Crappy Compost

Compost is the process of breaking down organic material.  "Any factor which slows or halts microbial growth will also impede the composting process. Efficient decomposition will occur, if the following factors are used to fullest advantage." UNL Master Gardener
~Aeration
~Moisture
~Particle size
~Temperature
~Fertilizer
The microbes that eat the compost and break it down into usable soil to amend our gardens need nitrogen for their own growth.  They speed up or slow down based on the available nitrogen.  Grass clippings are higher in nitrogen and leaves have much less.  Manure can be added as "organic sources of nitrogen" and will help compost...decompose!

So grab some manure and stir it into your compost to make it more efficient!

Recommended layers:
1.  4-6 inches of brush and coarse material for air circulation.
2.  3-4 inches of grass clippings or hay.
3.  3-4 inches of leaves, straw or corn.
4.  1 inch of soil
5.  2-3 inches of animal manure
Make sure layer 2 and 3 are damp when adding them.

Materials with High Nitrogen Values (GREENS) (Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station, Bulletin 754, 1974.)  Highest to Lowest

Horse Manure with Litter
Horse Manure
Grass Clippings
Vegetable Wastes
Coffee Grounds
Cow Manure
Poultry Manure with Litter
Poultry Manure
Pig Manure

Score!!!!!!! Creatively Building Soil!

Sitting in the football bleachers with friends is a grand way to score some extra bags of leaves for compost!  Granted my husband will not go with me to load them...but I'm sure he will unload them for me!

And, I'm not beneath gathering leaves and pine cones in the gutter.  With the ongoing lack of moisture and my desire to create more permaculture or "smart" scaping beds in my yard.  I will need lots more organic material for compost.

In the name of building great soil, I have some ideas for gathering extra composting material:

• Gather leaves from yards that are familiar to us.
• Ask friends for their neatly bagged composting material.
• Offer your local horse fanatics to clean out their barn for the wealth of manure and straw/hay. 
• Be intentional about saving scraps and coffee grounds.  I'm so surprised at the amount of scraps build up in one house.

• Gather shredded paper from work to haul home.

After gathering the great composting matter, intentionally use it!

•  I dig trenches along the back of my fence and behind a raised bed to throw material in.
• Build a homemade compost bin such as the dog kennel turned sideways that works great.
• Create bins to throw newspaper and food scraps to keep them from blowing away and to keep animals out.  Old cow lick tubs are great!

My Dream

MY DREAM!!!

Images from the web as I research Xeriscape.

 

Common Name

Deciduous Trees

Cockspur Hawthorn

Japanese Pagodatree

Evergreen Trees

Austrian Pine

Bristlecone Pine

Pinyon Pine

Deciduous Shrubs

American Plum

Blue Mist Spirea

Boulder Raspberry

Big Tooth Maple

Gro-Low Sumac

Leadplant

New Mexican Privet

Rabbitbrush

Russian Sage

Serviceberry

Snowberry

Squaw Currant

Three Leaf Sumac

Waxflower

Woods Rose

Western Sandcherry

Evergreen Shrubs

Green Mound Juniper

Perennials

Columbine

Blanketflower

Fireweed

Yellow Flax

Gayfeather

Lavender-Munstead

Moonbeam Coreopsis

Purple Coneflower

Pineleaf Penstemon

Red Rocks Penstemon

Rocky Mt. Penstemon

Yarrow

Ground Covers

Barran Strawberry

Creeping Western Sandcherry

Mahonia

Sedum

Sweet Woodruff

Wintercreeper

Ornamental Grasses

Bug Bluestem

Feather Reed Grass

Indian Ricegrass

Winter Comfort

Standing at my back door with a cup of coffee was just a little different this morning.  The robins singing and eating worms were replaced with snow flurries!  Hoping my little feathered friends are on the fly to warmer weather.  I have to say that I will be waiting eagerly for them to return.

My large bed had thankfully been "tucked in" for the winter.  The final vines pulled and left to provide the framework for new life this spring.  This year I spent quite some time turning the soil deeply folding in the rotting fruit, vegetable matter and decomposing vines.  In addition, I soaked it well.  My hope is that the water will be stored within the composting material.  The final layer of horse manure and leaves will be going on tomorrow as I ran out of time!

The bareness of the yard is giving birth to new dreams, designs and ideas.  Instead of digging around in the dirt, I am drawing out dreams in my journal.

How do I incorporate more permaculture?

Is it possible to build the beds with just horse manure through the winter?

Where can I scavenge up some old gutters and hoses for water saving measures?

How can I plant more climbing peas, beans and vegetables within the flower beds?

This led to an initial dream list of vegetable seeds saved on my computer.

Carrots galore jumped on the list.  I will be making seed tape this winter during quiet evenings to keep my hands busy.

The tomatoes will be moved to the small bed.  Peppers will go to the tomato bed.  Hmmm....I smell spring!

Walking to the door tonight gives me a chill and a comfort.  It is a homey feeling to know that beneath the layer of soil and composting material the microbes and worms are busy and the roots are resting.  All taking a well deserved winter rest.

The Little Things Matter

It is the little things that count.  Today is my day at home and I have been busy!  

Pulled some great carrots from the garden.  Am drying some and made broth with the rest to freeze.  Brought in a few more tomatoes to dry.

Turned over half the large bed.  

Beginning a new berm.

Emptied the final flower pots and laid them to wash them.  A great time of year to assess the plantings and what went well and what didn't.  I used this time to poke out some more drainage holes in the ones that didn't quite drain right.

I cleaned all of my planting pots and utensils and stored in a trash bag in my cupboard.

What are you doing right now that will give us a headstart next spring?

What supplies/containers for next year's garden can we check clearance aisles for at our local stores?

What clutter in the garden shed needs junked? 

Can things be washed, dried and stored now for easy access this spring?

Random: Big Blue Stem, Old Cars and Compost

Big Blue Stem Experiment...Seeding out.  It seems like years ago that I began some organic Big Blue Stem seeds in an attempt to reintroduce it in a small meadow area and in my yard.  What once filled the plains of the Midwest has become an ornamental grass.  I have learned that it takes a LONG time to get these grasses established.  I've used different spots, soils and containers with my container grass doing the best.  Now I need to decide how, when and if to transplant this grass.  How do I use it as nursery grasses to help new seeds grow.  When do I harvest the seeds and how do I store them?  Lots to think about.

The Sweet Potato vine has captured the old toy car that I claimed as my inheritance from my Mom.  I remember how proud as a little girl I was dragging it home with my Dad.  It was a great toy for girls for years and years.

Trimming and piling pumpkin and squash vines, annual plants and other organic matter to amend my large bed.  Egg cartons, toilet paper tubes, junk mail and coffee grounds are hidden in here somewhere.

Roadside trees.  Picture of endurance in a land of extremes.

Wrapping it Up~ Getting it Ready

The last few tomatoes are finishing ripening as the nights are getting down below 40-50.  My perennial grasses have pushed up their seeds and the flowers are ready for break.  Now is the time for fall irrigating and preparing.  My pumpkin vines have taken over several beds (without much to show for it) and my tree is dropping leaves.

So now is the time to wrap it up and get it ready.  My beds and gardens that is.  Need to do:

1.  Prune my perennial flowers.
2.  Pull annuals and add to compost and beds.
3.  Pull tomatoes and zucchini and leave on beds.
4.  Harvest final carrots and potatoes.
5.  Leave butterfly bushes and Russian sage and perennial     grasses to overwinter. 
6.  Get mulch and straw bought and ready to add to flower beds and under trees and shrubs.
 
7.  Still watering trees and shrubs and lightly watering hostas as they go dormant.
8.  Dump my compost bin onto the beds.
9.  Add horse manure to raised beds and deeply water them in.
10.  Add lots of leaf litter for the birds at the back of my yard.

11.  Clean out garden shed for spring.

11.  Clean out all bird baths and feeders with a bleach mixture.


 

Survive and/or Reproduce

Nebraska's drought has been sudden and extreme.  Thankfully, I great beds that helped our water use.

However, I have been out pruning out the plants not producing such as the zucchini and squash plants that only carried flowers.  My last pruning of my tomato plants seemed harsh as I cut off the top new growth and new blooms so that my plants could focus on finishing the fruit that is already on. 

Shrubs and trees are receiving the water so that they will weather the winter.  My last tree standing is going to have to be cut down.  Decisions on planting new shade trees are difficult as I consider our water as well as the forecast for the winter and next summer.

All of this to say that this summer has been a reminder that there are times that plants and animals have to focus on survival and stop or slow down reproduction.  

New growth is slowed as resources are very carefully guarded and preserved.  Going dormant early is one strategy.  

Maybe that is what is sometimes needed in our lives.

 

Dry Spell

To say that we are going through a dry patch is a giant understatement.  In a land where we are used to extremes of heat and cold, water and drought, feast or famine; this drought feels different.  According to our weather experts, it is.  This drought has become the worst in 50 years and on its way to being similar to the dust bowl days of the 30's. 

Worry lines are deepening on the faces of our ranchers and farmers as they know heart wrenching decisions await them.  As they sit on the top of a hill during the night watching for lightening that might spark another wild fire.  Or they carefully ration feed and water and manage pasture.

Thousands of acres of land is burning in our midwest states.  

And yet...

Their faces are like flint set against all odds.  They will band together, dig in their heals and fight forward.  They will adapt and overcome.  They will learn and adopt new practices to protect their land, livestock and livlihood.

Gardens are carefully guarded and protected with the produce carefully put away for the year.

My garden has tomatoes turning red and zucchini and squash and beans coming on.  

So we will continue and overcome and learn and grow.  Sustainable practices will be adopted.  Traditions will continue.

And I....will continue to follow in my Grandparents and parents footsteps.

According to my new book, "Permaculture" by Sepp Helzer, "permaculture is designed so that all of the plants and animals living there will work in harmony with each other."  He continues that one has to "make proper use of the available natural resources we have to work with nature and not against it.  Using what we have.  

One cornerstone of permaculture is the use of terraces in the landscape to prevent erosion and provide structure and support for growth.

In my little yard, I use these concepts heavily.  It allows me to use every spot as efficiently as possible.  Provides support for those new plants and allows me to rotate throughout the growing season.  I can't wait to add more!

In so many ways nature teaches us about the order and way that God set things in motion.  For example, plants do better with a partner and in a family.

The older plants provide protection until the young ones are strong.  Soon those young ones are providing a place for my older ones to lean up on for strength.

What if we adopted this practice of mentoring, coaching and interdependency through our lives? 

Out With The Old and In With the New!

This week has been busy in the garden cutting off the lettuce and carrots that were finished producing.  

I have gotten into the practice of cutting off instead of pulling out by the root when at all possible.  

After cutting off the tops, I lay the organic material back down into a row and then fold the dirt over on itself.  I add the dirt that has collected in the corners and along the sides of the bed; building back up a mound.

Beans beginning along the new bed.

Finally, I've planted more potatoes, beans, and squash along the top of the mound.

Beans growing up the side of the carrots.

With record heat and water restrictions contemplated, I'm thankful more then ever that I've learned to plant my garden to take advantage of ground cover.  It just doesn't dry out very easily.

In fact, I've had to take off a tire from my vertical potato and allow the soil to dry out one plant. 

Vertical potatoes.

 

Big Blue Stem is liking the heat!

Validation Rocks!

Sepp Holzer's "Permaculture; A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening."

Listening to one of my favorite podcast, I heard of Sepp Holzer's work in Austria and promptly ordered his book and am loving it. 

I have to be honest...a few things prompted a smug smile and a verbal "HA!"  For example, a few years ago I created a very tall raised bed in my back yard corner seemingly inviting comments.  "What did you have to bury?"  "Did you bury a horse under there?"


Sepp Holzer recommends 5 foot tall beds if using for windbreak or privacy!  In fact, having a tall bed doubles the planting room available!

 The second validation involves my long rows where I pile old branches collected from a dying tree with the dirt and compost on top of the decaying branches to begin a new raised bed.  I've had folks comment that, "It's a place for bugs and snakes."  To which I responded, "exactly!"  It also creates a rich growing environment!


Finally, I am such a practical person that incorporating my compost into my garden and routine seems more functional.  I dig holes within my garden and bury compost and then cover with mulch.


This book gives me courage and the evidence to try the new beds that I've been building in my mind.


Great Book.  And I'm just beginning!

"Why" Clover & Green Manure

"Why?" is a constant part of my vocabulary.  "To make little girls like you ask questions," tended to be thrown my way often.  For me, if I can understand the why then the motivation, follow through and boldness to experiment follows.

The protection and the development of our soil is not the most romantic or easily recognized activity but is the foundation of all else gardening.

I've been researching the difference between Red Clover and Alfalfa.  While they do have differing properties they provide amazing benefit to our soil.  I knew that the nitrogen that legumes produce in their roots enters the soil when the plant dies and recharges the soil.  What I didn't know is how Cover crops such as Alfalfa, Red Clover and Perennial Ryegrass  can also reduce plant-parasitic nematodes!  

Two Good Resources:

 

"Effect of Cover Crops Alfalfa, Red Clover, and Perennial Ryegrass on Soybean Cyst
Nematode Population and Soybean and Corn Yields in Minnesota"

USDA "Soil Quality-Agronomy:  Cover and Green Manure Crop Benefits to Soil Quality"

The USDA states that, "Quality is a critical factor in the management of natural resources, and
the protection or enhancement of soil quality is the key component of all resource management assistance activities in the NRCS."

Cover crops can be grown on parts of our beds or entire beds.  They can be grown, cut down and added to our compost.  

 This compost amends our soil to add organic matter and "biomass" and creates a perfect environment for all of those microbes to reproduce and do their thing.  Worms build in population and weave a network through the soil for water and oxygen throughout the beds.

Leaving the cover crops growing for a period of time will provide protection from weeds, erosion, compaction and disease.  Those wonderful roots pushing deep into the soil creates deep loam perfect for growing amazing gardens.

 

Cover Crops

Our odd weather patterns this year has driven me to re-think some things.  Some questions I'm asking:  How do I better protect my soil?  Are there ways to better utilize the space I have to reduce water needs?  What hardscaping do I need to do for next year?  Checking out pots and items soon to be on clearance; what would be helpful?

Another raised bed needs to be built to take advantage of some shade!  Rain barrels and gutters to catch some of this precious water.   Creating some type of cover for some of my beds.  Using more vertical planting and studying permaculture.  Finally, planting cover crops and rotating them.

After reading, "Grow Cover Crops For the Best Garden Soil" by Harvey Ussery in the Mother Earth News Spring 2012, I'm ready.  He says, "Consider cover crops your most important crops, because the requirements for abundant food crops-building soil fertility, improving soil texture, suppressing weeds, and inhibiting disease and crop damaging insects-can be best met by the abundant use of cover crops, season after season."

"I know this," I say to myself shaking my head.  Growing up with a rich heritage of conservation on a ranch/farm and remembering tilling up the alfalfa to plant for wheat and planting alfalfa into the old wheat fields.  I even studied this cycle of regeneration.  

So why have I not considered alfalfa and other clovers and cover crops before?

So I dug up a random clover plant in the ditch and took it home placing it into my worn out lettuce soil.  Next step is stopping by the seed store to pick up some cow and field peas, buckwheat to plant now and winter peas and oats to plant closer to fall.

Today's forcast...108.  This week looks to be all over 100.  We were blessed with some rain last night but our dry soil needs a good soaking.

ReThinking Water-Lessons from Midnight Water Changing

Irrigation was part of my growing up.  Drawing water from the Belle Fourche river across the gravel road and into ditches.  First the ditches were dirt with siphon tubes and moving to cement ditches with gates.  Flood irrigation involved moving water from one part of the river through small ditches in the corn field or down the alfalfa fields and back into the river.

Big rubber waders and shovels in had we would "help" repair dikes to keep the water going to where it was supposed to do.

As we grew, we had to go and change the water in the night which scared me to death.  The coyotes would howl and the hair on my neck would be on end as it seemed like they had to be right over the next hill.

Moving water fascinates me.  The magic and the satisfaction of watching the water soak deeply into the soil providing the moisture for the corn and the alfalfa and watermelons to turn into food.  

My neighbors today will tell you that I'm always out playing in the water.  "Ditching" my garden and laying soaker hose.  Making sure that the water has soaked deeply into the ground.

The cost of water is increasing at an alarming rate.  Currently, this summer began 5 weeks early and has been the warmest on record leaving me watering continuously.  Continuing to do what I've done would be stupid so am seeking my husband's ability to design and invent to begin thinking about water storage and conservation.  

My Baby Steps:

1.  Gather supplies such as barrels and five gallon buckets.

2.  Salvage cement bricks and old hoses.

3. Seek out mulching options.

4.  Observe yard and draw new beds.

5.  Research row covers.

 

Record Breaking Heat

My tummy starts to tremble when I hear the word drought.  To a ranching/farming family drought was a terrifying word.  Animals and crops would be effected.  Worry etched our parents faces.

This is the warmest spring in Nebraska since record keeping began.  Our ground is beginning to harden with the lack of rain.  Our growing season began about six weeks early so gardening has been a challenge.  

Sprinklers provides just the top layer with a sip but what the ground really needs is a good soaking.

Nebraska faced a drought just a few years ago that emptied lakes, streams and rivers and we do not want to go back to that.

So as my ancestors have done for years in this wildly unpredictable heartland...I will adapt.  

The hostas that grew so beautifully under the tree until the tree had to come down will have to be moved and if it doesn't survive then it will be sacrificed to more practical plants.  Water has to be conserved and used wisely.

I'm in the process of cutting old hoses, adding the ends so watering is more targeted.  Being intentional with extra mulch and care my plants.

New plans for landscaping that will work with our semi-arid environment better are being scribbled in my journal as I plan for more beds and different varieties.

What is organic anyway?

I've been thinking about the rage of organic gardening...which I am all for.  But does it seem that sometimes we call it organic if it comes from a bag?  We buy organic vegies and throw away the peels while buying bags of "organic fertilizers."  

We rake and clip and throw away needles, pine cones and leaves to send to the trash while buying mulch. We steer away from manure because of its messiness.

Are we taking away organic from organic?  Do we make organic to sterile and too difficult? 

 Organic according to the dictionary is "relating to or derived from organic material.  Produced without pesticides, herbicides and fertilized."

It can also be defined as the "continuous or natural development" and a "relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole."

My definition of organic is, "to work with what we have.  To see the relation and connection between the elements around us.  To get out of the way of the natural processes."

What do you think?

May 2012 Current Pictures

Graduation celebrations with family and friends put a halt to the planting-in the garden-that is.  While we planted many memories and built great connections my flowers and plants just continued to do what they do...grow and produce.

Bumble Bee on Salvia

Potatoes Taking Off!

Russian Sage and a Clematis peeking around the stump.

My Beautiful Sandhills.

Lake Ogallala

Radish and Lettuce

Artemisia -Siver Mound

Last summer my husband and I took a drive around the lake and exploring Ash Hollow.  While out I asked my sweet husband to dig up the "sage" that was so beautiful.  So with his ever present sharpened knife-he dug out what I now know is Artemisia- Silver Mound.

In the field!

Decorating and thriving in a bed in my yard.

Growing Purple Coneflower

My experiment for this spring has been starting purple cone flower, black sampson and big blue stem from seed.

How's it going?  Slowwwww.  Did you know that they are considered finicky and can be difficult?  They grow slowly.  They have a reputation for being impossible!  According to USDA and Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Guide "when the proper steps are taken, it has extremely dependable germination."

Once again, I've learned that I should be jotting down my observations in my journal!

I have transplanted them as they were getting "leggy" but now they seem to be stalled again.

Big Blue Stem transplanted.

I started in small seed flat but will start them in a much larger pot to begin with.

Doo Dads

While washing dishes today, I noticed two blue jars in the cupboard.  They are so pretty and need to be enjoyed.  

So with wire clippers in hand I used them to hang on a trellis.  I'm not for sure what exactly I'm putting in.  Lights?  Plants of some kind?  I think they are pretty cool!

This weekend I have been thankful for some salvaged windows keeping lettuce, radishes and carrots above freezing.