The Garden Nanny

Compost happens...

2010-04-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Compost Happens

“In the process of nature there is no throwing away”- Catherine Osgood Foster

Why compost?

First: It is the way of nature. Mother Nature has been composting since the beginning of time

Second: it’s free! In these economic times who couldn’t use a freebie now and then.

Third: It is GOLD! It is by far one of the best things you can do for you garden, lawn and all your plantings.

Most importantly it is vital to soil health. No amount of fertilizer can make up for poor soil, nor will your plants withstand disease drought, pest and other stresses. Compost contains nutrients that your plants need for optimum performance and it has the microbes in it that will hold onto those nutrient instead of letting them leach away into our water table. In some cases you may not even need to fertilize soil that is enriched with compost.

Compost also improves soil structure. The organic matter combines with the soil particles of sand silt and clay and creates small aggregates or crumbs. Crumbly soil is good structure as apposed to sand or clay. These crumbs hold onto moisture on their surface making it available to your plants all the while making air pockets and spaces for oxygen and room to grow, and good drainage.

Decomp

We have heard the word decomp a lot these past few years with all the science and cops shows like CSI. But decomposition has been doing this for millions of years. In 1 tbls of compost there are over 1 billion forms of life! Each of these microscopic bugs has a job and they all work symbiotically with each other for an end result…LIFE. These creatures help break down the million tons of organic refuse produced on the Earth each day, leaves, garbage, industrial waste, everything! Without these microbes there would be no decomposition, they are the alchemist, garbage collectors and mini refineries all rolled into one.

4 Basics Needed to Make Compost

1- Carbon- an energy source

2- Nitrogen a protein source

3- Oxygen

4- Moisture

1) Carbon- just like you and I we need carbs to give us energy. Same fit for your compost. This is the tough dry material or the “browns”, like dried leaves, straw, sawdust and corn stalks.

2) Nitrogen- this is the activator. This gets things cooking, like manure, grass clippings green vegetation, blood meal kelp. These are high nitrogen materials.

It is helpful to think of the carbon materials as the food and the nitrogen materials like our digestive enzymes.

3) Oxygen- is a vital part of composting. It is required by many organisms especially the most efficient bacteria called AEROBES. When there is not enough air the aerobes can not survive and the ANAEROBES take over slowing the process by up to 90%. The aerobes will do a more complete job of composting than their counter parts.

4) Moisture – not enough moisture slows decomp, to much forces out air suffocating and creating a stinky mess. Moisture content should be about 45-50%....like a rung out sponge.

Some Commonly Used Materials

Wood ashes- high source of potash, but not to much- it makes your compost very alkaline.

Feathers- high content of Nitrogen

Garbage- food waste- but not grease oil or animal meat.

Grass Clippings- best to dry out first- so not so soggy, and smelly or mix with dry ingredients.

If putting on straight remember to layer into the pile.

Hay or Straw- Best to weather it or spoil it. Farms are grateful to be rid of it.

Leaves- are slow to break down chop with mower first to help breaking down faster.

(Leaf Mold- gold to the planter- partially decomposed leaves. Mix 1 part leaf mold with 5 parts manure- WOW!)

Newspapers- It used to be that papers were printed with ink that contains PAHs- or polycyclic aromatics hydrocarbons.

Most papers today use soy based inks. If using, strip it up so that it does not mat. Colored magazines are

something you may want to stay away from- not sure of the chemical processes.

Peat Moss- can make a pile to dry if it’s all clumped together. It can wick water away from the pile but can make a nice

texture if done right.

Pine needles- good texturizers, break down slowly not good as a major ingredient.

Sawdust- breaks down slowly, if too concentrated, may cause an airtight seal. Best to sprinkle it in

Seaweed or Kelp- great source of Potassium, rots easily, and is loaded with trace elements.

Tends to be high in sodium, but some gardeners love to blanket their pile with it before winters sleep.

Things to avoid

Coal or Charcoal- has excess amounts of sulfur and iron that are toxic to plants

Diseased plants- good if pile get hot enough, but best to burn first the use the ashes in the pile.

No pet litter, no sludge and no toxic chemicals.

Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio

This is your “browns” to “green” ratio. It should be 30 to 1. 30 parts brown to 1 part green.

Or simply put 2-3 pounds of Nitrogen (greens) to 100 pounds of Carbon (browns). If you keep up this ratio you will have an earthy pleasant smell. If you get more greens you might get a little stinky.

Composting Bins and Tools

There are as many ideas and theories about this as there are stars in the sky. I personally have a pile that I tend to ignore until I need something from it. Thankfully my compost doesn’t take this personally. There are bins, tumblers pens, and piles. They can be square or round, made of wood, concrete, fencing material or be a metal garbage can, with holes in it. But the same rules apply to all compost containers: Material in the right amounts, turning to get air in for the right biology to thrive and water to help things to move smoothly.

Tools are getting fancier all the time. I use a pitch fork, or a shovel. Some people use a compost turner; this will help get air moving in and around the pile and help mix stuff around.

I also have a small bin on my kitchen counter at home that gets dumped 1-2 times a week, maybe more often in the summer.

Activators

There are many companies on the market that sell activators. Some have biology which can help a dead or slow moving pile get going.

Compost in the bag or loam can be an activator to you pile, and also some people have been know to throw in a handful or two of lawn fertilizer, just make it an organic one so that the biology doesn’t get burned.

Increasing your surface area by chopping up your material will make it break down faster, creating surface wounds for the bacteria to munch on.

life is short

2010-02-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

"Life is short but sweet for certain".

It has been a week since I started this endeavor in my life. I am scared, weak, and a little pist-off. I went to the ER last week with rapid pulse and my head felt like it was gonna pop off my body. Quite a visual...to many cartoons as a kid I think.

The doc's still don't know whats going on and I am getting now where fast with the phone. I have another week to see the "specialist", and all I can do is Be with it.

This is not easy for the big red "S" wearing super woman. I'm the one who gets the job done. I know where all the lost Lego pieces are, and when the bus comes and goes. I know all the answers to questions like: "MOM! where is my left shoe?" ...I dunno, I put it back when I was done with it. And yet I do this all with calmness, or so I thought.

Controlling chaos is a recipe for failure....

for me- failure in my health, or at least a glitch.

This is the lesson in trust. Trust that there is a force bigger than I who will level the playing field and that I might be the one who needs the leveling, and I need to be OK with this.

It doesn't mean I sit on my laurels and do nothing. I can do something like by taking charge of my health. Eat better than the average American diet, get the right kind of exercise, and learn to recognize when I need to "let it go".

Trust.

I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of leaving things undone. I do fear that my seven year old boy won't have his mom to help him grow up......

Or that I didn't tell you how important you were in my life.

Life is short- and I have had the misfortune of not being able to say those words to some friends that have gone on.

Trust the process, and tell the ones you love how you feel.

I will be OK, even though bad things may happen. It's just hard when you so omnipotent ya know.- namaste

Reflections

2009-12-23T15:34:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since the last time I wrote. There is a story brewing in my mind and I feel I need to write it. This has happened quite often in my life and I never have jumped on it. But something is pulling me in this direction now. People I talk with, literature sent to me, books falling at my feet. Is there a power greater than us all trying to tell me something? Will it need to slug me over the head and say"Hey stupid, Yeah you! You need to write that stuff down, what more of a sign do you need? geesh".....And I reply with, "maybe a burning bush wouldn't be so out of the question"??? she says with a Jewish lilt.

We all have a voice, and some of us hear voices, present company not excluded. But it is what we do with that voice that can change just a second in time. Some of the tapes that play in my head are always telling me that I'm not good enough, that I would be embarrassed to express a thought out loud. It's a good thing I tell those voices to f____themselves these days. But those little buggers let just enough dought in to delay reaction, pausing long enough to lose momentum and continue the cylcle of defeatism.

I don't want to do that anymore to myself. If a friend told me that someone said those things to her I'd want to go beat them up. So why is it OK for me to do that to myself! We all do it! How do we stop this process?

I think with support of a good friend and teaming up together to challenge ourselves is a good start. And that is something I am going to do. I will check out the writers workshops and go with my friend who is willing to explore the idea of writing also. What the heck do I have to lose? NOTHING! Life is short, wear your party pants!

It seems the word is spreading...

2009-10-20T17:35:00.001-07:00

Normally I don't publicly expound on a television program but last night I saw a first. Mind you it is not necessarily my favorite, but it caught my attention. CSI Miami had an episode on last night about the pollution created by GMO farmers fields that contaminates organic crops. I was astounded. Never have I seen a prime time entertainment based show use this as a topic.

Organic corn crops across the world are losing their hard earned status as USDA certified, due to "conventional" farm crops. How this happens is the corn grown on another farm that is GMO will shed it's pollen in the wind, this wind drift can travel many miles and mix with the pollen on an organically grown piece of corn, polluting the whole crop forever. Forever! The grower loses it's status and loses incredible amounts of money.

Last night's program show cased a problem that is happening now and the scary thing is that nothing can stop the contamination. I personally am suspect of all corn, even the beautiful local butter and sugar corn sold here on the Cape. Yes, I may be paranoid, but I've done so much research on organic issues that I think I know to much for my own good. It keeps me up at night.
As far as CSI Miami goes I am impressed with their topic choice, but I am still partial to the Las Vegas version. I miss Grisim.

Anyways keep up the good fight eh?- nan

A mother storm is brewing.

2009-10-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about my next blog and so far I seem to keep coming back to the idea of health. In the last few years I have done a lot of reading and dabbling in the alternatives to conventional health care. What I have found is that for me and my son natural and homeopathy remedies are working so much better than "drugs".

It was very clear to me that homeopathy works, when one day at work i experienced a blow to the bridge of my nose that left me nearly unconscious. My friend and boss gave me a remedy called Arnica. First you need to know that Arnica comes in pellet form, gel and cream. The pellet needs to be taken orally, and the gel or cream to be given topically. My eyes had already started to blacken in the corners and yellow underneath. Within ten minutes of taking the oral dose and using the gel topically the bruises were gone the swelling was down and all that was left was a scrape from the incident. I was totally amazed by the response my body did to this treatment. For sure I would have had two black eyes and a swollen nose.

In the months that followed I got some good books on the topic and took a class with a great group of women all looking for alternatives to conventional treatments.

I then followed up with a visit to a doctor of homeopathy, and I feel that I am doing very well, with it.

My biggest gripe is this: This form of treatment is not covered by health insurance. It should be. Europe has been doing Homeopathy for centuries and has a mercantile on every street corner selling remedies. Then again Europe is just a bit ahead of us in the fields of natural, and organic treatments. It is a very common acceptable form of health practice that tends to out-number the conventional doctors.

Further more, I have to pay for health insurance anyways. I would rather not have to pay for it because it does not cover homeopathy. AND I get hit with an added bonus of having to pay a fine if I do not carry a policy with a money grubbing industry that has turned this country into a lying self serving elitist group of hypocrites. But let me tell you how I really feel.....

To add to the problem doctors have over prescribed so many antibiotics that now we have super-morph bugs that won't be killed off by our manufactured, artificial so called health treatments. Antibiotics are no longer affective because mother nature knows better than us how to make flu and cold bugs bigger and stronger. And doctors don't let fevers do what they are supposed to do, and that is to kill off germs and bring us through the delirium with intense heat AKA a fever.

Yes there are great inventions made by many great scientist, like penicillin. It is the abuse of these drugs that has made us weak, and our doctors and universities are too closed minded to look at the bigger picture.

Worse yet, the government's efforts to create agencies like the FDA and EPA to so called regulate the drugs and chemicals leaves me skeptical. They say it is OK for a chemicals like Diazinon to be on the shelves for decades, then one day....it is not. Did you know that the EPA does not test any new chemicals? Nope, they leave that business up the the manufacturer of the chemical. hmmmm.... Makes me think, and it ticks me off.

And now in the news, stories of swine flu and the hysteria to create atmospheres that are free of germs is not only unrealistic, it is dangerous. The more we try to control germs, the more they learn how to be better at what they do, and it will only get worse.

My soap box is done today, and I feel deflated and sad. I don't like to write about the stuff that is wrong with our world. I want things to be better, and I want to remain positive. But once in a while I need to vent and be the "ticked off mom", because that is my reason, I am a mom.

Stuck Off Cape????

2009-10-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

I am in the hustle and bustle of a different life. I am in what I call the city. Close enough, Newton. I came up to take part in a voice class and have an oil change and I found out that my car is broke. Needs a whole exhaust system. Soooo what do ya do? I jump in the river, and go with the flow. I got time to spend with my Dad, and looked at buildings that are very rare to the Cape, at least in the volume they are accustomed to in Newton. I love the air, and the busy-ness of this area. It is such a town feeling and everything is easily reached. The plants are all in transition, not quite fall, though it is most defiantly here. I do miss being home and the warm sun heating up my living room, and getting my son off the bus. But I can appreciate where I am and take the opportunity be with my dad and Dodi in there home, while I wait for news on Ingrid. That would be my car. Ingrid.
Ingrid Zackemfroid.....if you have to ask.....I am happily nuts. So to say I am stuck here,off Cape... am I really stuck? I guess I needed to be here. Love peace and all that fuzzy stuff - nan

Come out come out where ever you are....

2009-09-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

Fairies....where are you???? I have been building Fairy houses with my son in our yard, for the last 2-3 weeks. He likes to call them Gnome houses. It's a guy thing. What a way to get carried away with, for a few hours. Plus it is helping me to see my garden from a different vantage point, not to mention the cleaning up of debris around the perennials. I love what a few innocent hours can do for your adult brain to help you get a good perspective on whats important in this world.

There is definitely a difference between my girl brain and his boy brain. When I'm done I want to become the little gnome or fairy waiting till twilight to get my dibs on the digs. My son on the other hand wants to bulldoze it to make way for the next Gnome Depot. Go figure.

As far as my other "gardening" things go, I had mentioned that my window boxes were looking tired, well I think my little fairy friends have been helping out in that department because they are looking absolutely beautiful right now. I'll take it, then pay it forward when the time comes.

Again

2009-09-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

again the link: A Chemical Reaction

Some Good Info

2009-09-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

I recived the NOFA newsletter and in it was a quip about a movie premier coming up on Sept 23 at 2pm at the Kendall Square Theater. This is a documentary about the move in Canada to ban Chemical Applications on a wide scale. It looks to be very good and I may try to attend. Here is the link: A Chemical Reaction

See ya!

Which direction....

2009-09-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. The vacuum is running, I am sitting under artificial lights, and the conversations swirling around me are nothing to do with my existence. This is not the organic life. But it is my life. I am at my place of work and it is a garden center. I am not on the clock for all you people (like myself) who are overly ethical.

This is a strange place for someone who loves the outdoors. My job has transitioned into more of a desk thing (oh ick). Not a place I would have said I'd be 10 years ago.

It takes all types of jobs to make the world right. I personally can see myself raising goats, or herbs or both. Or maybe I could live off wages made by selling my art work..... but my stuff isn't hung on walls, unless it is used in a fight to be a projectile.

I guess I am floating, but who isn't. I still feel like I'm onto something big. Like I will walk into my life's passion or goal. I have felt this way for a long time....hmmmm, maybe I'm too optimistic? Is there such a thing.

Very chaotic, my writing is. That would be my best attempt at YODA, who by the way I believe is very Buddha like to me.

I will be back, and not every day but when life gives me the opening. Now I must go pick up my other life's work, my son( she says as she skips to the parking lot).

Namaste' nan

Fall air on Cape Cod

2009-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

It is a glorious day on Cape Cod. The wind in blowing just enough to knock over the leaves in my son's Gnome house. He will think the little buggers are partying. heeheehee.

My window boxes are looking tired, to my standards, but this is yet a thing I have come to accept at this time of year. Soon I will decorate them with fall delisiousness.

I know for some the end of the summer is a bit depressing but for me it is a time of introspection and beginnings.

I can begin to plan for next years plants and the research charges me up with renewed energy.

I have new plans, (she says as she rings her hands together with a bit of a cackle). I will start a new shade bed, and possibly start a raised bed in the middle of the yard for vegetables next year.
Of course this is with out the written consent of my husband, but I will just tell him that there will be less to mow...right?

Maybe I will explore the possibilities of a drip irrigation, hoo hoo, another thing to research. Yes I love to research, the computer and old libraries will suck me away from life and I live a simple nomadic life with tea in hand. hmmmmm.

But back to reality. maybe not too soon, to dream is but a vital part of the human spirit, is it not?

Well wishes to all- Namaste' -nan