Starvin Larry

Some things I did not discuss in detail part 1…

Compost:

Even if you live in a home on a small city lot,you can still make a compost pile.

Start the pile by saving all of your vegetable peelings and scraps,along with fruit rinds,apple cores,etc.

Add your grass cuttings,the leaves you rake up,coffee grounds,egg shells,the outer leaves from a head of lettuce,tea bags,all the stems and leaves you prune off of your garden plants-including flowers-(if your wife or girlfriend plants flowers)-if you plant flowers-and you’re a guy-your man card is hereby revoked.

Add a couple bags of manure,which you can buy at Lowe’s,Home Depot,or your local garden center. We have chickens,so we have a source for plenty of high nutrient manure for the compost pile.

I do a fair amount of woodworking and carpentry,so I have piles of sawdust to add,which helps a lot. If you use a chainsaw to cut a tree down,or cut firewood-rake up the sawdust from the chainsaw and add it to your compost pile.

If you live in the city/suburbs, in the fall,you can usually find all the leaves you can use,either raked in piles on the curb,or bagged up in the “special” paper bags the city makes you buy.

If you have a lawnmower that has a bag to catch grass,along with saving the grass cuttings,run over the leaves before putting on your compost pile.

Once you have a fairly large pile,you have to keep turning it over,or mixing it up,to speed up the process. You will notice that the stuff from the center of the pile is warm,that’s the things you have added breaking down into compost.Keep adding stuff to the pile as often as possible,turn the pile over every time you add new materials. You don’t have to thoroughly mix the pile every time,but you have to cover the new materials with the already decomposing stuff from the center of the pile. If it hasn’t rained for a week or so-water your compost pile,moisture aids in decomposition.

Wood chips are anther good thing to add to your compost,as is old mulch.

I help out a friend who owns a tree service from time to time,and he will dump a load of chips for me any time I need them.Those who live in the city can usually get free wood chips when you see a tree service taking a tree down,most will gladly give you as much of the chips as you want.

Just keep adding new organic material to your compost pile,and it will keep breaking the stuff down,and you will always have a supply of fresh compost for free.

Once your pile contains almost all fine compost,start a new pile,and add some of the old pile to the new,as this will help the new pile to decompose faster.

I took some scrap 2×2’s and a leftover piece if 1/4″x1/4″ square wire mesh,and made a frame that fits across my wheelbarrow-that way,I can screen any large pieces out of the compost I take from the pile.

All composting does is speed up what happens on the forest floor in nature-the leaves,dead plants,etc. are broken down into topsoil. So what you end up with is a free supply of what is a nutrient rich humus type soil. Be sure not to add an excessive amount of oak leaves,or pine needles,or if that’s what you have to use-add some crushed limestone to balance out the high acidity of the oak and pine.

One other thing I do is in the fall,when all my wife’s flowers die,I empty the potting soil from the flower pots into the compost pile,along with the dead flowers,just break up the roots and stalks/stems.

Those who do not believe in using chemical fertilizers can make a “tea” out of the compost,by placing some compost into a pieces of cheesecloth that’s held over and partially in a 5 gallon bucket,and pouring water slowly into it,use the tea to water your vegetable plants.

In the fall,after you’ve harvested your veggies,and tilled up your garden,spread a layer of compost over the garden,it will prevent weed growth,and the nutrients from the compost will leach into the soil from rain and snowmelt.

Till that layer into your garden in spring,and add a new layer and till it in-this should give you a nutrient rich garden soil-that means nutrient rich veggies from your garden.

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Train.

Do more PT.