What a difference a year makes

Hard to believe today is September 1st!  Only a few more days until my first baby starts Kindergarten! Last spring I planted some hostas along the fence next to our driveway. It was an attempt to fill that space so there would be fewer weeds to pull!  Here's how it looked last May.

Here's how it looks now...

I added some inexpensive annuals between the hostas this year but the effect is really great now. And very few weeds to pull!

Moral of the story: Have patience with your perennials and they will reward you!

See you back here on Tuesday - have a great weekend!

Composting - 2 1/2 months later!

We started composting back in late April (more on that here and here). Several people have asked for an update on how it's going so here's the post. Honestly, the biggest issue was finding a place for our compost tumbler. We picked it up at Costco back in May for about $100 (thanks to my friend with a membership).  I ultimately decided to keep it in the driveway next to our trash cans. Trash cans are already not pretty pretty or the cleanest so adding the compost tumbler to the same area really wasn't a big deal.

 Inside the compost looks like this. It really doesn't smell but there are a lot of little flies in there.

So far, it has been really easy once we started getting in the habit. It really does not smell bad - definitely not as bad as our trash can filled with diapers!  We are mostly composting kitchen food waste and some yard waste - grass clippings and plant trimmings - all "green."  We have thrown in some shredded paper and some sawdust for added "brown" stuff to balance out the carbon/nitrogen mix.  Although some people advised against composting fruit, we have composted fruit from the beginning and haven't noticed any extra smell. Our tumbler is rodent proof so the extra sugar should not be a problem. Fruit seems to break down quickly. In fact, everything seems to break down quickly! I am still experimenting with what needs to be chopped up. We do not put corn cobs in because we have heard they take forever to break down.

A friend recommended getting some compost accelerator (or starter) which seemed to get things going really quickly. I think we'll probably scoop everything that's in there now into a plastic box and let it finish in there. If we keep adding to the tumbler, it will never be "finished" and ready for use in the garden. If we take out what's in there later this week (it's supposed to be super hot here the next few days), I think we'll have a good shot at having some compost ready to use by later this summer.

We are still using our the World Market countertop compost holder. It sits nicely on the counter near the sink.

Definitely worth $14. When it's full or it starts to smell, time to take it out. Generally that coincides with either a full trash or recycling bin so it has not been a big deal at all.

Overall, I don't feel like we have greatly reduced our trash but I do think we run the garbage disposal less than we did before we composted. I definitely feel good about salvaging our food waste in a way that hopefully we'll be able to benefit from down the road.

Getting our compostin' on: FAQs

Before we talk about rotting veggies, I have to wish my beautiful little girl a happy 5th birthday! Time flies but I enjoy each age even more than the next so there is always something to look forward to (except maybe the teen years!).

Back to the regularly scheduled programming...

As I blogged about yesterday, we're getting our compostin' on. In case you are thinking about composting, I wanted to share a little bit of the stuff that I have come up with in my composting research. Yesterday, I posted about our new compost tumbler so today I thought I would give you an idea of what we plan to compost and not compost. We also plan to involve the kids as much as possible, so we'll let you know how that goes. I have a feeling they are going to be itching to give their unwanted veggies back to the garden!


First, here are some of the sites that I used to come up with these answers. These sites are FILLED with info so definitely check them out if you need more info.

VegWeb
Mike McGrath
eartheasy
EPA
Planet Green

Q: Why compost?
Composting takes stuff you would throw away and turns it into a great soil supplement for your garden, plants, or shrubs. This minimizes waste that goes into landfills and incinerators. Compost is better for the environment than chemical fertilizers.

Q: What can we compost?

An amazing amount of stuff! Everything from strawberry tops to dryer lint! Here's a list of what we plan to try composting:

• fruit and vegetable scraps
• coffee grounds
• grass clippings
• leaves (ground up in our leaf vacuum)
• flowers and cuttings
• crushed eggshells
• dryer lint
• shrub prunings
• saw dust (hubby is happy!)

 If you have a giant compost pile, check out these ideas. Condoms? Really?


Q: What should we not compost?
Although most things are technically compostable, there are a lot of things that won't compost quickly or they will stink and therefore attract rodents. Yuck. So, these are the things that we will not be composting (among lots of others I'm sure).

Q: What's a good mix of compost?

It's important to balance between nitrogen and carbon compost. Carbon-rich material (ground leaves, sawdust, eggshells) keeps the compost lighter. Nitrogen-rich material (grass clippings, fruit and veggie scraps, shrub clippings) help make the enzymes necessary to break-down the compost. Here's a great list from eartheasy which delineates between the carbon and nitrogen. Most sites recommend getting a compost accelerator which can be purchased at garden supply stores.

Q: Does it smell?
It should not smell rotten or gross, but earthy. We'll have to let you know as we continue along in this process!

Q: Where should you put the compost bin?
I have heard a mix of advice between sun and shady locations. Some sun seems to be required to help create the heat necessary for break-down. For now, we are putting our tumbler near our trash cans for convenience which get some afternoon sun but not full day sun.

Q: How long until the compost is ready to be used?
I've heard a range of answers which probably depend on what you are composting. It seems like 8-11 weeks is a safe bet. When our compost tumbler gets fairly full, we'll probably move the compost to a smaller plastic storage bin with a tight-fitting lid so it can "finish" in there. We can store a few of those discretely next to our garage until we are ready to use them.

Q: What do you do with the compost once it's ready?
The compost can be added to soil around plants and shrubs. You can add it to veggie gardens but it seems that this should only be done after harvest because the compost should sit for several weeks before planting.

I hope you found this little summary helpful! I'm sure there will be loads of other questions as we go along so I'll work on keeping this list updated as I have more questions and find the answers!

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House Tour Link Party starts MONDAY with LIVING AND FAMILY ROOMS! Full schedule and details right here tomorrow!

Getting your compostin' on: The Stuff

To be honest, where I grew up in upstate New York, composting was something that farmers did with old junk they had laying around their farm. Most of the stuff probably would not meet today's suburban composting standards, but it probably worked. A few weeks ago, I decided that we should give composting a go. We had been talking about it for about 2 years and spring seemed like a good time to start. I did a little research and asked people on my Facebook page for advice. I got a lot of great feedback.

A couple of people mentioned that this great compost tumbler is currently sold at Costco for about $90!

 

Bargain shopping is a great way to start the composting project (at least for me). This is a pest-free model which is critical for us since we live in a decidedly urban suburb where raccoons and rats are frequently on the prowl in our neighborhood. Jim spent about an hour and a half assembling the tumbler earlier this week. You definitely need a drill in case you are considering this model. I had considered the bargain route that John and Sherry at Young House Love took, but I knew we would outgrow it quickly. We may use this method if we want to move some of our half-baked compost out of the tumbler to "finish" it for a few weeks before we use it.

We also needed something to keep compostable kitchen waste in. Thanks to Facebook, someone else recommended this cute kitchen compost jar from World Market which I picked up last week during their friends and family sale.

Next up is figuring out what to compost and, maybe more importantly, not to compost! More on that tomorrow!

Thrifty Gardening

I have been working on cleaning up my flower gardens over the past few weeks.  We did some mulching last weekend which really spruced things up, and we moved some lilac bushes from the back of our yard to the side (read more about that here). 

We still have some pretty significant blank spots in our planting areas near the screen porch.  I want to get a few more larger bushes or small trees to fill in the area a bit more, but I needed some perennials as well.  I decided to use some of the perennials that I already have including some beautiful irises which seem to thrive in my yard.  I spread them out so they will be on both sides of the path leading from the front yard gate and arbor into the backyard. 

I also transplanted some peonies which were not doing well in the far corner of the yard and spread them out in this area. They don't look so great now either but hopefully that will change by spring.  And we really need to do something to cover up those beautiful air conditioning units!

Fall is also the time to plant your spring bulbs.  I often forget until December but that still is not too late in Virginia fortunately.  You should also dig up and divide tulips and daffodils every few years because eventually they sort of choke themselves out with lots of small bulbs growing off the original. I usually do that in the spring after the leaves start to turn brown but I may do a little of that this fall with some daffodils that grow at the base of our huge oak tree.  If you want to expand your plant collection see if a friend or neighbor wants to swap some of their spreading perennials for yours.

This is also a great time of year to plant grass seed or sod your lawn.  We have some serious bare spots in the backyard which need some topsoil and seed.  We try to plan those types of plantings when rain is in the forecast, but usually we end up throwing the seed down when we have a few minutes. 

What fall planting projects are you working on?

Canine Craziness: The digger!

We love our dog, Angus, but he definitely has some not so great habits.  Attacking our door every time someone rings the bell or delivers a package is one, and digging in my flower beds is another.  We have yet to figure out a solution for the door habit (any suggestions?), but I have found a relatively easy solution for the digging.  Fortunately, Angus really only likes to dig in loose soil near the house so there are relatively few places he can do that.  The rest is pretty much rock hard clay.  Although the interim solution was to throw large plastic toys in his way, it was not the best looking.

Here is Angus' current favorite digging location -

I filled in the holes with potting soil, and then covered the dirt with some pieces of plastic coated inexpensive fencing that I bought at my local hardware store. Sorry I forgot to take some how to pictures but I just cut the fence and put small sections over the affected areas.  Then, covered it with mulch.

I need another bag or two of mulch to really cover it up.  It was the end of a mulching day so I could not make myself go buy 2 more bags!!

I would love to hear what others have done to stop their 4 legged friends from making a mess of their yards.

Veggie Garden "After"!

I've had some requests to see our veggie garden in its current "crispy" state after my post the other day.  Everything is still alive for the most part but it definitely it's definitely showing the effects of our 40 days of 90+ degree weather (which is crazy even for Virginia). 

So, here's the before (taken in late May) -

And here's the after (now) -

Not pretty at all but amazingly the plant with the most brown (left side) is our grape tomato plant which is pumping out the tomatoes left and right.  Our grape tomato plants look like this every year but we always get a couple of pints of tomatoes from them.  I'm really hoping we get a couple of peppers but I'm not holding my breath.

On the other hand, my herb garden looks amazing!!  Fortunately the herbs - especially the basil -  thrive on heat and neglect.  I am working on making a huge batch of pesto as a housewarming gift for our new neighbors - more on that to come!

Happy summer!

A little patch of happiness: The Veggie Garden!

For many years, I have been planting a few tomato and pepper plants in the backyard.  Before the renovation, I had a small garden behind my garage.  The plants loved it back there because it was super sunny and HOT (the garage was brick), and it was also in a low spot in our yard so generally more moist than other places in our otherwise desert like yard.

Last year, during renovation, my daughter really wanted to plant tomatoes and peppers again.  She is a huge fan of both!  But, we knew/hoped we would be moving out of our rental right in the middle of harvest time.  Jim came up with a great idea for a transportable garden which would give us the vegetation that we needed!

This year, we did a lot of renovation in the backyard so we decided to just reuse the garden from last year in case we needed to move it (we did).   

Here's how the little garden looked in late May.

It's a simple 2' x 6' frame with a piece of plywood nailed to the back.  The tomatoes don't seem to mind the lack of depth, but I think the peppers may do better without a bottom on the garden.

The plants are considerably bigger now (and a little big crispy), and we have already picked a few dozen grape tomatoes (or at least rescued them before little fingers got them and gobbled them up!).  I love our little garden but next year I think we'll go back to a more traditional garden without a bottom so the peppers can root themselves better.

How does your garden look?  Any veggies yet?

Azalea Mania

Since I just spent 2 hours trimming the overgrown azaleas, I thought the revitalized front yard deserved a new picture for the site.  Two things to remember when trimming your azaleas - 1) trim soon after they flower or as the flowers are fading (which mine are now) and 2) you can trim up to a third of the azalea off which will prevent them from getting "leggy" and scrawny looking (which mine definitely wore).  We planted these shrubs when we did the full front yard overhaul the first summer after we moved in in 2002.

I am bummed that I forgot the before picture for today's trimming, but take my word for it - the front looks so much better now.  I think I still need a couple of more small shrubs to fill in some of the major gaps between the existing plantings but I'll work on that in the fall maybe.