Salad Down, Garlic Up, Compost Gloriously Rotten!

Saturday, lazy Saturday. Overcast this morning; the high temperature for the next five days is forecast at 75F and the overnight low at 58F. No really, those exact temperatures, every day, for five days. Even the weather guy was a little taken aback. Given the fog earlier and now the overcast, I'd be surprised if we hit 75F. Either way, I'm done outside. My broken toe hurts from too much urban homesteading. Time for coffee and the newspaper -- both paper versions and electronical blogs and newspapers I like to read.

For all my pain, the Broccoli is finally in the ground today. Planted in the side yard planter -- a 4 foot wide by 20 foot long raised planter bed -- on the south side of the house about two feet from the house. It gets full sun, especially in the winter, and heat and light is reflected back onto the plants by the house wall. Should have the effect of extending even our extended growing season. Broccoli is said to be frost hearty, so should be fine over there all winter.

One catch: The roof drip-line is square in the middle of the planter box. May have to work up some sort of silent drip deflector. (Could do a rain gutter, but that sounds like so much work right now. )

Garlic is Up

Several garlic plants are up, grown to about 4 inches, but not always where we planted them. The rows are all off, and thus far there are some bare spots too, so we may replant more later when it is clear those spots are actually bare and not just "late sprouters." A couple of shallots up too, similarly skewed. (Our grub-hunting critter friends dug up and deranged our fresh planted garlic and shallots.)

Salad is Down

The endive, radicchio and escarole are in the dirt, along with red and green romaine lettuce and corn salad (mache). Planted in an old horse trough I got free on Freecycle. I had originally intended it for a water garden addition, but it was just too shallow. Tried to grow lettuce in it over the summer, but (1) ants colonized it and ate the seeds and (2) the topsoil I bought to fill in with had so much hot compostable material that it was actually hot, and drew flies, for weeks. The heat may have killed the seeds as it would in a compost bin, or the ants may have enjoyed them, or both. But not even a sprout.

Compost is Well Rotten!

The summer compost bin is closed for the nonce; we have two small ones, and it is time to let the spring and summer material finish, and spend the next six months filling the second one. I should have (once again) made the swap over to the other bin a few weeks ago, and stopped adding kitchen scraps to the summer bin. Ah well. Guess I need to get at the heavy grass growing there too.

There are other ways to do compost. For example, we could just keep adding fresh material to the top and, using the sliding door on the bottom remove the finished stuff, but I like to clean the bin out completely at least once a year. No good reason, just like to see what's in there, and if I don't like it, send it home.