lessons learned from the field

as i watched the final (sunny) sunset of this week while listening to the chatter of the kingfisher, i contemplated this past season's garden and the lessons i have learned...

1. smaller is better for me...at least when it comes to gardening...i dont have time (apparently) to deal with my city garden and a fairly large (for me) vegetable patch in a community garden: square foot gardens are the answer.
2. containers also appear to be my forte´ when it comes to edibles and i got a fair amount of food out of my pots...some died in the drought, though.


3. self watering containers are good.
4. self watering containers are good, but other contraptions didnt work that well for me. my fancy upside down tomato planters were weak...

i dumped my spring potato bag after there was nothing in it at the end ( i have since replanted for a possible fall crop)
...my weed blockers didn't work.

5. figure out the edibles you really need and grow them prolifically. work edibles into every possible nook and cranny, because fresh foods rock.

6. get vertical.

7. compost rules...bottom line: it rules!

living green tip of the day: compost in a can!

compost piles can be so unsightly! i compost all of our fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grinds and non-weed garden waste in a plastic trash can! the idea first came about when the sanitation engineers that pick up are trash on mondays knocked the wheels off of one of our large plastic trash cans. it seemed a waste to throw away such a big container, so i drilled holes all over it, found a bungy cord to secure the top and began to fill it with my debris. a few weeks later, i was making compost tea and side dressing my vegetables! the can i bought to replace the wheel-less one (now the compost bin) was also seperated from its base, so it also has been converted to a composter: now i have one "working" (not accepting more scraps) and one "filling" (accepting scraps). i freeze the compostable additives before putting them in the can: it seems to help break it down faster. after putting a week's worth of stuff into the can, i secure the lid and roll it around the yard, sometimes rotating it upside down a week at a time. it works great and eliminated about 50% of our trash headed to the landfill. give it a try!

vermicomposting

last year i shot this video for the howard county (maryland) master gardeners. i still havent warmed up to the idea of worms in my kitchen, but a lot of other people have! learn how on youtube or with mary applehof's "worms eat my garbage..."