CompostaBlog

Well, we’ve finally gotten the bags of cut grass put in their new home.. It never ceases to amaze me how fast it goes. We built two raised beds, one foot high. Each is sixteen feet long and four feet wide. Next time you’re out, take a look at a big Ford F-150 truck. Imagine TWO of them. That’s the equivilent of space we’ve taken up in sacks of grass and leaves on the side of my garage for over a month… waiting patiently for a home in the garden.

We opened the sacks
and stacked it’s contents almost waist high in both beds. A week later, it’s down below the boards (12 inches high) aMAZING… isn’t it?

Early next spring, we’ll purchase some earth worms from the Worm Man and let them devour what’s left after winter has done it’s work. And we will have the best peas EVER!

Well, Eugene came through in a BIG way today! Fifty four bags of grass clippings all piled neatly next to my little one car garage! How delightful! (No, I don’t get out much!) NOW, I’ve got to make a place for the garden in my new home. I’ve been so busy fixing up the inside and getting so much design work done that I’ve not had time to do much outside. (Ja! me, the gardener)

I also had a Cellular Biology test today… argh. Only four people in a class of over fifty passed. Guess what! I was one of them! Then he decided to give everyone the benefit of the curve, since it was the first test. Every one was angry with the rest of us… hey! No penalization for studying please!

Rain’s coming in hard and fast here in Northeastern Oklahoma… LOTs of lightening strikes… write more after it’s blown over!

On my way home from the birthday party of the little girl my daughter babysit’s for yesterday, I saw a man cutting his grass. He was riding a big mower with a ‘catch’ system on the back of it. I said to my daughter Hannah, (I make comments like this a LOT!) “I wonder what he’s going to do with all those wonderful grass clippings?”

My daughter said, “Mom, nooooooooo!” as I was waving her over. (She got her driver’s permit last month!!!) I said, “I’ll only be a minute!” as she rolled her eyes. That’s when I met Eugene. His mowing at home and his office (where I met him) creates over seventy black lawn sacks of clippings every month during peak season. He waved at the man across the busy street.

Don, the man sitting on his front porch across the street, waved back knowingly. I got goosebumps. I swear I did. Don has an organic, sustainable! garden anyone would applaud. But he’s over eighty and he’s almost ready to quit (he later told me) and besides, he is ‘full up’ of clippings, and his compost pile takes up a size of his yard larger than my small house does on mine! Eureka!

Eugene has a nice long trailer and for the price of lawn bags, he’ll deliver the grass clippings. And wait! THERE’S MORE! This fall, as our deciduous Oklahoma trees do the strip tease, he shreds their discarded raiment as he mows it up and bags it; this year, just for me! Oh JOY!

I was so excited! All the drive home I was mulling over and over what I needed to do to prepare for Monday’s delivery. As Hannah said, “You are the only person I know that gets excited over grass clippings.” THIS from my little vegan.

If you’d like to know more about fall composting, read the newest issue of Garden Notes

If you’d like to know more about composting in general we have an entire section on it

You can also sign up for our Master Series Compost Course

Never underestimate the value of what you are doing!
Garden Simply!
Jodi

Okay, I’m no programmer, but even my sixteen year old daughter can post on her own blog, what has my problem been? in a word, FTP~ setting up a new account to ONLY ftp into the blog has been a royal pain, but hey, if you’re reading this…

Hallelujah! I’ve done it!

First post of the season….
I am STILL IN ORGEGON! Don’t feel like I’m EVER going to get home!

Today, we gathered up as many native Douglas Furs as we thought we could carry home. We tried to gather a fiver footer (as it was going in a burn pile soon anyway) but it wilted before we could get it home. (errrrrr) I was SO bummed. Well, we’re picking up the uHaul on Wednesday and heading out early Thursday. There may very well be time to get in some good corn, green beans, and maybe even some squash if we try real hard. I may still have to rely on Uncle for good red tomatoes this year, and OF COURSE, what we can’t raise this year, we’ll buy local!!

Hope all your garden plans are working out for you ALL! And even if they’re not, I hope you’re learning and making the best of it!!! The computer goes down tomorrow! See you in a week!

Never before have the opportunities for conscious living been so plentiful, and never before has the need been so great.

Most of us are acutely aware that just by living and by doing business, we impact our planet. Despite our best efforts to tread lightly and responsibly on this earth, fossil fuels are burned, trees and habitats are destroyed, landfills are overflowing, and toxic pollutants are created ¯ simply as a result of our day-to-day life.

We believe that, given the chance, most everyone truly wants to make a positive contribution to their families, friends, themselves, and the world, and at GardenSimply we love giving people tools and resources for making positive contributions.

Sustainability: To meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable, Organic Gardening…
A thoughtful balance between resources used and results gained.

And it all starts with soil building.