Come Still a Spell - March 4th

Hey Ya'll what a week - glad to have everything back to normal at last on my work side now to get the garden ready for Spring planting here in a few days! So what do you have on your plate form the next few weeks ? ? ?

My mind is on starting to compost!!! My DH has been trying to talk me out of a composter, and my friend's Mother doesn't want her to have one. So.....we decided that you can't refuse a "gift" and so we bought each other a composter for our birthdays!!!! LOL! Is that not imaginative!
We got the Urban Compost Tumbler from http://Composters.com but they haven't arrived yet. But I am already planning. I have mowed and mulched a lot of my leaves, but areas where they blew into beds and corners of the yard can be cleaned out, then there is my neighbor. I have two of the large carts that are for yard trimmings to be set out and picked up by the City. So I may load one of them up with her leaves before she mows or rakes them this weekend. Then I will have a lot of greens when the Paper Whites quit blooming, and when I trim my Lirope.
I am excited already but I know it will take time to get to the point I can use it.

Sheila, don't forget your kitchen waste, that is a wonderful addition to your compost.
We have a birdseed bucket with a cover in the garage, and we put two crumpled sheets of newespaper on the bottom to soak up juices and make it easier to clean.
Then we put our coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable trimmings, egg shells, anything vegetable, no meats or fats.
At the end of the week, we dump it in compost pile and cover it with leaves, or some other trimmings from the garden.
It works great, and the bucket is easy to rinse off, be sure to give that water to your plants it has a lot of nutrients.
Be sure your bucket is covered at all times to keep flies and insects out.
Josephine.

I have already started saving potato and cucumber peelings etc. I even brought my apple and orange peelings home from work. I was wondering though, would they work the same if I put them in the freezer until I got my composter in place?

Absolutely, you can freeze your peelings. Good girl Sheila!
We also take our lunch to work and bring home the fruit peels and coffee grounds.
It is amazing how much good composting material people thow away.

Compost - failed last year at it... bad! So this summer I will be starting all over again, I am digging holes here and there and "planting" our veggie stuff, and lots of coffee...

Sheila, that is the cutest thing! I could see that in my courtyard.... and Maggie I would not even need to paint it purple! lol
Sylvia

While I did continue to compost last summer, I wasn't real consistant about wetting it down, and also tumbling my ComposTumbler. Oh yeah, my back was way out of commission most of last year, I don't feel guilty anymore. :-)

I plan on trying to get my backyard tidied up. I have a corner where I hope to eventually build a small shed, but that means I need to move my compost piles (cylinders of wire fencing) and just generally re-organize that area. There is also a large area at the back of the yard that hasn't had anything done to it other than the three trees I planted there. I want to clean it up, and I think I've finally decided not to try and plant it out. That would involve all kinds of soil being brought in (no money for that), plus it will be a difficult to grow things in there, as the area is mostly shade now and will only get more shady as the tress grow. I'm going to leave it like a forest floor, with leaves and pine straw. Then I can place containers wherever I want.

Sylvia, you still need something purple in your courtyard, lol!

Thanks Josephine! That is good to know, it will be easier to save stuff for the next week or so that way.
Sylvia, I thougth it would be easier for me to tumble than to fork it. If I get into it then I may do some bins like Josephine and Frank have. But with my DH being against it, I figured I should start small and let it grow on him. LOL!

Shelia, Josephine and Frank got it going on back there with the compost bin, I almost saw smoke coming out of it. Frank is a special breed, your DH would probaly go into caniptions if he had to help you turn all that! I think you and the girlfriend did the smart thing. I dont think I have enough table scrapes, then again I do throw out a lot of stuff. I tried saving scraps once and the cleaning lady threw it out, said it was full of mold....go figure.I think it will be cool to do though ... I would like to start with something smaller.
Sylvia

Very good strategy Sheila. I am sure it will grow on him.

Mary, that is a good idea leaving some of your area natural, it will be less work and you can do your composting there.
How is your plant list coming along?

Hey all I just hit it big - 37 bags of leaves!!! I had been dying for mulch (due to my compost... ummm not making compost) but no cash for mulch and no way to really tell if the mulch I would be getting had the problem trees from LA.... sure thing on the way home this nice wooded home is going up for sale so what did they do but clean the forest floor like yard. So I have leaves, half gone leaves, and Some of the best black cumb compost I could ask for!!!! I am really really excited!!

Cangratulations Mitch! have a mulching ball.

Thanks!!

ROFLOL!! Funny how easy it is to please a gardner! LOL!

no one else in the world would want trash bags full of leaves.... you should have seen the ladys face at the door when I asked -"You want my what? . . . I guess you can take them... you want them for what again..." took three trips with ropes all over the trunk to hold the 8 bags back there, 6 in back seat and 2 in ft for the big trip. . . glad it was only a blick I could not see a thing!

I had about 9 large bags one year and I was putting things out on Freecycle and put those on there as "leaves for compost". They were taken too!

I stalk freecycle for plants, leaves, pots.... etc...

LOL ... Mitch I would have loved to have heard that conversation when the lady was trying to figure out what you were doing. lol Next year she will probaly try to sell those leaves. There are a lot of bags around here too. matter of fact I put out a huge bag or rather the yard man put out a huge bag on the streets. I still have a lot to be cleaned up.
Whats Freecycle?
Sylvia

The first sweet pea bloom here--kinda cloudy weather--see what good mulch will produce. Love those leaves!

Then I forgot the picture.....lol

Lovely ... really a pretty color....wonder why I never tried to grow those? :)))))
Sylvia

I have some just up - I hope they grow up to look like that.

It never fails to amaze me how just a few miles can make such a difference in blooming times, but this time it's backwards from usual. Dmj (Debbie?), you guys have had azaleas blooming for a while now I think, but mine are just now starting to bud. On the other hand, my sweet peas have been in bloom for about three weeks now. Go figure.

Sylvia, you really do need to try these next year. They are dead easy, and soooo rewarding. Not only are they knock-outs (especially appreciated after the dreary winter), but they smell so wonderful! Mitch, I know you'll enjoy yours!

Here are mine earlier today, they even are starting to grow a few pods.

Close up of a bud starting to bloom.

~maggiemoo~ Your sweetpeas are beautiful. I would love to try some for next year.
When is the best time to sow the seeds in our area? (I'm in the same zone as you)

Angela

Ohhhh now I cannot wait for Spring, I just spent all weekend trying to build a rabbit fence to keep them out of my garden... arg... they ate most of what I had out there planted already - so the buggers must be starving! Anyway my plums are in bloom, and the corn is up ready to join the ranks with its brothers and sisters already growing. The garden is really going to look good this year if I can keep everything growing and not being the rabbits dinner....

Check out the new thread for this week!!

Maggie those are absolutely gorgeous!
Sylvia

Angela, to be honest, I don't know when to plant seeds for these. I buy the 4" pots from my favorite nursey as soon as they get them (late fall.) They really need to be in the ground over winter, as they love cool weather. I'm thinking about letting the seed pods stay, and harvesting them to try my hand at them this coming fall. If I get some, I'll be happy to share.

Sylvia, If you have a sunny spot in Winter, you really ought to try these!

Thanks maggie. I will do some checking and see when the best time is to plant the seeds
and also keep my eye open this fall for some in pots. I didn't see any when I bought my snap dragons, pansies and other cool weather plants.

Angela

It's sure worth it to look for them. Arbor Gate in Tomball has them every fall, same time they have the sanp dragons, pansies, poppies, etc.

I planted mine Christmas week.

Was that the seeds or the plants Mitch that you planted Christmas week?

Angela

Maggie Thank you ...I would love to try some, I think they are gorgeous. I would have to buy another trellis too...for my Crossvine too.When does the Crossvine start emerging from the ground Maggie? I need to know when to start looking for it.....and praying .....

I am planting some hyacinth beans this year a DG buddy sent me from Oklahoma. Last couple years I planted Morning Glories, Star of Yelta ... next year Sweet Peas?/. :)

Sylvia, keep in mind that the sweet peas are only for the cool season, then they'll die back in the heat. But they are truly worth it! The crossvine is actually an evergreen, it should be "emerged" all year long. Did yours die back? If so, I'm not sure about when it might come back, probably just about any time. If you need another plant, I can pot one or two up for you for the RU.

I'm trying some hyacinth bean vines this year, too. Got some seeds - I think from Amelia2 - and they are coming up in peat pots right now. I'm going to be planting more than one type of vine on each of my trellises, maybe that way they will fill out better.

Seeds - I planted the seeds.

So Maggie I should start the Hyacinth beans in pots? ok I will do that tommorrow.
I'm going to be planting more than one type of vine on each of my trellises, maybe that way they will fill out better.
...yeah me too, I've got Clemitis planted everywhere under the fence, I see a few emerging ... but I am really looking for that Nairobi to come up.
And yes please pot me up another Crossvine just in case. :) and I will treat you to breakfast. :)
Hey Mitch, I think I will bump up the thread from the Arlington RU. I tried to plant everything I got and its so much coming up out there, I dont have any idea what it is. I know I got a lot of Salvias. I am going to take pictures when I get back from Rome, so Josephine can identify that plant she gave me. I really dont want to lose that. also Mitch would you believe my little Quince tree has bloomed again? I am going to put that baby in the ground. lol
Sylvia