It’s Gardening Time! Roll out the Compost!

Do any of you remember Blue’s Clues, when the mail came?  Steve, the main actor would yell out “mail time.”  Well, gardening has the same excitement.  And you know it is “gardening time” when the trucks dump in my driveway.

Just in case you don’t remember the Blue Clue’s mail time song, watch the below video!

http://youtu.be/bSey_Xt0WRY

First comes the free wood chips.  And second comes the compost.  Rich, dark and inviting.  Think of compost as a chocolate bar for your soil.  Earth Worm bath in it.   (And um, if you don’t move it quick enough so do flies and weeds.  Both like to “take root” in it.)

What’s with the wood chips?

Many of you know, I have 2 gardens.  I am a little obsessed with gardening and wanted to plant corn.  As a former midwestern, I am use to corn fields.  My father affectionally calls me a “farmer.”  (I have a deep respect for farmers, since I know how hard of a job it is to keep a small garden like mine.  So, I wear that title with honor.)

Back to the “why a second garden, you need your head examined.”   I created a garden just for the corn, the melons to  roam, and the squash to go crazy. It isn’t as protect as the first garden with fencing that goes down 2 1/2 feet under the ground.   The second garden is subject to rabbits or groundhogs that slips through the fence.  Did you know a ground hog can climb a fence?  And no, I don’t have bionic ground hogs.

To answer the why so many wood chips?  I hate weeds.  Yes, weed pulling can be therapeutic, but not days and days of weeding.  (Yeah, I know. Weeds are just unloved flowers.)  Plus, for some reason I am allergic to so many weeds.  Am I the only one?  My arms break out and look like I ran them throw a field of poison ivy.

Although the first garden has thyme between the rows, I decided to go with wood chips here.  Planting over two hundred thyme plants one year was torture.  Plus, over three years, the weeds are fighting the thyme, and the thyme is losing.  Year after year, it keeps retreating into a safer zone, my beds, leaving a clear path of weeds and grass.  So, if any of you have a great idea of a perennial plant that I can walk on between the beds, let me know.

And you want to know the great thing about these wood chips?

They are free from my town!  Yep, free.  I get chipped up wood.  They also tell me they are careful not to take anything with poison ivy.  Often time, they deliver cedar chips to me. And oh, the smell.  I love cedar.

What are you doing with all that compost?

Every year, the county delivers about 10 yards of compost from grass and leaves to my house.  We pay about $18 a yard for black gold.  And believe me, it is black gold. How many of use compost?

I even went so far and bought a compost wheel one year to put compost on my lawn. However, the wheel was just too hard for me to use.  This black gold can be heavy to roll across your lawn. In addition, we have a lot of land so this little wheel only doled out a little compost at a time.  I think the  wheel is only for small lawn.

You might think.  Anna, how come you don’t make your own compost.  I do, but not enough.  Plus it takes me 2 years to make compost because I am a lazy. I forget to keep it wet, forget to aerate it, forget whatever.  My composter bin  is just a place for me to throw old food and leaves.  No pressure.  How about you?  Are you a diligent or lazy composter?

So, who gets the black gold? The plants and the trees get a circle of compost around them.  Last year, my myrtles bushes receive the golden ring and actually bloomed.  They haven’t bloomed in two years!  Even the larger myrtle trees bloomed!  Was it the compost?  Who knows.

Then I top off the 21 raised garden beds and put compost in my potato bags to get ready for my potato seedlings.  What happens to the leftover?   The lawn get the rest.  Grass adore compost!

Before you know it is time to start planting seeds.  Isn’t Spring wonderful? So get busy! Food is supposed to be eaten right off the vine!

Need some gardening help?

• Want a quick glimpse of the garden?  Check out one of my garden video.
• Need some sage gardening advice so you don’t make the same mistakes I made?
• Sage gardening advice from other green moms
• Want a no till garden?  See here.
• Want to make raised beds?  See here.
• My gardening must haves.
• Why I love coffee grounds for my garden.

Join the conversation

• What kind of routine do you have for spring gardening?
• Do you use compost and if so, what for?
• Do you use wood chips anywhere?
• What are you planting this year in your garden?

 

Similar Posts:

• Give Your Lawn a Compost Shot
• The Fertile Gardener
• Square Foot Garden Convert. Better Yields, Less Weeds
• Are You Spending Too Much Thyme on Your Lawn?
• How to Create a No Till Garden Bed