Adding MOre Compost in the Garden

The previous tenant agreed to have the flower bed put on her property. I asked the new tenant if she could wait until the loavatera flowered, since she might want them if she saw them. No, they all had to be yanked out ASAP and the ugly bare clay has been there since. And dribbles m ud onto the sidewalk when it rains. Big imporvement.

She has since mentioned that she won't even get around to planting anything this year.

They would have shieled my line of sight to that whole front yard of hers - now all bare and ugly, since she also tore out the azealea just as it went into bloom.

Yes it's her yard. Or rather, all the property belongs to park management. We only rent the spaces.

I wonder what positive pleasure it gave her to move (kill) pewrennials about the flower, and snhapdragons in bloom? All I know is that her entire outdoor plan so far has been to kill things, including trees.

Maybe the same perverse pleasure as those who hack websites. A power trip.

Good point. Both hackers and the more obnoxious variety of Internet trolls - only happy when making as many people as possible UNhappy. "We're not happy until you're unhappy."

A friend used to call them "spoilers".

Sorry to invade a thread, but I live next to a sultan of mediocraty, that thinks since we live in the country, we can dump food scraps. They let their dogs invade my compost, and intemidate my chickens.A visiting dog killed my roster this past week.I have tried to reason with both her, and her (Virgin) son. He bost of that title, and he is around 44yrs. He once ask me if I had some type pin, that he could use to put a pet racoon in.I was surprised at that, and ask if he had found a baby, and he told me there is one hanging around the foof scraps, and it would almost let him pet it.
I shot it, when it came over on my side, and it had rabies. Yes, we are dealing with idiots.
She had called the drug unit, because I was growing hibicus texas star. It can look like (Weed)
I conclude that where you live, you will find cultural differences. Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike. Welcome to the thread! I think it has been drifting, anyway, for about a week. I think I was guilty of drifting away from compost.

(But I always figure that if anyone has anything thyey still want to say on the original topic of a thread, they can say it and then the thread is back on topic.)

So they keep dogs, yet didn't worry about strange-acting raccoons? Geniuses are all around us. If she HAD patted her "pet" rabid raccoon, and it had bitten her, I wonder if people would have been able to tell she had rabies from changes in her behavior? Maybe it would have made her a nicer person!

Drifting back on topic , I do worry about putting any meat into my compost heap, but have never yet seen it disturbed by animals. We only seem to have cats and squirrels, no dogs except on leashes. At most I add tiny amounts, chopped fine, and buried deeply, when something goes bad.

(I'm in a pretty urban setting on a major road between 2-3 highways: we have more used car lots than nature near us.)

>> She had called the drug unit, because I was growing hibicus texas star. It can look like (Weed)

Is there any Nobel prize for "Stupid"? Or just "likes to make trouble"? I wonder if the leaves are toxic?

You haven given me much to ponder, Rick Corey, I'll have to get back with you on that one.
BTW if I made it sound like I put meat sraps, in compost, I don't, but have lots of egg, that the varmets look for.
I have done many thinge to hide the shells, etc, to include micro wayve the shells, but still varments dig.Some time I think they may be after my worms. Mike

I didn't think about eggs, but then I hardly ever buy any. (Decades ago, fried egg sandwiches and cheese omelets were almost the only things I knew how to cook. I guess I got tired of people telling me they would give me heart attacks.

>> Some time I think they may be after my worms.

I recently spread my small "finished" compost heap over the beds. There were very few worms, maybe I let it simmer too long. Then I saw a bird pecking where I had just spread compost, grab a worm and fly away - I almost wanted to snarl at it to leave my worms alone! But who can snarl at birds?

Over the years I have been composting, I find that when you work with nature, birds,worms, etc., you have a better acting compost pile. My greatest enimy in compost is areas of dry compost.I find that here is where turning is necessary.I have tried many solutions to making compost, and the best is let the worms do the work.I have also found that you can dry out your worm workers.Today I keep a periotic check on material that is being missed, and will do some pitch fork work. When I gather my kitchen scraps, I always try to dig it in where it is needed most.
Over the years I have found that it is real easy to leave your compost in the pile too long, and it becomes dead, for lack of better discription. I always like to work my compost in while it is "working", and the area that recieves it becomes working with it.It will be so much easier to turn the next spring. Mike

>> Over the years I have found that it is real easy to leave your compost in the pile too long, and it becomes dead, for lack of better discription.

I think you're right. The best parts have already been eaten, and some of the value is washed away by rain. That may be4 why I had so few worms: they finished their work months ago, put down their tools, washed their hands, and went off to eat something fresher.

>> My greatest enimy in compost is areas of dry compost.I find that here is where turning is necessary.

I agree with that also. My pile is so small that a lot olf it is near the surface, and the exterior surface is what dries out first for me. My fork work has to turn the pile "inside out". When I finally spread my working heap, the first thing I did was raked the dry, unfinished parts off the surface and moved them to the second pile.

(I do0n;t know what it was, but SOME hollow plant stem resisted breakdown for moinths after the rest was finsihed. I should have just screened those out months ago, and spread the rest while it was younger.

Once I leaned some 8"x16" x 3/4" concrete paving stones around the edge of my pile, to keep the surface more moist. Maybe that helped a little. Too bad that "under a pine tree" is about the only place I had to put that pile. The tree keeps it drier than it would be otherwise.