Mulch Delivery!

Every day is a good day when it's mulch delivery day.

Winter Crop Death Match

Rhubarb is dead ( well, not truly) - carrots, kale , and rutabaga continue on. 

Nature's Bird Feeder

Winter berry holly - looks great and tastes great ... to birds. Native plant, drought hardy - all that good stuff. Plant one today and sit back and watch the birdies.

Winter Growing Contest

Potatoes were the next to go. Rhubarb, kale, and rutabaga still alive, but showing signs of stress. Carrots doing fine.

Cold Weather Growing Experiment

First to check out after a few frosty nights - spinach. I was a little surprised, actually.  Carrots, rutabaga, kale, and most of the taters still going strong. Rhubarb will probably go next. 

Composting Thoughts

Composting could be one of my favorite things about gardening. Definitely an area were you can win and the squirrels will lose....not that it's a competition. I've gone through various phases - from extreme to more mellow. Used to collect compost from friends and bring back veggie scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells from trips. Over time,  I'd like to think the compost has imparted some wisdom to me and now I'm slightly more relaxed about it. All things start as dirt and all things return to dirt, so...what's the hurry.

Anyway - I've learned a few things about composting and here are my top 10 tips in order of importance...sort of.

1) Add plenty of browns. Over 50% in fact. Mike McGrath says more like 90% but I can't quite do that.            I still like the idea that my kitchen scraps are important and such a high % of browns suggests they might not be useful. I add dirt since it has microorganisms that help beak down the material faster and I also add ground up leaves that I get free from the county trades center .  Mr. McGrath feels that the ground up leaves are the magic and main ingredient for composting.

2) If you are composting kitchen waste in Arlington, you must have an enclosed composting system. If you do not, you will draw rats and then later hawks. It is entertaining, but your neighbors will not approve.

3) Having more than one pile or container is essential. If you keep adding to the same pile, it will always have undigested bits that are not ready for use. When one pile or bin is full, switch to the second and let the first rest for a spell before using.

4) I've heard of people composting newspaper, old shoes, "compostable" silverware, etc. But you have to ask yourself - is this material I want in my yard, in my plants, in my stomach? Compostable silverware and cups take forever to break down so...don't bother.

5) It will not make as much as you think. It's the sad truth, so prepare yourself for it now. I used to think I could create a mountain of soil by composting. But turns out that when things break down into soil - it makes surprisingly small amounts.

6) No oils and sugars. You can compost a lot more in an enclosed system. I have done limited amounts of bread and pasta. I do not put meat in, though the odd dead bird or mouse has ended up in my compost.

7) Coffee is the king and egg shell is the queen.

8) Tumblers speed up the process dramatically. Get one. I mean, get two. It's also good exercise.

9)  Don't use your neighbors grass clippings. No matter how tempting that bag is. It has pesticides, fertilizer, round up, and other evil things.

10) Try not to think of grocery store purchases as future compost - "boy this cantaloup sure has a lot of compostable material." Just not the right way to think about food.

11) Yup - bonus round! When you compost you are saving the world. Yup, that's right. I said it. You are returning nutrition to depleted land. You are making the Earth more like what it used to be and what is should be. You are also saving your tax dollars - less trash or less waste in the water supply. In addition, ground with added compost has less runoff which means less water for county systems to deal with during storms. So many benefits...oh, and you can grow plants better, too.

Essential Bulb Planting Tools

Radio, fancy bulb tube digger, and sharp bladed digger. I use the tube thing to start the hole and the sharp bladed digger to go a little deeper. It has measuring marks up to six inches which is very helpful. Planting went a lot quicker this year with these handy tools. 

Planting Bulbs, Listening to Jazz

With my good friend, J. O. Lantern. Hot tip for bulb planting- to discourage squirrels from raiding newly planted bulbs, place a rotting pumpkin above. Works like a charm, or maybe just tells them where to dig.

Pumpkin Defense System

If you want your jack o lanterns to last til All Hallows' eve- this is what you do in our hood. Rough squirrels round here.

Mulched Paths

Looking good! 

The trick is to use tons of mulch in the paths. Makes everything look good and organized. Doesn't stop the squirrels from taking 70% of your food. 

The Mulch is Flowing Again

Haven't got any of the Arlington County mulch In a while. Trying not to stink up the car. Finally we decided to try to get another load delivered - we were nervous after the last time. It was so much work to deal with it all. Turns out, getting a wheel barrow made all the difference . So much easier this time around. The half load costs $40 and that's 2 and a half cubic yards . Pretty good deal. So I'm mulching all the paths and things are looking a lot better.

Beans

Planted regular cooking beans as a cover crop. Bunnies liked em so much we only got two beans. Here they are.

Rhubarb in the Fall

First Winter Crop

Planted some Kale, rutabaga, spinach, turnips, carrots, and some lettuce.

Potato harvest #2

Latest harvest. These guys are all second generation red fingerlings- saved the lil ones from last year - or store bought that we forgot to eat. 

Compost, compost, and more compost

Here it is...what you've all "bin" waiting for - the official Pikeuliar Composting system.

Bin #1: Large Browns- twigs, whole leaves, branches, english ivy, and the occasional dead bird. Someday, I'll dig in here and find lots of delicious compost at the bottom...maybe. I do know that all the twigs and leaves I put in here seem to cook down after a while. Whetever I find down there will either go directly to the garden, or into bins #3 and #4 - see below.

Bin #2: fine browns- ground up leaves mostly. Most will go into #3 & #4. Some will go directly into the beds.

Bins #3 and #4: The Twin Sisters! - kitchen waste, fine browns, and dirt

Composting as Imperialism: Stolen Dirt

This pineapple is from Costa Rica. Got me thinking about how much of my composting material comes from the Southern Hemisphere and how I am basically transferring fertile soil from 3rd world nations to my back yard in the same way that imperialists have stolen resources for centuries. Hmmmm... Stolen dirt. Ok, so right now you are thinking - this guy's nuts! And you might be right, but...let's think about it anyway. How many billions of pounds of Starbucks coffee grounds are sent to the US and Europe each year? And that is just one company...and just one product. Now think about all the bananas, apples, everything that is sent north from southern hemispheric countries. Yup - systematic soil transfer - south to north. Could be the biggest undiscussed exploitation going on right now. 

Tomatoes

Fire engine is there for scale. I've realized that if you are serious about tomatoes in this area you need a squirrel net.

Giant Slugs!

Found em under a board. In the olden times, I woulda killed em. Now... Just turned em loose. If you get that big n old you deserve a little consideration.

Mantis in the Lemonbalm

Lemon balm is supposedly good to have around the garden. Here is some evidence to support that notion.

Potato Harvest #1

And a bit o garlic, too.

Yarrow

Makes great little red and yellow flowers and, most importantly, survives the winter.

Reed Franklin's Black Eyed Susans

These flowers from my cousin's place are still doing fine despite serious bunny attacks - guess they're pretty tasty. Had to build an anti-bunny fence.

Pepper Harvest

Been letting the peppers go long in the sun so they get red- supposedly better nutrition. Definitely better flavor. 

Good Earth

The contents of one Soilmachine after 6 months. Looks pretty decent. Added about 50% browns. In this case mostly dirt since I ran out of shredded leaves. Adding dirt is necessary since it has microbes , but usually I like a greater emphasis on leaves. The compost has been going much better since I upped the % of browns to 50%. Another benefit- bins get fuller quicker and more compost gets made. Still takes us about 6 months to fill it up. Mike McGrath says the % of browns should be even higher. I can see that, I suppose, but my shredded leaf supply is finite, so until we move to The Planet of Leaves I'm sticking with 50%. 

Both Barrels

If you are serious about composting, you will need two barrels- so I thought this set up, spotted in the neighborhood , was a pretty good idea. Wish I knew the make of these. Why two? One for adding current scraps and one for finishing or waiting. If you keep adding to a pile, it will never be ready . Needs time to sit a while.

Now that is a cucumber

Strawberry Harvest #3

Garden Car

Caught my neighbor putting this car in the front garden around 6:20 am. Added the road myself.

New twirly thing

Father's Day present.

Strawberry harvest #2

Strawberry Harvest #1

Day Lilies

Finally got these guys to bloom in the front garden. My secret: 3 years of neglect.

First cactus blossom

Prickly pear is native to Va and bees love it.

Thyme

Last thing we needed to complete our "graduate" garden- parsley, sage, rosemary...and thyme.

Last dogwood "flower"

Them are bracts not petals. The real flowers are the itty bitty things in the center.

Let Your Herbs go to Seed

They will...

• make seeds and resow for free!
• bring beneficial insects who will hunt bad bugs...for free!
  
  
  
  
  
  Saw a few of these guys last summer when we let a bunch of things go to seed. And FYI he is not as big as my car...perspective in action!

The Cilantro that Ate New York

This thing survived the winter masquerading as parsley. Finally gave it the smell test...found out it was cilantro. The biggest one I ever grew. 3 feet plus.

Dogwood "Flower"

Dogwood is a con artist. Those "petals" are just leaves pretending.

Potatoes emerge

These potatoes survived the whole winter in the garden. This year, instead of buying a bunch of seed potatoes, I decided to take all the any "too small to eat" potatoes from last years harvest, and just replant them in the fall and see what happened. So far...only a few have emerged.

Nasturtiums back from the dead

These nasturtiums either survived the winter or replanted themselves for a whole new summer of fun. last summer we learned that a few nasturtiums go a long way. These make cool flowers and are good for aphid control.

Lost in the Garlic Forest

Planted a whole bed of garlic. Squirrels don't eat it and it see seems like something that would be easy to grow. Also, my good friends, Sam and Wanda Notzon grow a bunch every year and that kind of inspired me. I spent a few months living in their basement during a time when they were drying or curing the garlic in their basement. The scent of that cool, humid, garlicky basement will always be with me.

Fantastic Mr. Phlox

IMG_0004, a photo by okfuskee on Flickr.

Ha ha - I bet that is the biggest trope in the phlox world. Anyway, this is my second favorite Phlox because it is a darker and brighter than the others. Sadly, we have much more of my third favorite. My number one favorite was also a favorite of the bunnies, so we have none left. This was taken with the new camera which seems pretty good so far. Canon Elph 12x optical zoom.

Flowering Phlox

First Tulip!

Good Dirt

Aftet a few years of composting and  cover cropping I think we finally have some decent soil.

Food for the birds

I always find tons of these guys whenever I dig.

I feel like a spider

Pea trellis!

Trellis Netting

Got this on glamazon.com. After trying so many metal and wood based solutions, i am ready to give nylon a try. Lifetime guarantee...made in the US...and relatively cheap. I will attach to my frame with zipties.