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hendi_alex
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Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 7:58 am
Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

Most of the time my peach pits sprout in the rich, moist enviroment. Maybe yours is from a pickeled peach? Those that don't sprout, do tend to stay around for a long time. My biggest trouble maker in the compost is acorns. At least half germinate and are for ever coming up in pots and beds, when the compost/leaf mold mixture gets used before the acorns/oak trees die and decompose. The hardwood twigs are also very persistant, but as one poster noted, they help keep the soil loose and only get tossed aside if over a few inches long.

rot
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Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:15 am
Location: Ventura County, CA, Sunset 23

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I've had the ceremonial peach pit for a couple of years now. I always find it at the bottom when I'm spilling compost somewhere on the lawn or garden.

The seed I get growing in my compost is from the squirrels. Damn bird seed gets into everything. Most of it gets turned back into the pile to feed other plants. I'd rather they sprout while in the bin than after mixing and planting.
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SHamilton
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:01 am
Location: Richardson, Tx

Anna, I live in Richardson also. I grew up in WI where my grandfather and then my mother were avid gardeners. When we moved here when I was a teenager, neither of them could make Texas dirt produce because of the differences in the clay between regions. I suspect they didn't have the advantage that we do in forums!

I am currently working on my fourth season gardening myself, and have relied heavily on advice online, but particularly the compost advice in Texas has been excellent. In town, we have to do it right or we'll be dealing with rodents, fire ants, or odor. Also, if we do it right, the amendment to our veggie garden will really make that clay break down well, and increase drainage. So far, I am really impressed with what I'm getting out of mine. I only wish I had more room!.

I'm turning my pile every three days or so, and I've just added bone meal and humus to the mix to heat it up. Didn't do much with it over the holidays so I'm getting it active again. By next week, I'll be sifting out what I need, and that will reduce it by more than half. By then I hope I'll have more yard waste to add, along with my shredded paper, to build it up again quickly.

Look forward to learning about your progress, so nice to hear someone in my area composting. Are you veggie gardening, or landscape?

annafaie
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Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Richardson, TX

Susan - I am veggie gardening. So far it is an addiction and I sure hope I'm good at it b/c if not, the withdrawl will be hell :wink:

Anyway, we sifted both raised beds (had been layered and composting since early Dec) and our large heap (kitchen scraps and oak leaves and turned once a week) and low and behold we got both raised beds filled with some to spare! And our left over un-decomposed stuff is enough to fill the large heap up again (I'd say 4' diameter circle and about 4' high). I was so pumped! It took us all day on Sun and most of Mon to get it all done but it is so rewarding to look outside and see my beds filled with dark, moist organic matter!

Now....we've got squirrels. And they are destructive! So, I can't plant until my husband builds these large, tall, wooden frames lined with chicken wire that will sit on top of my raised beds to keep them out. I've got lettuce and brussel sprouts transplants as well as onion sets to plant and I will be damned if the squirrels dig them all up while I'm at work.[/b]

SHamilton
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:01 am
Location: Richardson, Tx

Yes, it is soooo addictive! You started your seedlings already- I'm so jealous! I'm getting some dirt hauled in this week, hoping I can get my teen boys to help me haul it where it needs to go.

The squirrels suck, and we have to net them out as well. My husband says they won't go anywhere they can't figure out how to get out of and bird netting kept them out last year, both seasons. He had to build a framework, too. It's pretty out there today, but I'm a writer with projects due and can't get at it just yet, hoping Friday when the kids are home and I won't be able to get any writing done anyway!

What do you use for heating up your compost? How much room are you using for it, and how close is it to your garden? Did you find any grubs this year? I have to use the eastside of my home, so my area is pretty limited. I'd love it if you'd share pics with me as you go along this season, and share what is working for you. Look forward to hearing from you, Susan

annafaie
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Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Richardson, TX

Bird netting, huh? Where do you get that? Is it more or less expensive than chicken wire? Is it more attractive looking? I can see my garden out my kitchen window so the prettier it looks, the better :-) Please post pictures of your setup as well. I'd love to compare our "methods" and get some ideas.

The front of my house faces South so my garden is in the back yard against my back fence. It's the sunniest spot available to me. Our front yard is completely shaded by several large trees including a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE oak tree. Wonderful in the summer but sucks for us in the Fall. We have to rake leaves (or pay someone to) 3 times each Autumn. Good thing we're composting now b/c we once had 18 trash bags of nothing but leaves and acorns. Now all that goodness stays out of the landfills and in our garden!

So....the backyard has a few trees but neither are too full and it gets pretty good late morning and afternoon sun. I'll take pics soon and post them :-)

My heap is located on the east fence in our backyard and is only 30 feet or so from our garden. We used construction cloth in a circle/bin and we hold it together with zip ties. When it's time to move/turn the pile we clip the ties and move the circle over a few feet and hook it back together with new ties and shovel it all in. I think it's probably 36" high and about 4' in diameter? Or close to that....

My heap JUST NOW got hot...maybe a week or so ago. Before the ice storm we decided to try and heat it up using cottonseed meal but couldn't find any at Home Depot so we just got 6 or so bags of this Manure and Humus mixture from Home Depot (like $2.50/bag). We mixed in about 2 bags into our heap and I think that's what heated it up. Prior to that I was just adding oak leaves, lots of melon rinds, lettuce, kitchen scraps (grapefruit rinds, avocado skins, daily coffee grounds and filter, toilet paper rolls, vegetable trimmings) and bulk coffee grounds from Starbucks occasionally. When we sifted the whole heap this weekend it was really warm in the center and I was SO happy. My husband just laughed at me!

In the raised beds we did layer composting. We built the first bed in early December and layered it with oak leave, coffee grounds, oak leaves, goat manure, oak leaves, coffee grounds, oak leaves, vegetable and yard trimmings, goat manure and so on.... Then, about 1 week later we built the second bed and used all the same stuff as in the first bed without the goat manure (we ran out on the 1st bed). Here and there we would add another layer of leaves or coffee grounds. When we bought the 5 bags of manure/humus we added about 2 bags to each bed and lightly turned it under. That was about 2 weeks ago. Then, this past weekend we sifted it all and had really good results.

I kept having this fear that the compost wouldn't be ready and I would have to wait several more months to be able to plant but it looks like we did something right! I know some posters might say my compost might be too "hot" right now to plant but the goat manure had been sitting out for a while and the manure/Humus mixture we bought seemed very aged...not fresh...or new...or whatever words you use to describe hot, stinky manure :-)

We found LOTS of grubs and worms....I was also really excited about that and my 2 1/2 year old wanted to hold the worms and take them to the garden as we found them. She's such a little tomboy and it was so cute! She kept saying "They are my friends, Mama!", "They are cute.". She's a little gardener in the making!

SHamilton
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:01 am
Location: Richardson, Tx

So glad to hear from you, I'll definitely post pics once we've set up again. Tore most of the framework down to "re-create"! I would assume the netting is much less expensive, found it by the roll at Home Depot and I think it was around 7-14$ for quite a bit. Hard to work with because it wants to stick to you, but it looks nice, wears well, and doesn't cost much, and it's effective so we like it.

I'm wondering if I remember right about the oak leaves, seems to me I heard somewhere they were poisonous to your compost, but I used them first year. I just never would use them again after I heard that, now I wonder if it was in my head, can't remember where I heard it. No trouble for you?

Earthworms are great, but grubs can be destructive. I thought I had a problem when I started working in my new plots, and asked the mngr at Callaways, evidently we all have them to some extent, but if there's more than 5 in a sq ft, it's considered a problem. I didn't have that many, and just take them out and discard as I see them.

My house faces the south, also. My backyard is all pool so there is no way to grow back there, but wish I could. My compost is quite a bit closer to my garden. It didn't bother my topside veggies, but I'm attempting to grow my root veggies pretty close so hope it works.

I use a combo of shredded, non-shiney paper, like newspapers and those pesky cash-advance checks from credit cards(I love the irony!) to mix with yard waste, kitchen scraps, and coffee grounds. I use bone meal every so often, and I buy that compost tea and mix it for a mound drench if it doesn't heat fast enough on it's own. The hotter, the fewer ants. I just read that adding food grade DE (available at Callaways) makes your compost such that when you add it to the plot, the leaf eating pests are deterred. Something about how the DE goes into the root of the plant. Hope it works! I also tried the boiling water thing on the ants at the end of last season and it worked so good I was mad I hadn't tried it earlier.

I add organic humus from the store, but am wondering if it keeps its nutrient value, as the bag I'm currently using has been around a year.

I should have something to show you the beginning of next week. Wish I could contact you since you live so close! What side of 75 are you? Our kids go to Berkner. Hope that's not too much public info!

Let me know what you find out about the oak leaves, if I'm wrong I sure am wasting a substantial amount.

It's really great to be able to converse with you, have a great day, I'll be back tomorrow.

annafaie
Cool Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Richardson, TX

I'm off to research the oak leaves thing b/c if they are then I'm in big trouble! I'll let you know what I find.

We live on the west side of 75 near the library and city hall. Sounds like you live on the east side :-) My husband went to Berkner!

Ok, off to research and will post back soon.

annafaie
Cool Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:40 am
Location: Richardson, TX

After a few quick searches in this forum and on google, it seems that oak leaves can be poisonous to grasses and corn but are otherwise ok for veggies. I saw several mentions of walnut leaves being poisonous, though....maybe that's what you're recalling?



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