over with some new worms.

Here's a good site if you want to know more about composting.

Brooklyn garden in February

Well, here it is... This is what my garden looks like in February. Pretty pathetic. I've got plans to add a little structure - bones as they say - and winter interest so we should see some improvement next year. I've more or less done it backwards. I'm trying now to add structure into what's already there instead of starting with it.

Since we rent, I started small. At one point I gave up worrying that I was going to leave someday and just started gardening the way I wanted. Most of one side is reserved for edibles and the rest is ornamental.

The 3rd photo is what I call my compost slab. It is also home to our trash can and another can which I use for rain collection. I made the wire bin as a supplement to my envirocycle compost bin and there is even another smaller trash can with more composting debris off to the left. My neighbors were asking - how do you throw away a trash can? So I took several off their hands and found uses for all of them. Brandon says, NO MORE CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS, but I'm not making any promises.