FINALLY!

We've been building this compost bin in fits and starts since June, actually, it was levelled by an excavator in April. Meanwhile we've been carting stuff over and collecting in many other places.
Today we assembled it all and layered it into all the bins according to state of decay, using a huge pile of grass clippings as the main ingredient, between kitchen scraps, ashes, leaves, wood chips and all the frostbitten tomatoes.
We'd also saved all the food scraps and coffee grounds (lots!) from my small factory kitchen, so we had several garbage cans of lovely crud for our "pastries".

The bins are full, but we only used half the grass clippings, none of the weed pile and only a small part of the leaf piles that have almost turned to soil already, under plastic.
I expect this will settle and sink down so we can fit more in during the winter. We're placing bets on which bins will produce the best quality stuff. Everyone has a different favorite.
What a fun and satisfying day!

Pretty cool! You'll have great compost. You can never have enough.

oooh, I'm jealous. I don't really have much to put into a compost bin. no big trees, so no leaves, we have a service for the lawn, it's pretty slim pickin's here. enjoy your 'black gold'.

gram

Oh wow that looks great! Just think of all that great black stuff you will produce. I started my own composting bin but I won't get anywhere near what you are going to get. I bought mine at Home Depot so it is only like a cube LOL. Good for you!!! Let us know how it works for you!

Thanks! I've never really done this before. Just piles of stuff here and there. I've been buying wood chip mulch from a local saw mill, nice dark stuff and pretty cheap.
Once i got several truck loads of composted leaves from a local landfill. It made good soil, eventually, but we spent weeks removing junk, plastic toys and the occasional screen door from it!
I've always wanted to do this. The rather palatial contraption just turned out that way. DD gave me the five gargoyle heads last fall, since when they just sat around on the back porch. When the bins were built we were exactly five half-blocks short! Come spring I want to make hands and feet for them.

Gram, I was most impressed with the garbage can outside the factory door. I had just put one can of old wood chips (free) next to an empty can, where we dumped our banana peels, moldy bread and coffee grounds, filters and all, tossing in some wood chips to keep the flies off each time. That was ALL we did. After three months it was beautiful!
I swear anyone could do this, given a back corner somewhere.
I think you can still get free coffee grounds from Starbucks.

Here's a closeup of a bin.

noknok,
Those are great bins, love the heads. I saw the cat in the first picture and was worried it might be used as a giant litter box in which case you can't use the compost. Can you cover the bins with chicken wire?

Good luck with your compost. I get a funny feeling you may have a zillion tomato plants next year. :-) A friend put all of her tomatoes in a compost pile and that's exactly what she ended up with - a zillion tomato plants. We have six compost bins but don't use tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, melons or eggplant - not leaves or seeds. We do add the banana skins, melon rinds, coffee grounds, egg shells, grass clippings as well as chipped items like leaves, stalks, twigs, branches, pine needles, ashes. There's such a positive feeling about using your own compost: we love it and rely on it.

Three of the bins are on the left in this shot, taken for the asters.

noknok - If your cat is like my Holly, he is looking for mice. I get mice living in and around my compost pile and Holly loves to sit out by it and wait and wait and then snatch! She just offs them (the mice) and goes back for more as mice don't come in cans with kitties on the label so it is obvious they are not edible! On Labor Day she had a personal best of 5 mice.

Just curious can you add old bread to the compost pile....I tend to get lots of bread that goes stale or bread crusts cause the kids won't eat them. I have heard somewhere you shouldn't put bread in the composter??? If I can I would do it!!! Can someone give me permission please! LOL

Sempervirens and Yankeecat, that is my DOG, Pinoche! Egads, would he ever be p***d! He can't stand cats.
The resident cat vastly prefers all my mulched beds. Never noticed any adverse effects, except torn newspaper.
Yankee, can i borrow your cat? My vole/rabbit population is way out of control!

Pirl, hehe, yes. Part of the compost was donated by our local Hutterians. Everywhere I used it, 2-3 pumpkins sprouted. I've been weeding pumpkins and squash all summer. Why not the leaves? Do they sprout too?
Worst case, I'll use that bin only for the bottom of planting holes.
Where is Southold?

Candyinpok, I've seen your posts elsewhere. That forum gets about a post a week at best! I'm looking for local garden buddies if you're interested. I'm an absolute geek. lot's of things to kick around with another geek. I'm aiming for Rosseau/Dr.Seuss cottage garden with tropical overtones.

Here's my DOG

oops, my deepest apologies Pinoche.
A Rousseau/ Dr. Seuss cottage garden with tropical overtones sounds inspired. I can see it now, some of Pearl Fryar's tall wild topiaries towering over a vivid visual cacophony of color and shape.

Dawn, sorry, I forgot. Yes, old bread is fine! If you wet it it'll break down faster.

Sempervirens, whose topiaries? Sounds good. I did plant a weeping norway spruce, no telling what it may end up looking like, but right now it looks like a 10' troll heading for my concrete couch (see hypertufa/concrete forum).

This message was edited Nov 2, 2006 2:11 PM

noknok -opps! note to self: get new glasses -- soon. Where is Ulster Park? - maybe Holly could make a road trip...

Dawn, I use old bread all the time too.
Dave

"If your cat is like my Holly, he is looking for mice. I get mice living in and around my compost pile and Holly loves to sit out by it and wait and wait and then snatch! She just offs them (the mice) and goes back for more as mice don't come in cans with kitties on the label so it is obvious they are not edible!"

AYankeecat--you're lucky that's all your cat does. My cats like to leave their kills in my shoes and drop them on my lap when I'm typing on the computer. The other day, my black and white cat walked into the computer room with a decapitated shrew she dropped on my lap then did her litle huggie cat thing and looked to me for approval. I thanked her then disposed of the dead carcus.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2006 11:44 PM

Pirl, do you turn that over a lot? Or do those slats come out so you can get it out the bottom?
I'm thinking of the zillion tomatoes and probably more pumpkins. If they sprout in the bins I suppose I'll just turn them under.
Your amazingly prolific asters look like they got some! Agree about the feelgood factor!

Sempervirens, I googled Pearl Fryar's topiaries, that's wild! I've seen pictures in some of my books, but never the whole thing, thanks! That deserves a link
http://www.fryarstopiaries.com/subtemp.asp?cat=1&id=7
I'm a little timid about the clipping, myself, I have two spiral Junipers (half price at HD), they lack a certain... definition.

Pinoche is mollified. He considers rodents his rightful prey, he gets one now and then (lapdog of the Serengeti) but they're usually too fast for him. So are the cats, Holly can safely visit.

Oh, more visitors!
I remember getting into a pair of old cowboy boots one morning..something in the toe..I'm fully in though..oh NO. Shook out a very dazed mouse which wobbled out onto the middle of the floor and begged to be finished off.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2006 11:58 PM

noknok,
You're quick, I was just getting ready to supply more information about Pearl Fryar and you already posted a link. I have a fabulous book called "Gardens of Obsession Eccentric and Extravagant Vision" by Gordon Taylor and Guy Cooper, paperback edition Seven Dials, Cassell & Co. published 2000, distributed in USA by Sterling Publishing. After viewing your couch on the hypertufa/ concrete forum I believe you definitely belong in an updated edition. Love the couch, fun forum, you guys are wild in the best of ways. I bookmarked that thread.

This message was edited Nov 3, 2006 5:55 AM

OK sempervirens - stop teasing and post a link for all of us to noknok's couch.

jjpm74 - I didn't know that Holly could mouse. She has always been a house cat but recently I've been letting her and the evil cat, Wallingford, go outside, in the back yard, in nice weather. She blew me away when she turned up at the back door with a neatly dispatched mouse (actually a small Norway rat, I'm told) in her mouth. She dropped it and came in for a drink and a power nap and went back out and did it again and again until there were five dead mice. The evil cat? He found one of her kills on the patio the other day and tried to lie to me that he had killed it. Yeah sure - real hunters don't lick their prey - which is what he did to try and convince me.

Sempervirens, I LOVE that book, I've had it for years. So much that I bought three others authored by the same pair, which I'm now lookng to get rid of ;o)
There aren't that many garden books I'm crazy about, on my top five list are Little and Lewis, Tom Hobbs (both) and "The Abundant Garden" (especially Linda Cochran's garden). More details if that sounds appetizing. All PNW, Zone 7-8, alack! And Christopher Lloyd, of course, more zone 8!
If you have any recommendations, Im about to get me a big fat reading chair for the winter!

I enjoy some of the challenges of dealing with our zone 5-6, though. I've been eying the skunk cabbage for some time, thinking of a good spot.
Happy you like my couch. I've closed shop on concrete for the year, I'll finish it this spring.

I am now baiting my voles. The tenant's cat doesn't eat them, though he kills a few, I think they taste bad. I need a sure-fire hunter, our red tail hawks moved out of town.

Here's the couch

The couch is amazing. Thanks for posting the picture. I hope you have made sure the vole bait is safe from Pinoche.

Noknok, That is great!
Best gardening book I read lately is The Well Tended Perennial Garden. Very practical. Very big on fearlessly cutting back most plants.

I love the couch. That is really creative!

Thanks!
Pinoche can't easily get to the bait and isn't interested, I watch him.
Dave, yes, Tracie di Sabado-something. The fearless slasher! I have it and have used it on occasion for reference. Design and writing wise, I find her a bit on the dull side.
Lloyd is such a good read, though one needs to take the plant encyclopedia to bed or wherever, gets cumbersome ;o)
I keep joking that I need a wheeled lectern for my A-Z, but I'm serious!
I also like Lauren Springer though that's another climate again. I don't know of a really good writer for our zones, something sparkly and maybe a bit mad....Cassandra Danz aka Mrs Greenthumbs is kinda fun and really local to me. Anyone else?

I have far too many garden books. I'm about to compile a list for trading the ones I'm done with. Got some gorgeous Iris in trade last year.
Is there a general trade list (not just plants for plants or seeds for seeds) on DG?

nonok,
Tell me more about your top five books.
I have 3 catagories of books I use regularly 1. Reference/ practical -most of my interests here are in native plants
2. Literary- if you like Cassandra Danz have you read Beverly Nichols? Totally
Outrageous-British 1950's, 60's ish . I read Merry Hall but many
more reprinted by Timber Press.
Henry Mitchell-I don't know if you can find a better garden writer.
I find myself wanting to talk to him as I read.
One Man's Garden
On Gardening
The Essential Earthman
Sara Stein-Noahs Garden
Beth Chatto-Garden Notebook, British, friend and contemporary of
Christopher Lloyd
Anne Raver- Deep in the Green
Jennifer Heath- The Echoing Green
Eleanor Perenyi- Green Thoughts
Lee Reich- A Northeast Gardener's Year
Dominique Browning- Paths of Desire
Elizabeth Sheldon- Time and the Gardener
Robert Dash- Notes from Madoo
3. Picture Books
Vivian Rusell- Edith Wharton's Italian Gardens. If you loved
Gardens of Obssesion you'll be amazed by this.

noknok, I love your gargoyles. Your couch is phenomenal - inspirational!

I dropped in over here as I'm originally from Broome/Tioga Co. and will be heading that way to visit next month. I'm glad I did - more ideas. TY!

Shame on me - I never checked "watch this thread"!

Yes for the bread! Of course, if it's just stale you could stash it in the freezer and put all the ends a blender or food processor when you want to make a meatloaf or meatballs. I always do it.

Jack, my DH, is the official turner of the compost - not me. He does turn it on a regular basis.

The asters don't get any food at all and no compost but they are living on overturned sod from when we made the vegetable garden. It was the only way to keep them from spreading.

As for books - all of Pamela Harper's because I love her idea of color harmony.

Southold is at the eastern end of Long Island, the North Fork, as opposed to the Hampton crowd. It's not the end of the world but you can see it from here.

Sempervirens, I'm going on Amazon right after this, thanks! I copied your list.
I didn't know Robert Dash did a book on his notes. Madoo intrigues me. I'd go, but Long Island IS really LONG! It's a 4-hour drive from me. Have you been?
The only ones from your read list I've actually read are Lee Reich (20 minutes away) and Elizabeth Sheldon, 'simpatica' and homey. And unpretentious.
Some of the others I've come across, but not read.
I feel the same about Lloyd as you do about Mitchell.
As you can see, I'm equally into hardscape and plants. Little and Lewis
have taken that to where I want to go In my own way and zone. It's my favorite and also good reading (I'm a picture junkie)
Thomas Hobbs, the gay decorator genius gene brought to bear on gardening. The basic tenet is: Why just 'beautiful' if you can do 'devastating'?
"Shocking Beauty" and "The Jewelbox Garden" both explore this.
"The Abundant Garden", Barbara Denk etc.
is a tour of amazing gardens near Seattle, notably Linda Cochran's.
All of these are read, drool, and information-worthy to an extent, heavy on the 'drool/inspiration' component. I orient visually, then read up on specific plants.
"Five", would be Lloyd, maybe "Meadows", or "Succession planting". And several others.

My fat chair has not arrived. I have a knack for uncomfortable seating, I'm trying to remedy that. Can't wait to curl up with some of your recommendations!

Pirl, have you been to Madoo?


This message was edited Nov 4, 2006 10:32 AM

This message was edited Nov 5, 2006 9:48 AM

Have either of you read anything from Jerry Baker? I've found his garden tonics to be most helpful in pest control and soil amending.

I really enjoyed Henry Mitchell too. Now I have some new suggestions to try. Personally, I find the garden design and color books boring. I feel I'm more into planting than designing. Mitchell was great because he has a sense of humor and you can feel his love of gardening.
Given my lack of interest in design, what would people recommend beyond the basic plant encyclopedias?

Sorry Dave, I'm a picture junkie just like noknok! Have you tried Ralph Snodsmith's Tri State Gardening Guide?

Love Henry Mitchell and Cassandra Diaz!

noknok's "devastating" comment makes me want to go to the library right now but at the last cottage sale (where they sell books not taken out in "a while") netted me one from 1926.

I can't tell you how excited I am now that a few of you "gave me permission" to use old bread yay!! I am in heaven now!!!! Okay you rotting pile of life I am now shoving in some old bread crusts LOL

Ok, i got three Beverley Nichols, one Henry Mitchell, one Anne Raver and the Robert Dash. Come winter, I'm ready!

Dave, you design every time you plant. If you're happy with the way it all looks, then it's good design. If you feel it could use some improvement, there's a great book called "Design in the plant collector's garden" by Roger Turner. For gardeners who DON'T care for design. It's a keeper. He has a sense of humour too.

Pirl, I had dinner with Thomas Hobbs' "Shocking Beauty" again. Yes. Check it out.

My links didn't work, I hope I deleted them.

This message was edited Nov 4, 2006 11:30 PM

noknok - I'm ready, too!

I don't have a comfy chair - but I have a coffee table full of winter reading!

Wow! The books are great but the amount of seeds is absolutely amazing!

Pirl, where's the lamp? That's my other innovation, i've been on medieval daylight time too long. What is the thing under the carousel? Nice corner!

YankeeCat, the mushrooms can save the world too? I'm still relying on termites passing gas. Your rug is amazing, love it! Now get yourself a comfortable chair already!
Are the seeds for winter sowing? Have you read "Gaia's garden"? That's another one I'm keeping.

Last night, letting the Dogboy out, I thought we had snow! But it was the moon, painting everything white.

noknok,

just saw my name in your post. I'd love to share NY gardening advice, experiences, etc. as I'm realatively new to serious gardening. I'm having trouble giving it up for the winter. Saw my first Juncos in the back yard which is, in my view, a harbinger of winter. Depressing. I'm going to try inside seed starting, winter sowing and propagation by cutting this winter to feed my new interests. I'm trying to make myself organize all the data I've collected about the plants I have and the ones I want, as well as research other ideas. Cottage gardening is showing up in the treads and I need a definition as I'm unsure what it really means. My gardens are pretty eclectic, if not haphazard at the moment, but I'm refining them slowly. I visit the lists every day although I don't post as often. I learn a lot just by watching and reading.

Candy, I don't know the actual definition, but cottage gardenining seems to have a greater diversity of plants grown closer together and usually contain tall plants. They are NOT the symmetrically balanced formal gardens.
Dave

Dave,

That sounds like what I have. Definitely not formal, symmetrical or balanced.