Time For Drought Planning

While my blog and my garden have sat quietly during the winter months; I have been busy reading, studying and planning 2013's garden.  

With a dry 2012, dry winter, expected and worsening drought predicted for this summer; it is more important then ever to be wise in my garden and yard.  

As you can see below, Nebraska is at Exceptional Drought right now.

My first focus will be on collecting material for mulch.  Having a minimum of 4 inches of mulch (after settling) on all of my garden beds, around trees and plants will take "gobs" of mulch.  

In addition, I will be more intentional in gathering compost.  Those coffee grounds, scraps of veggies, newspapers, toilet paper rolls and junk mail really add up.

I'm being extremely conservative in my ordering!  Tried and true plants are my priority with "experimental" plants are on the back burner.

With hard scaping in mind, I'm gathering PVC pipe, vines, soaker hoses, fencing material and "shade ideas" and supplies. 

Decorating for a Valentine's tea at church gave me the idea of using recycled tulle if push comes to shove. 

 

It will be the perfect year for a garden!

 

 

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