Here we are 21 years ago. It was crazy hot. And so are we. Still! Come on. Look at us! That’s us a couple of months ago.
She has always wanted a pool, but the only spot it would fit and be sunny is right where my garden is! A damn fine wife that gives up her pool for my patch of weeds.
On my day off today I’ve been deweeding. But now I am de-working by sitting very still.
Most of the time I’d be cleaning the garden and getting peas in by now. But it’s 30 degrees out, we got 4 more inches of snow this weekend, and this stuff isn’t going anywhere for a bit.
Anybody got a nice farm we can live at somewhere warm? I’ll till for room and board.
I’m an old, old thing and so is this spreadsheet! It’s from a post I did a few years ago and is still one of the number one ways people find this silly garden blog.
I like to talk to people about gardens. When I’m talking to people who want to have a vegetable garden, but haven’t started one, I very often hear them say that they just don’t know when to plant things. I also hear people who are somewhat seasoned gardeners who struggle. This spreadsheet will tell you when to start your seeds, when to plant outdoors and when to plant again.
There are lots of planning calendars out there. This one isn’t perfect, but it allows you to customize it off of your own last frost dates. If you’re not sure when your last/first frost dates are, use this… it can help.
I named my blog “Compostings” mostly for the play on the word posting relating to blogging. Blog post.
It’s pretty lame, but this was back in the early days of the internet and I hadn’t seen or lived enough to know that I should have called it “Shit My Veg Says” or “Amazon.Compost”. Those would have been awesome names.
With a name like “Compostings” most people who find me really just have questions about… composting. It wasn’t really my intent to imply a focus on composting only. I do compost, but really I wanted to blog about vegetable gardening in general.
But too bad! If people have questions about composting, I’ll answer it. After the 200th question about it on my Facebook page I decided to link to an old blog post that I had surely written on the basics.
I had surely not written any such thing, however.
So here it is! My basic guide to composting!
Composting Components (Compostingnents)
Compost is rich in nitrogen and carbon. You’re goal is to create a good ratio of the two in the ingredients you add. It’s not hard. Don’t sweat it too much. No need to measure or weigh. Just wing it. Nature does.
You’ll hear people talk about “greens” and “browns”. Greens are nitrogen sources. Browns are carbon sources.
Good Green (Nitrogen) sources: Grass clippings, vegetable scraps (uncooked, no oil), plant matter, cow/horse/chicken/rabbit manure, coffee grounds
Good Brown (Carbon) sources: Dead leaves, cardboard, newspaper, coffee grounds
The Magic Composting Ratio
This is it people. The simple truth. You want more carbon than nitrogen. 25 to 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Too much nitrogen and you’ll have a slimy, stinky pile. Too much carbon and the composting process will take too long.
My excellent New England environment provides me with everything I need. Lots of dead leaves in the Fall. Lots of grass clippings via my lawn mower. WIth just those two components, I can make compost that is pretty darn good.
Small Bits And Pieces
Stuff breaks down faster when it’s smallified. Chop it up. Mulch it. Tear it. Twist it. Snap it into bits. I like my mulching mower with it’s bag for this duty, but I do also have a stand up mulcher for big jobs. Your leaves and other browns in particular really need to be mulched.
Water
Compost likes moisture, but not too much. Keep it moist, but not soaked. And if it dries out, it will still compost eventually. Most of the time I just let the rain take care of it.
Turning And Tumbling
Composting, the way we’re talking about, is aerobic. The bacteria and other sciencey stuff need oxygen to do their thing. As the composting process happens, heat is given off. It’s good! The center will get hot. Turning the compost pile or tumbler once a week or so moves the air around, mixes the ingredients and moves new stuff to the center to get heated. Don’t go crazy. Turn it a bit and call it a day.
Weird Stuff To Compost
Can I compost egg shells? Can I use oyster shells in my compost? Can I compost coffee grounds? Can I use my sister?
Yes to all of this, but don’t try and compost your sister.
I get a lot of “can I compost” questions. In general, if it is uncooked, not meat (or from a meat eater), if it is not oily you can compost it. You’ll find some folks who do compost dead birds and things, but I stay away from it as it takes high heat in the compost to really break that stuff down.
Don’t use dog poop. Don’t use cat poop. Don’t use your poop (unless you have a special composter). Meat eaters have nasty poop.
Do use shells. Do use seaweed. Go for it.
I got a question about using old tomato soup from a can. I didn’t have a good answer, but my instinct says hell no. It’s got other junk in it.
Don’t put yucky fertilized grass in it. Don’t put chemicals in it. Pee on it if you want. Seriously. It’s okay.
How To Make Compost Easily
Mix brown carbon sources (like dead leaves and cardboard) with green nitrogen sources (like grass clippings and weed-free garden waste) in a ratio of about 25-30 to 1. You want more brown than green.
Add shells or other weird things if you want so long as it’s not meat, oily or poison.
Use manure from grass eaters like cows, horses and chickens. Great source of nitrogen and a bit of carbon.
Mulch or shred things to let them break down faster.
Pile it all up, add to the pile as you like.
Keep the pile moist but not soaked.
Turn it once a week or so to keep the oxygen moving and to move parts to the center for heating.
It’s done when it’s cool or when it looks like compost to you! It will be full of worms when it’s good to go.
Compost things like manure longer or the high nitrogen will burn your crops.
That’s it. Happy composting from Compostings!
Here are some links to some very good sites with more info:
Frost 3 nights ago. 80 today. Yikes. Connecticut weather is nuts. Never thought I would see a last frost date this far into May.
So there is a good reason I have held off on tomato planting. I am only doing a few Roma plants this year anyway, but there is no benefit to planting tomatoes (or peppers) too early.
This weekend will be the right time. I will also getting corn planted and all the pepper transplants in. For now, lots of greens, beans coming up, peas climbing, romaine ready, carrots sprouting.
Peas are among my favorite things to grow. They go in early, they have gorgeous flowers, they are delicious.
And they feed the soil! Peas and beans are nitrogen fixers and will pump your soil full of great stuff that your other plants need.
The thing is, it actually takes friendly rhizobium bacteria to make it happen. Pull some happy pea plants up and you’ll see white nodules on the roots. That’s the magic!
Hitting your peas with some inoculant will help them get a good start. The inoculant is safe bacteria tuned to your peas. Beans too.
When I am getting ready to plant my peas, I create a little inoculant slurry. It’s easy. Buy some pea inoculant, put some in a bowl, add your peas and some water. Let it soak in the thickish slurry. Done.
In some cold seasons, like this one in Connecticut, I will soak in the slurry and then lay the peas on a damp towel to sprout them before planting.
The weather is all goofy. Winter doesn’t want to leave, but my gardening calendar says it’s time to put peas in. And putting peas in is my favorite thing about the garden. It’s exciting! It’s the real start of gardening season and fills the lull until mid April when other stuff goes in.
But it’s still very cold here in Connecticut. We had a big snow storm a week or so ago that left us with well over a foot of new snow and it hasn’t all gone yet.
Snow on the garden on St. Patrick’s Day.
I’m going to hold off for a week or so and see what the weather does before I go putting my peas in.
In general, I follow this excel sheet for planning when I put stuff in. I’ve posted it before, but go ahead and download it from my google docs if you want. It’s crude, but you can change the frost date.