Winter is coming

Well, winter is finally arriving, slowly, but surely, here in Minnesota. We are considering a barbeque next month - Beng doesn't mind standing over the grill in the snow. For those of us who might, we can snack inside till the cooking is done. We'd like to have something like a pot luck and then we can discuss what kinds of things to plant come springtime. It is good to have something to look forward to....

Food waste composting

Ok, so someone read my post about our half buried garbage can and said, I have no idea what you are talking about. So I re-read it and, in fact, I don't understand it from what I read either. I guess I came in and wrote that after working on it for a couple of hours and forgot no one else had been there.
The garbage can is now a composter for food. Regular composters are usually pretty big and you put leaves and grass clippings and that kind of thing in them. You can turn them (some are round and rotate and some you do with a shovel or pitchfork) or not turn them (then the layers "cook" down together). And you can put food waste into most composters, but you can only put in so much, otherwise it makes your compost smelly and not "cook" correctly.
I was looking for a method to get rid of all my kitchen waste instead of putting it in the trash can. I found a couple for sale, there is a cone kind that was on several websites, but then I came across this pdf file on making your own out of an old trash can. I actually had an old trash can left by the previous owner of the house, so I decided that was the perfect idea for us!
I will let you know if it works or not!

Lasagna bed

It was so windy, we found we needed to keep things pretty wet in order to keep it all from flying away. Eric was in charge of the hose. Beng kept things nice and smoothly spread out, working just ahead of Eric to keep from getting sprayed.

First bed

Well, we started the first bed yesterday (Saturday the 7th). Beng, Eric and I built layers from leaves (donated by Dave and by Amy, who used to live here), peat moss and grass clippings. This is pretty early on.

Food waste composting

Ok, so a little part of my community (Beng, Eric and I) got together yesterday to start our food waste compost bin. This doesn't make a lot of compost, just keeps the food waste out of the trash and dump and gives it back to the ground. We took an old trash can, drilled holes in it (bottom and the bottom third around the sides) and then buried it part way in the ground. I will let you know how it works out. We found the directions online, but none of the people who talked about having it and loving it lived this far north.

Change for posting

I made a change so that people can post more easily. Feel free to try it out and if it doesn't work, let me know. My email is dreamsin2life@hotmail.com and I check it pretty regularly.

New leaves - old leaves!

Well, we got our first donation towards the garden - from Dave! Yes, this is it, the begining of a wonderful compost-type garden. After a busy weekend, I am down with a cold, so will be resting up this week to get started this weekend. At the very least I would like to mark out some plots.
Thanks Dave for the leaves!!!

Weekends are too busy

Well, we haven't actually started a thing so far! Last weekend it was rainy so I decided to call it off. This weekend I am taking my licensing exam (cross your fingers) on Saturday and Beng is running in the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, so I am not sure how much we will do this weekend either.
No one has donated any leaves or clippings so far, so I guess we will have to buy some stuff. I know we can't buy chopped up leaves...maybe will will buy some organic compost? I need to check into that a little. I wonder if you can pick up leaves from the...uh...the place where you go to dump your leaves? I cannot remember what that is called.
And I am a little sick this week, too. I imagine it is realated to stress, but either way, I am still congested and feel tired all the time.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any ideas!
dreamsin2life@hotmail.com is my email address.
Martha

Neighbors invited

Beng and I went out today and talked to 6 neighbors. We left flyers to anyone who didn't answer the door (we found out as we were finishing up that the Vikings had been playing as we made the walk so undoubtedly we missed a number of families because they were watching the game.
Now it just remains to collect material for the "lasagna" beds.

chopped leaves
grass clippings
peat moss
small sticks
hay
horse manure

Next week, I will start laying out some beds.

Gardening ideas

My plan for this garden plot is to create a raised bed (like in the book, Lasagna Gardening) and to plant it using ideas from the book Square Foot Gardening and also Great Garden Companions. If you want to borrow Square Foot Gardening, I own it, the other two I checked out from the Hennepin Library, but I might have to buy my own copy.

The reason I am doing a raised bed is mostly because the soil in my yard is mostly sand, not dirt at all. I will begin with layers of newspaper (and would be happy for donations - not the shiny advertisement kind, just the regular newsprint). I will be using peat moss, chopped leaves, grass clippings and wood ashes. I will be happy to take donations of any of these items (bagged up) as soon as Sunday. Beng is going to get wood chips from down at Lake Harriet (for free) to use on the top.

If anyone knows where we can get barn litter or horse manure, I would love to use that too.
I am more than willing to hear advice or tips from anyone (even if you aren't in the neighborhood).

Details for this blog

If you want to comment, you must be a member of the site. It does not cost anything, you just have to create a name and password.

If you would like to post directly, that would be great too. In order to do so, I need to add you as a member to the blog. You can leave your request in a comment or you can email me directly at dreamsin2life@hotmail.com with your email address and I can add you to the members list. I would love for everyone who can to become a member.

Inviting neighbors

This weekend, September 16, I am inviting every household on this end of 99th Avenue to participate in a community garden. I am offering to host a plot of garden in my yard for the coming year. Of course if others would like to host plots of garden that would be great too.

The idea is that we work on the garden together and harvest it together. I imagine it being a fairly informal thing, people coming when they can to pick weeds or cut flowers or harvest veggies. I will start getting the beds ready for spring this month. People are welcome to help with that as well.

My yard is large enough and gets lots of sunshine. I plan to have raised beds (since I have sand and not really soil in my yard) and so starting this weekend will collect organic matter for them so that they will be ready to plant in the spring.



This is a picture of my raised beds now (morning shot). I plan to do at least two more behind these. I don't know yet if I will use wood to hold them in or not.

I am hosting a community garden to begin to get to know my neighbors better and to feel more a part of this neighborhood. I have lived in my house for several years and it is so easy just to go to work and come home and never meet anyone. I am interested in knowing the people around me and learning to support each other in ways that make sense.

If you only see one post, please click on September 2006 on the right side. The others were archived, somehow. I am still working on the setup. Thanks for your patience.