BrownThumb's Blog

Going Compost-al
Apr 7, 2008 | 6:17 PM PST
Tags: compost , Compost pile , garden tools/plants/seeds , knucklehead

Thanks to some help from the forums I am running two compost beds. I feel like I am well on my way to healthy dirt - Hopefully eating 30 bags of leaves per year instead of bagging and sending them to the landfill.

I can tell it is composting as I try to turn it with all the wrong tools. I have a sharpshooter shovel, a traditional shovel, and a right angle pitchfork. The sharpshooter is made for trenching. It turns out to be quite handy for digging a deep, narrow hole to dump more wets/greens down lower so that they don't smell. The right angle fork is semi-handy for rolling stuff around. But today I got a novel idea while in a Big Lots surplus/cheap-crap store. I was looking for a real pitchfork on the cheap. Alas, they had none.

Instead, I bought a $9 hand tiller which looks like a 4 ft tall T-handle (about 16 inches across the "T") with 5 spikes on the end in a semi-square pattern (picture the "5" side on a single dice (die?)). I jab that sucker as low as I can get and start twisting back and forth while applying pressure to sink it to the bottom. It rolls in oxygen and makes for a handy turn-in-place tool if you let it roll up 30 degrees - or even to the top of the pile as you keep twisting. This rolls more lateral material around instead of a straight vertical chute.

Disclaimer: This is not as easy as falling off a ladder. I've apparently got some masochistic tendencies as I opt for hand tools many times and I do not shy away from elbow grease. I'm one part stubborn, one part cheap, and 2 parts lazy desk marshmallow. I determined that extra sweat will probably be the only thing between me and a Cheetoh-lined early grave. At least that is how I enable my inner cheapskate. We're codependent in the same body.

I will post pictures at some point of the tool in action.

Trowel on,

BrownThumb

Meet the BrownThumb
Mar 23, 2008 | 7:42 PM PST
Tags: compost , container gardens , Small space container gardens , pomegranate

Great to find this place. I lurked & learned as I was starting to compost this week. I'm not so much of a joiner/blogger/online denizen but I have to say this is the best online set of gardening information and community that I have run across in my last 3 yrs of experimenting and beginning to learn the craft.

You guys rock! I look forward to continuing the journey with such a skilled, interested, and interesting crowd.  I tend to get divided interests due to job and family (3 kids) - but I have maintained some sort of growing endeavour for the last few years.

I have far more dead plants to my credit than living success stories - Hence, the "brown thumb" moniker.

Claim to fame:  I once killed an artificial ficus. Hard? Yes, but I have a deep bag of tricks.  Beware aggressive dusting. Currently, I have one 4" cilantro batch that is regretting ever catching my eye. I'll post about it for consultation. 

Success Story: Pomegranates - blog you later.

I just got a massive compost heap moving thanks to the garden guide community. This is my first year seeding and boy, do I have A LOT to learn.

I am typing this as my back is screaming about weeding the 8x16 raised-bed veggie garden. I couldn't garden last yr, so I was forced to pay the piper by "sod-cutting" a VERY established weed bed out of my lucious dirt.

I'm excited to find this group and you will be hearing about my successes and learning opportunities this season. I look forward to learning from (and with) all of you.

Topics to watch:

• composting heap - not heated up yet
• garden in recovery
• lower back on strike
• seeds underway - no idea what I am doing
• 2" starter plants and tranplanted orange mint looking for a home
• 2 grape vines and a blueberry looking for the right time to go in the ground
• Containers vs garden bed due to sunlight restriction (trees encroaching)
• One brown thumber looking for redemption