Sheet Composting – Gettin’ My Hands on Brown Matter ~ Part 3

Posted on September 15, 2011 by admin

 

Browns are carbon rich materials – dry or woody vegatation and matter
such as dried leaves, sticks, straw and even newspaper and cardboard
are great brown matter to use for composting.

Part 3

So, in Part 2 I told you how I scored big-time and got a lot of free cow manure that helped me solve the issue of having enough green matter on hand for my sheet compost pile. But I also had to get my hands on a lot of brown matter because I didn’t have enough of that to build up my pile, either.

As I mentioned in Part 1 I also balanced out the brown matter with lots and lots of dried leaves. I really got lucky getting my hands on these leaves as there was someone who’d raked their property and because they were into gardening, they sent out an email saying they had all these bagged leaves and anyone could come and take them. Well … I took 20+ bags! :) Continue reading →

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Sheet Composting – What’s Cow Manure Got to Do With It? ~ Part 2

Posted on August 25, 2011 by admin

 

” … many people will insist that this pile of organic matter
must be combined with manure to make good compost.
I’ll get into that in a moment, as manure is not necessarily
essential for making good quality compost. (There … those of you
who just had a horrible vision of toting home bushels of cow manure
and stinking up your nice car can relax! :) )”
~~The Shoestring Gardener eBook

Part 2

A nice 'ol cow patty!

Yes happy composters, here is an action shot of me holding what is referred to as a cow patty! Cow patties are definitely not the reason for this post, nor do you want to collect a pile of them for composting purposes (they’re way too hard and won’t decompose fast enough in most circumstances), but I thought this was a light-hearted way to start off this post that does revolve around cow manure. Anyhoo …

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this fall-time sheet composting, aka layer composting, tutorial some people swear that you’ve got to add in manure of some sort (not human, cat or dog manure though!) in order to achieve a high quality composted humus. Many people, myself included, don’t believe that, and have practiced composting of one method or another over the years with great success. Our happy, lush flower and vegetable gardens prove it. But, if you can get your hands on (so to speak! :) ) some manure, then go for it! Continue reading →

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Eco-Friendly & Frugal Recycling Idea for Broken Concrete

Posted on August 22, 2011 by admin

An Ingenious Use of Broken Concrete
for an Awesome Driveway or Garden Path That’s Eco-Friendly!
Help the Environment by Recycling in this Novel Way.

Have you ever given any thought to what happens to all the concrete that gets removed from residential and commercial place – like driveways or sidewalks in neighborhoods; or street or highways or huge parking lots; or building demolisions? Concrete just doesn’t evaporize into thin air! It stays around forever, basically. Those broken chunks are used to make man-made reefs, along with scrap iron and other extremely long-lived trash materials. So, how can we recycle broken concrete and give it a new purpose?

Removing broken concrete from a driveway. Continue reading →

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Sheet Composting – Build a Bed Now for Planting Next Spring ~ Part 1

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

 

“Compost is a gardener’s most versatile ally and what’s more,
it’s free to make to boot! Its nutrient-rich properties add a bit of
fertilizer to the soil and acts either as a superb soil amendment or
wonderful biodegradable mulch.” ~~The Shoestring Gardener eBook

Did you know that now is really a great time to begin a sheet compost, aka lasagna compost, garden bed? The method I’m going to be showing you over the next few posts is meant to be started in the fall so it can “cook”, which means decompose, over the wintertime.

It’s a no fuss, build it once and you’re done technique that I tried out for the first time last fall. I was smart enough to take photos (yup – so I could walk you through it :) ) of what it took for me to gather up the necessary “greens” and “browns” to layer up my compost garden bed; how I layered all the plant and conpostable matter; and then how I put this sheet compost bed to rest so it could go through the decomposition process over the winter months. Continue reading →

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Grow Mint From Cuttings Part 2 – Frugal Gardening Tip

Posted on August 6, 2011 by admin

How to Grow Mint & Other Herbs from Cuttings from Your Garden or Store Bought Produce – Part 2

A while back I wrote about a frugal way to grow mint from cuttings. This gardening tip is really pretty age-old. I mean, it’s really one of the simpliest propagation techniques you could ever wish to make use of.

Cuttings from established plants either in your garden or a friend’s garden (or maybe ummm … “borrowed” from a plant growing somewhere else) are usually the way you can get free cuttings. But another way is that many fresh herb cuttings found in the produce section of most grocery stores are able to be rooted. So, since I wanted to have fresh mint growing in my garden this year I used two healthy looking mint stems from a small container I’d bought a couple of days before. Continue reading →

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