organic a natural home
|
kitchen garden JOURNALhappy new year!January 5, 2002 The shed is in! Thanks so much again to our friend Catherine who gave us her retired shed. Reduce, reuse, recycle! We painted it celery green, rebuilt the floor with two layers of 1" plywood (stained with oil-based deck stain and painted twice for water resistance) and installed it next to the composter. Its a perfect fit and except for some minor leaks (which I plan to seal this weekend) its grand! No more carrying tools back and forth to the garden. Just lock 'em up in the shed and you're done. We'll paint "Iriguchi Farms - Est. 1997" along with our crest over the doors this spring, as soon as the rain stops. Its hard to believe we've been here in Carmichael for four years already. The garden has come a long, long way. As have we... Added 6 x 60 gallon bins of leaves to the compost last week (in addition to 9 big bags the week before). Jason gave us four and Dave added two more. The pile is growing and growing. Even got some help turning it last weekend from Earl, Kevin and Osten. That sure was nice since the composter now has about 5 cubic yards of material which takes some work to turn. Actually, I turned it again this morning and it is cookin! The Year of the Compost Pile continues! It never ceases to amaze me how the pile compresses. We have added a fairly astounding amount of matter this year and yet only 2 bins are full. I hope to end up with 2 cubic yards of compost. That would more than double last year's output. Two cubic yards doesn't sound like much but when you go to the nursery and buy a bag of compost it probably has 2 cubic FEET in it. I'm hoping to end up with the equivalent of 27 bags! Our lettuce is still doing great. We had our traditional Xmas and New Years salads complete with baby snow peas and homegrown pecans! The garlic seems to have stopped growing and is now waiting for spring, cabbage is doing pretty well now that the cabbage moths have quit coming, beets are growing, fennel, onions, herbs... Despite the quiet in the garden there is actually quite a bit going on. Still... this gardener is beginning to long for spring. I find myself wishing for longer, drier days and a bit of warmth. Soon, very soon... — Dave |
|||
CONTACT
