kitchen garden

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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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Cat Grass: Nibbles for K.T.

Seed Packet (I love the art work)

We’re growing cat grass in our kitchen window for my sister’s kitty, King Tut (K.T.).  My sister started foster sitting cats, but fell in love with K.T. and couldn’t let him go.  He’s an older cat, with a beautiful white coat and cute little ears.  Sadly, he was de-clawed by a prior owner and he suffers from a thyroid condition so he has good days and bad days.  For a period of time last year, pre-grown cat grass was hard to come by.  This gave us the idea to grow some at home.  It’s also a bargain: $6.29 for a huge packet of seeds, vs. $4.00 for one ready-to-go tray.

Our current mix of “Gourmet Greens for Cats” includes organically grown rye, oats, barley and wheat, produced by Renee’s Garden in nearby Felton, California.  I learned the hard way that you have to keep the grass covered till it establishes roots (about 14 days), or the cats will jump up on the counter and help themselves, scattering cracked seed and soil everywhere.

Kitty Salad, Hold the Dressing

Plant seeds indoors year round in sun or part shade.  They germinate in 3 – 7 days and are ready to eat in 10 – 14 days.

K.T.