After getting some desk work done this morning, and taking my daily walk, I came back charged up to get something done in the garden. I had gone to sleep nearly every night this week reviewing a bunch of stuff that needed to get done, but I haven't had the time, or energy frankly, to actually go and do it. Maybe it was seeing the success of our tomatoes, as they start to take off, that drove my work today, but it certainly was necessary.
In some ways, I engaged in a bit of "
yak shaving" (letting one task lead to another randomly until you end up shaving a yak (SMILE), but it was yak saving with a purpose. Each thing led to another almost seamlessly. By the end of it, I was quite wiped out, though. So here is the play-by-play of my day.
CompostSince I was going to be transplanting some stuff, and then preparing the bed I had cleared, I wanted to have some compost on hand to work into both of the beds. This meant checking out our
Garden Gourmet composters and seeing what had developed over the year since we installed them. I was happily surprised to find about 6"-8" of compost behind the bottom door when I slide it open. With a little bit of digging I was able to harvest about 2 cubic feet of great compost before the material on top settled down to the bottom of the bin. This was almost perfect for today's project, so I stirred up the remaining compost and moved on to the next phase.
One note about the compost. Under the heading of "why are things never easy" I found that tree roots had found a way into the compost and this made it a little harder to harvest what was there. Thankfully, they were mainly small feeder roots so most of them were removed with the compost. I need to think a little more about my installation, though, and maybe find a way to move them further above the ground. Secondly, there was a HUGE nest of ants in the pile. I guess this is a clear sign that the bin isn't getting as hot as I might like, but my reading on compost says it is difficult getting a home compost pile up to its optimum heat level. The ants were too much of a bother, though, but I can imagine they were quite disappointed with being removed.
TransplantingOne the compost was sifted, Rosanne and I moved to the front garden. In the bed where we had planted our tomatoes (see below for more info and updates), there were 2 Bankside roses I had purchased several years ago, and a pink climber rose that was here when we moved in. None of these roses have every prospered much in this location and I had decided to convert the rest of the bed into more vegetables and herbs. So, on the other side of the driveway, there was an open spot where one of the Bewitched roses had died. I spread about 1/2 the compost on this section of the bed and then used my
electric cultivator to turn it into the existing soil. This seems to have worked well with our tomato planting area, so I figured I would try it again. Once that was worked in, I transplanted the 3 roses into this newly prepared area and watered them in.
Then, back in the bed where I had removed the roses, I added the remaining compost and turned it in with the same cultivator. Into that area we planted some parsley and oregano seeds, just to see if anything would happen. When we are out around town this week we are going to look for some transplants of basil and other herbs that might work well in this area.
After a little bit of cleanup, it was time to head back into the house and prepare some pasta sauce for dinner. Friends are arriving around 6 o'clock to watch some movies with Rosanne, while Joe and I catch the big Avatar movie tonight. The movies are part of Rosanne's work on her Ph.D dissertation, so she is even being productive in that. (SMILE)
Still a lot to do in the garden, including a lot of tree and leaf cleanup before our big summer music party in the third week of August. I would love to have our old, ramshackle garden house torn down by then, but only time will tell if we get that accomplished.
Let me know what is happening in your garden. Add your comments using the link below or post a link to your own blog where people can check out your hard (yet fun) garden work.
Be well and see you in the garden!
Going green and creating your own compost bin isn't as hard as you might think. All those grass clippings, plant prunings, and other yard stuff is easily recycled into compost. The project is simple. 
This Instructable shows how to build a trommel (rotary screen) for sifting compost or shredded leaves. The purpose of sifting is to separate coarse unfinished compost materials from the finished product or to separate out trash and debris from other organic materials before use in the garden. My c...
