Compost

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Pumpkin Postmortem

Though it was fun to grow over-sized pumpkins this year, they proved to be a challenge. Once they were in the house, they were far too heavy to move around. I had one on a table for a few weeks, before discovering moisture trapped below. Imagine my (unpleasant) surprise when the moisture created a breeding ground for mold on my bamboo table runner?  Mike helped me move the behemoth  to the hard floor where I kept my eye on it thereafter.

Carving super-sized pumpkins proved equally challenging. Only one of the four made it into a Jack-o-lantern. The walls were super thick, making fine work a challenge. Mike persevered and carved a lovely Cinderella carriage.  With that, he hung up his carving tools for the season.

pumpkin stems

Comparative thickness of pumpkin rinds

carved cinderella pumpkin

Cinderella would be proud

pumpkin post mortem collage

Grow, harvest, carve and display

Today we filled the wheelbarrow with rotted pumpkins, and then dumped them in to the growing yard-waste pile. The City of San Jose has a wonderful composting program.  They scoop up yard waste with a “lobster” claw and drop it into a special truck on trash day.  They sell the compost to city dwellers the following year. It made me smile seeing a pile of discarded Jacks at the curb.

discarded pumpkins

Jacks in a Heap

After that unceremonious farewell, we carted the remaining giants to the garden wall. They look lovely in the setting sun. Unless we have a substantial earthquake, I don’t anticipate moving them again!

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Pumpkins to Jack O’Lanterns

Tomorrow’s the big day.  My husband, Mike, our resident pumpkin carver is taking the afternoon off to create magic. By noon he’ll be up to his elbows in pumpkin flesh, meticulously carving Jack O’Lanterns for Halloween. He has his work cut out for him.  We had an impressive harvest this year, ten pumpkins in all.  I love the way the house smells once he guts the pumpkins. It takes me back to the excitement of my childhood Halloween.

4 great pumpkins

Our 4 Great Pumpkins

Each year Mike carves a few of his past favorites, in addition to trying something new.  Last year he carved a few small pumpkins to look like computer emoticons. They were so unexpected. When my son was small, he asked his dad to carve Max, the bunny from Rosemary Wells Max and Ruby series.  He pulled it off beautifully.

Max and Ruby Pumpkin

Max and Ruby Pumpkin

One of his personal favorites is Deadly Diva.  She gets plenty of comments from passersby, so he’s carved her more than once.

Deadly Diva

Deadly Diva, a favorite since 2006

Halloween is a big deal on our suburban block.  We average 150 children at our door.  I’m on my feet for nearly three hours non-stop handing out candy.  My youngest son heads out with his dad and some friends for his own candy haul.   It’s a night of mystery and fun, followed by the realities of a regular school and work day.  Just like Cinderella, we all turned back into mortals by November 1st.

carved cat pumpkin

Cat Pumpkin

The After Pumpkin

While Mike is carving, I gather and rinse the seeds, then spread them out on wax paper to dry.  I store them in a labeled lunch bag for planting the following year.  We roasted pumpkin seeds in the oven as kids, but for some reason that tradition didn’t survive.  We have more fun planting the seeds the following year.

Now that my compost bins are under way, I’ll be able to turn the discarded rinds into rich compost for next year.  You’ve gotta love the cycle of life.

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.

~The Quote Garden, Author Unknown

Halloween Countdown

Costume Accessory Pumpkin

Costume Accessories Pumpkin

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Garden Sunshine: September Winding Down

A special thank you to all my gentle readers for your comments and advice. The birdhouse gourd vine will stay through the winter. I”ll keep you posted on how things go. Late this week I noticed one of the gourds had doubled in size. Woo-hoo! What would a gardening gal do without this community?

Speaking of community, many thanks to gardensunshine for including me in her list of Beautiful Bloggers. I appreciate your kind words  I’ve been following her five-part series as she transforms her “shed” from drab to fab. Honestly, it’s more rustic house if you ask me and I’m positively envious of all that space. The shed even has a bit of history:

 It is believed to be one of the oldest buildings in our county. From what we can tell it was used as a house or bunker for the men working in the clay pit making clay bricks around 1890 and earlier. It is a really neat crooked building and as we found out when we power washed it full of water, it leans heavily to the left.

Historic Garden Shed

Garden Sunshine’s Historic Garden Shed (before)

Pop on over to read her five-part series, and to see the beautiful transformation in words and pictures. It was lovingly restored.

Back at gardening nirvana, we’re in for an early fall heat wave, with temps floating in the low nineties. I’m glad I got the winter garden in when I did. It’s a happy garden too, if that’s possible. The worm bin is a bustling place, thriving on kitchen scraps and leaves.The composter is “cooking” away, making organic mulch for next summer’s garden. I covered the seeds with wire and mesh, to ensure tiny critters give them a chance to grow.  Lindy thought it was a new litter box, so I had to put that to rest as well.

October is almost here. I’m so excited.

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Tumbling Composter: Some Assembly Required

 

As I excitedly ordered my tumbling composter, I failed to read the inevitable fine print. You know…some assembly required. I kept a watchful eye for the UPS driver, ready to pounce on that box. My kitchen scraps were taking on an odoriferous scent and still the composter didn’t come.

I eventually dumped the scraps in a bucket in the garage, and covered them with potting soil. It’s funny but two weeks ago I would have tossed those scraps or ground them up in the garbage disposal.  Now the scraps had a real purpose. My garden was counting on me.

UPS At Last

The day my husband, and resident handyman left for a business trip, the box arrived. I came home that afternoon to a damaged box on the porch, with one of the parts sticking out of the side. Oh-oh.  I was afraid to open it. The good news: no harm done. The bad news: so many parts. I was facing eight panels, two end pieces, six leg pieces and a bag with 56 washers and screws. I unpacked all the pieces, then left the room.

damaged box

Lindy sits on the directions

Lindy didn’t think she could help, either.

My son, in his sweet and gentle way, asked me if I would be moving it as it was blocking his path to the living room. Okay. I can do this. I fumbled around with my husbands various tools, found what I hoped would work and got down to the business of building a composter.  It went together beautifully, and was over half done when I called it a day.  I finished assembling it with my son’s help on Thursday. At last the fun could begin.

compost assembly instructions

Some assembly required

assembled tumbling composter

Ta-da!

I had a bucket of “brown” from the pumpkin patch ready to go and a decent sized bucket of “green” to go with it. Into the bin they went.  I closed the door, gave it a spin, and smiled. Who knew rotted apples and dead leaves could bring about such happiness?

Do you compost too?

The Compost Recipe

I’ve seen several variations on the mix, but here are the suggestions from tumblingcomposters.com:

The composting process works best by mixing moist greens (nitrogen rich) with dry browns (carbon rich) in a ratio of approximately 2 parts greens to 1 part browns.

Greens are:

  • kitchen scraps
  • grass clippings
  • garden and house plants

Browns are:

  • leaves
  • straw or hay
  • saw dust
  • twigs

Do not compost:

  • meats/fats/bones
  • dairy products
  • trash/plastic
  • wood ashes
  • invasive plants or weeds

Serves several plants.

 

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Tumbling Composter: Waiting for UPS

 

Forest City Tumbling Composter

Forest City Tumbling Composter

It’s all coming together.  The Tumbling Composter I ordered online will arrive this week. My counter-top food scrap bin is almost full. There’s a bucket in the garage collecting spent flowers and the leaves on the Chinese Pistache are starting to turn!  I’ll have all the ingredients for my first batch of compost.

I looked at several varieties before settling on this model. My criterion was simple:  It had to be portable, affordable and resistant to rodents.  It’s constructed from recycled materials, also a plus, and the compact size is perfect for my small vegetable garden.

Why Compost?

  • Composting reduces the amount of waste you send to the landfill
  • Composting turns your waste into a useful product—and it does so without requiring additional resources.
  • Using compost in your garden reduces the need for water and fertilizers and helps eliminate the need for pesticides.
  • Composting provides you with a valuable experiential lesson in the cycles of nature and the folly of our throwaway culture that is likely to lead to other waste-saving measures as time goes by.   (Source: Sheryl Eisenberg, Natural Resources Defense  Council NRDC)

Additional Resources

 

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Sure-Close: A Gift From Howard

Sure-Close Food Scrap Collection Container

Sure-Close Food Scrap Collection Container

My friend and neighbor Howard stopped by last week carrying a small bucket in his hand.  I was momentarily confused when he said he had something for me, and wondered what was inside.  The “small bucket” turned out to be the coolest of inventions: a food scrap collection container, called a Sure-Close, to be used along with an outdoor composting bin!

I’ve been talking about composting for years, and took an amateurish stab at it once, but this charming gift was the impetus I needed to get going.

The Sure-Close food scrap collection container features:

  • A vented lid to allow moisture to evaporate and feet on the bottom allow for airflow.
  • A lid that stays open for easy filling, but stays closed if you accidentally drop it.  They had me in mind when they added that feature.
  • A lid that completely removes for ease of cleaning. I don’t know about you, but if something is difficult to keep clean, I’ll simply avoid using it. I like this feature.
  • Several handles or grips.  Many containers look nice but are difficult to use.  The Sure-Close has three different grips, so it’s easy to lift, move and empty into your outdoor composting bin.

Why compost? From the Sure-Close website:

Most of the organic waste we produce comes from our kitchens as food scraps. A kitchen container that makes it easy for people to collect, store and transport their food scraps to the green bin goes a long way toward encouraging participation.

For Ottawa’s Green Bin program, the city wanted a kitchen container with ventilation in order to allow moisture to evaporate from organic waste. Without the moisture, contents are less likely to smell. Enter the Sure-Close kitchen container. Developed by two Ottawa-based companies, designers DW Product Development, and manufacturer Ottawa Mould Craft, this little beige beauty brings high-tech design and engineering to your counter top.

No more excuses.  This will be gardeningnirvana’s year of the compost.  I’m so excited.

Composting Recipes:

I jotted the following notes into a notebook two years ago so I would be ready to move from “accidental composter” to the real deal.

In half-inch thick layers:

  • Combine 3 parts “brown” organic material to one part “green”
  • 3 parts brown includes dried leaves, small twigs, etc.
  • 1 part green includes grass, cut flowers, coffee grounds, egg shells, tea bags and fruit or vegetable peels
  • Mix into a bin approximately 3′ x 3′ x 3′
  • Add a small amount of moisture as needed and turn once a week.

Serves several plants.

Or, you can go with my friend Bob’s version:

  •  Take it all, throw it in a pile, come back in a year.
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The Accidental Compost

Organic Wonder

Every year I say I’m going to start a compost pile but then lazy wins out.  Whenever I toss a banana peel or an egg-shell I think, “if only I had a place to compost.”  Part of my ambivalence is where I would put it.  Compost  needs sun and room for turning and both are at a premium in my back yard.

Two years ago my son collected fallen leaves from our Chinese Pistache in early October to use in his spooky Halloween display.  He filled a large Rubbermaid bin with dead leaves but forgot about them in the excitement of the day.  When I rediscovered the bin, decomposition was under way so I decided to snap on the lid and let nature takes its course.  I pried back the lid every few months and checked on the decomposing leaves. I gave them a quick toss with my gloved hands, closed the bin, then went about my business.

By the end of last summer I had compost!  Sometimes lazy gardeners can catch a break.  I love the texture and the smell of that wonderful decay.  I know the plants were happy too.  It was  a joyful experience mixing it into the planter beds. I may come over to the dark and loamy side yet.

Composting Recipe:

I jotted the following notes into a notebook two years ago so I would be ready to move from “accidental composter” to the real deal.

In half-inch thick layers:

Combine 3 parts “brown” organic material to one part “green”

3 parts brown includes dried leaves, small twigs, etc.
1 part green includes grass, cut flowers, coffee grounds, egg shells, tea bags and fruit or vegetable peels

Mix into a bin approximately 3′ x 3′ x 3′

Add a small amount of moisture as needed and turn once a week.

Serves several plants.