Don't Put Your Hand In The Bag!

It's fairly cheesy, I have to admit, but it is a catchy slogan!

Have you heard their commercials? "We're number 1 in the number 2 business". The cow on the purple bag and all... very catchy.

If you haven't seen it yet, I'm talking about the organic compost with cow manure called Moo-nure. Even before I had heard the commercials, I'd purchased several bags of this to work into my garden this year, since my compost wasn't ready in the early spring.

I had about a half of a bag of moo-nure sitting open between my two raised beds, just waiting for me to re-work the soil for my bell pepper plants that a friend gave me. With my 4 year old grand daughter in tow, I proceeded to empty the soil from one of last year's smart pots and was having her "help" me.

We got the soil into the wheel barrow and I explained that we were going to add the "cow poo" to the soil to help the plants to grow. I reached down and grabbed the bag of moo-nure and dumped the remainder of what hadn't been used on to of the soil already in the wheel barrow.

I'm a big guy from the south and don't get startled easily but when all of the contents came out of the bag, I really didn't expect a 14 inch long snake to come out! Sorry, no pics... my daughter, who attempted a pic later, had taken the memory card out of her camera. Just to be clear... I'd seen the snake around the garden the week before. It was NOT packaged in the bag!

The 4 year old thought it was pretty cool, went and got sister, mom and grandmom (who, by the way HATES snakes). After my daughter came out (who, by the way LIKES snakes), we agreed that it wasn't poisonous and, much to my wife's chagrin, picked up the snake and promptly threw it up into the woods behind my house.

Moral of this story, don't put your hand in an opened bag of cow poo ... or something like that.

3GT

Chris

Compost Is Ready

I hope you found my first post on my DIY tumbler composting helpful.

Today, I took the PVC door of my greenhouse apart (so that no more PVC's were killed in the process) and by adding a bit of vinyl hardware cloth, built a sifter to sift the smaller particles of compost from my compost tumbler.

I used the PVC clips that I'd made to hold the hardware cloth on the PVC. I was amazed at how well they work and the whole sifter took me less than 30 minutes to assemble. It fits nicely on the top of my wheel barrow and by turning it so the mesh on the bottom, the PVC forms a nice edge that keeps the compost from escaping off the sides.

I was truly amazed at easily my 55 gallon compost tumbler turned out some really nice compost. If ever I had any doubts, they are totally gone now.

I sifted out the smaller pieces and set aside the larger ones for continued composting.

Tomorrow, I may try to run them through my chipper/shredder (that I got a deal on at a yard sale) before I put them back into the tumbler with a whole new batch of green and brown material to kick start the process.

I took a shovel full or so of the compost and wrapped it up in an old tee-shirt and put it in a 5 gallon bucket of water to start a batch of compost tea (pics to come with my next compost post).

Large material that didn't make the sifting.

After all sifting was done, about 1/2 of my LARGE wheel barrow was filled with nice compost. I had enough to fill two empty manure bags that I'd held on to for just such an occasion.

I'd have to say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Going to use some of this nice stuff to fortify some soil for two white grape vines that I'm ready to plant and to side dress some tomatoes.

Don't think I've ever seen soil this black in Georgia!

Planting The Generations

I guess when you get right down to it, I'd say that my wife and I have both come from a long history of farmers; not that I've ever put much though into it.

I recall my grandfather planting large fields of strawberries, corn, peanuts and the like. I wish that he was still around so I could really "learn" from him instead of just being a carefree child visiting their farm.

With a smile on her face, my wife has often told me stories of riding on the tractor with her grandfather to the his corn fields and of the farm and animals that were always there.

Planting tree seeds with grand-dad.

Both my father and father-in-law have always had "gardens" that would rival some of the small sustainable living farms that you read about these days.

And as for us, the first time my wife and I planted a garden, in North Alabama, we had someone with at tractor come over and plow up about 1/4 of our backyard. Then we used a tiller to break up the larger "clods". I don't even want to think about the blisters and of how many times I almost buried that tiller in a foot of dirt because it was plowed so deep! We planted and grew so much in that first garden that we gave away 3/4 of the food. Our kids were right there helping.

Who could imagine that soil and planting could become the bedrock of such fond generational memories? And now, my son and daughter are carrying on the agrarian traditions of their heritage in their own ways, with new purpose and meaning.

My daughter and their family use raised beds for veggies, herbs and the like and teach their own kids to plant, harvest and care for the earth (Simple Gifts),

My son and his wife have become involved in an inner-city "pea patch" garden in Seattle to grow some really nice veggies in the incredibly rich northwestern soil. He's gotten actively involved with helping with research studies on their city's rooftop gardening program and how rooftop gardens can assist in soaking up some of the seemingly constant rain.

And now, they are breaking ground on a new community garden on a vacant lot in the heart of West Seattle (Grow Charlestown) and teaching others the benefits and joys of gardening and eating locally grown food.

Even more than sports, music, crafts, or almost any other "activity" that I can think of right now, planting and gardening can draw the generations together in a way that leave the other things seeming sort of hollow. Maybe it's just me, but I long for a more family-based community where we are more a part of each others' lives, planting the values we cherish in the soil of generations to come.

Chris

3GT