Free Compost 10/20/2009
 Today I would like to talk about free compost. If you are in a hurry for free compost, Google it in your search engine. You will be surprised what comes up. In Los Angeles County here in Ca. there are 8 places you can go to. To find out where, go to www.smartgardening.com , go to "additional information" and scroll down to free mulch locations. It gives maps, directions, days, and hours. The one I went to was an easy on and off of the freeway. A friend and I took some 18 gallon storage bins, some rakes, a tarp large enough to cover the bottom of her truck bed, twice, and some bungee cords. When we got to the site, we covered the bottom of her truck bed with the tarp, with the excess on the cab. We then put the bins up tight to the compost and just raked the compost into the bins. Compost is relatively light, so it was easy for me to pick a bin up by myself and empty it into the truck bed. We continued this process till the bed was full. At that point, we pulled the rest of the tarp back over the top of the compost and secured it with the bungee cords. We didn't want it all blowing out on the way home. To empty the truck, we put another tarp down on the ground, raked some compost out till it was light enough for us Ladies to grab the "loose" end of the tarp and pull the rest out. The whole process took us less than two hours. That included 1 1/2 hours of driving time. Not too bad in my opinion. Now, just so I had information for you all...I Googled "free compost". One of the things that came up was Starbucks. They give away their used coffee grounds. Grounds are very good for roses. Just toss them around the stalk of the plants. Also, worms LOVE coffee grounds and egg shells, crushed. Worms are great to have for fertilizer. Their waste is readily accessible nutrients for plants to absorb. Plus they are organic. I am trying to plant a bunch of raised beds, using compost and "worm tea" for fertilizer. I make some of the compost here at home. But I need much more than my household waste can cover. So I went to our local pizza place, Big Al's, and asked them for their veggie scraps...nothing with seeds. So twice a week they drop a box of scraps on my front porch, which I take to my compost bin. I have decided that my compost bin is not big enough to handle that much scraps, so I am working on building a bigger compost bin. It needs to have a removable front so I can get my rototiller in there to turn the compost (I can't kick a shovel with my bad feet). So that project will go on the "project" page. Compost is made from equal parts green materials (grass clippings, garden trimmings, green leaves, manure from non-meat eating animals, coffee and tea grounds with bags and filters) and brown materials (wood chips, straw, hay, dry grass and weeds, stale bread, shredded paper, dry leaves, nut shells). Water it till it runs out the bottom. After 10 days, turn the pile, and every 10 days there after. Don't forget to water it. In 2-6 months you will have compost. Your plants will love it . So does your Mother...Mother Earth, that is. Hope this helps. Leave a comment if you have questions or more suggestions. I want this site to share information, both ways. 3 Comments Garden promise 10/09/2009
The thing about gardens...they are like children. They need to be tended everyday, with love, they have minds of their own, you need to feed and water them,try not to put toxic stuff into them, and hope you have more of the "sunny" days than the other kind. When they are ripe for the picking, some of them fall off on their own, or you might have to "dig" them out-and some are just very "prickly". But in the end...share the harvest. It can be so sweet. I want to show you how to get the most out of your garden for the space you have. Luckily I have a LOT of space...but here in CA we have water issues. With the wide-row, raised beds, it takes less water, makes it easier to weed, and utilizes space better. But remember...the garden you plant might not end up being the garden you get. Maybe it is like the Stones song , "you get what you need"...at least I hope so.  Paragraph. | ArchivesSeptember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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