CONFESSIONS OF A PART TIME COMPOSTER

For the first time in as long as I can remember I am not composting this winter.  It feels irresponsible and deliciously lazy, and considering it has been -30 (Celsius) many days so far this winter I am  feeling slightly smug about the decision I made in late fall.  

In Toronto we had weekly municipal compost pick up and bi-weekly garbage pick up so there was no excuse not to compost your kitchen scraps and every reason to.  Not only is there no municipal program for kitchen scraps in Winnipeg it now would mean trekking to the back lane in frigid temperatures and keeping the top of the composters free of snow. 

Is just SO much easier to pile the snow on top of them... 

Both composters are filled to the brim ready to start their magic come spring thaw. Brown leaves and green perennial cuttings in a layered pattern perfect for composting: layer of brown, layer of green, sprinkle some soil, layer of green, layer of brown and so on.  They will turn into lovely compost but they are not diverting yard waste out of the system because if I did not compost my yard waste the city would have anyway.
Not so with kitchen scraps, and therein lies the rub.

A better man than me would keep his composting going in the winter to divert kitchen waste from the city's garbage all year long but I have moved to a six-month commitment and my composting has changed from something I did for the environment to something I am doing for myself.

Am I conflicted about it?
Perhaps, but did I mention it is -30 outside?

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Sharing with Fertilizer Friday & Our World Tuesday & Garden Tuesday

MY FIRST TASTE OF LASAGNA - sublime

Sublime

  Digging into the lasagna garden last week for the first time was a welcome experience. The soil was amazing, better than I have ever gardened with before; my plants are going to be very happy.

A blend of compost, soil, clay, composting debris, peat; a bit stinky in fact.

Whomever described the garden as composting over the winter did not live with 5 months of frozen Winnipeg winter!

Above is a shot of what the south lasagna garden looks like after I removed the cedars, at least the taller cedars that is. I am going to leave the globe cedars there for the time being and see how they look. They may need to be moved if the soil is too high around them, but that is low on my priority list at the moment.  For now I just hope they appreciate the amazing soil.

LASAGNA GARDEN - part 3

Here is the area in front that I also am turning into a lasagna garden, like the south facing garden. 

Also quite big.

When I needed organic matter for this garden I went to Starbucks for coffee grounds.  Their normal summer program was over but the managers at two locations were easy going and gave me what they had in their bins as long as I did not mind that the filters were mixed in, which of course I did not.

Before, with grass.

After, (with grass clippings).

The amount of grass clippings you see on the far right is from my father`s 75` x 120` lot which I think helps to put into perspective just how much plant matter I needed.

To finish it off I spread a soil & compost mix on top and then the snow came, so hopefully it is all brewing as I type.

Not that I do not like winter. I do.  

But I am excited for spring already so I can see the results of this grand experiment.

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Sharing with Fertilizer Friday

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Original lasagna garden

I BEAT THE SNOW - barely

In my last post I was in the middle of moving around 9 yards of soil and compost that had arrived on Thursday morning, with 30 centimeters of snow forecast for Friday night.

Talk about a deadline.

I worked from after work until 11:00 Thursday and again until 12:00 on Friday.  It gets dark here early now, so most of this was in the dark, and in fact the first night I wasn't sure which was soil and which was compost and ended up spreading soil where I wanted compost!  It won't be the end of the world, but once I tried the pile of compost I learned that there is an easy way to tell.

Smell.

The compost does not stink, but it does smell like, well, like it is composting.  

Oh yes it was also much heavier than the 4-way mix soil and it steamed when I dug down into its guts.  So next time there will be no mistaking it.

And this is what we had on the ground by the end of the weekend -- 30 centimeters as promised!

And it will stay now until spring, so it was definitely worth the overtime so my neighbours don't have to stare at a big pile of frozen compost on my lawn all winter.

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Sharing with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Garden Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday.  There may not be blooms but there is still gardening!

I NEED A HEADLAMP

Today I had 6 yards of compost and 3 yards of soil delivered.  

12 cm of snow is forecast on the weekend and it just might be the start of the snowy season and stick around.  So I need to take advantage of all the time I have before things freeze.   

And that means gardening at night.  

It is not the first time I have thought how handy a headlamp would be to extend the time I can spend in the garden.  I will be sure to add it to my Christmas list.

LASAGNA GARDEN - part 1

Digging up sod is hard.  Really hard in fact, when you also include the effort to make this compacted soil into something more usable.  Lasagna gardening is a way to avoid digging up the sod, though it still means bringing in soil amendments.

I started some lasagna gardens last week at our new Tuxedo place.  Sure there are already plenty of garden beds that need attention, but I if am going to eventually expand the gardens I may as well do it sooner than later-- and fall it the optimal time for getting started so the beds can compost all winter.

BEFORE

There is nothing wrong with a lawn, but I have always been a shade gardener and am willing to put in a great deal of work to create a sunny garden, expand my learning and give me more choices for bright summer colours.

This south-facing garden is already planned to be bright summer colours: oranges, red and yellows in plentiful combination.

Having just moved cross-country we had plenty of cardboard boxes at hand.  I put these down first to kill the grass and keep in the moisture which will help with decomposition and bring more earthworms into the mix.  I dug the leaves up from the gutter where they were nice and moist and partly decomposed already rather than raking dry leaves into a pile.  It looked like great stuff for this purpose, and all free for the taking.

It was about this point that I began to realize how much work this was and how ambitious my goals were.

 It takes a lot of mulch to cover this, a lot of wheelbarrows full. I cleaned in front of my house and many neighbours' houses in both directions.  

Of course they all think I am crazy.

At this point I changed my mind from turning this all into garden and decided to leave a strip of lawn down the middle so the garden can be walked through.  I decided based on how much work it was (I am making a second one out front!) and how much material it would take, but in the end I think it turned out to be the right aesthetic decision as well.

Shortly after taking this picture I pulled back the material from the far end so the lawn/path would loop back to the driveway.  It has now all been covered with a brown layer, a green layer and a bit of soil, but I need to purchase some compost and peat to layer in.  

There just isn't enough grass clippings around for the space I am staking out.

Tomorrow I will be back at it bright and early, even with a bit of snow on the ground.

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Sharing with Fertilizer Friday

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Original lasagna garden

NEIGHBOURS THINK I AM CRAZY

I am in the midst of creating two new garden beds at our Tuxedo home.

While there are plenty of existing beds that need attention, I

wanted a garden outside the south-facing living room window, and thought that grass between the sidewalk and front of the house seemed...well, unnecessary.  

I also wanted to try making them via the "lasagna garden"method vs. digging up the sod, which can be back-breaking work.  And the lasagna method is best done in the fall, so despite the mad rush I am taking on the challenge.

The beds I am making are big and require a lot of organic matter.  This means that I am putting on my rubber boots, grabbing my wheelbarrow & snow shovel and taking to the streets.

Before dropping their leaves the trees form a gorgeous connected arch over the road.

There are loads of wet, mushy leaves in the gutter at the side of the road and I am taking all I can get.  They may not be that rich in nutrients but they are plentiful and allow me to started.  

 I have "cleaned the streets" in front of my own house and those of my neighbours up and down the block.

And that is why they must think I am crazy.

Did I mention that by the time I am home from work and had dinner that I am "cleaning the streets" in the dark?  I know that if I didn't have the context and saw my neighbour doing the same, I would think they were obsessive-compulsive.  

Whereas I am just enthusiastic ;)

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Sharing with Blooming Tuesday, Garden Tuesday,  Outdoor Wednesday, Nature Notes and for the first time Rural Thursday