Compost is indeed a wonderful thing!!

I am so lucky to have such great neighbors!  They let me use their pickup to go down and get a truckload of compost.  Normally I'll get it by the bag (1.5 cu ft) in the Jeep.  But getting it by the yard ends up being half the cost of by the bag.  I can normally only get about 15 bags in the Jeep.  So I was all excited to be able to get so much!  My main reason for wanting some this winter was to mound up around the roses and around all the little trees we planted in the back part of the yard.  I of course had a lot left after getting those areas mulched with the compost.

First I would like to discuss the company I get the compost from:  Price Farms Organics.  Their stuff is so good!  This time I got the Barnyard Cafe, but I've bought the Zoo Brew by the bag and that is good stuff too.  If you go on their website and look over their offerings make sure you check out the video on the products page of what they are doing with The Ohio State University in the Zero Waste program - love it!.  Here is a few photos from my trip down to get it....

You can see the steam coming up off the darker pile..

Fluffing / Mixing it up before they put it in the truck...

Happy me getting a load of decomposed barnyard poo...lol

I just can't say enough good things about Price Farms, everyone that works there are always so very kind and friendly!  Prices are good.  I guess the only bad thing I can say is that I really wish they were closer to my house!!!  =)

Now on to what I did with all this good stuff....

Mounded around base of roses (until the hens scratched some of it down) then adding straw to protect the tops and add a little more insulation.

Every where there is a dark circle of compost there are tiny trees and shrubs planted... they are like sticks right now but a few years and the backyard will start looking a bit different. 

I added some around all the fruit trees as well... and yes our neighbor boy TP'd us and house across the street the other week... waiting for more rain today for it to finally come down - not happy that my yard looks trashy!

One cart load at a time... should have counted - but I'm sure at least 20-25 loads.
I like how you can see the birds on the brush pile thru the windshield.

One of my spring projects is to get this new bed done.  Added lots of cardboard to try to kill out the grass/weeds.  Adding dirt and some compost to it to hold down the boxes and start to build up the area.  LOT more dirt from the garden will be added next year.   Was just too hard to mow between the 2 rain barrel build ups, so figured I'd put some flowers, grasses heck maybe even some veggies in there!

Had to share cause it makes me laugh - when the girls see me they come running and it cracks me up - so this is the action shot of them running toward me.  Never thought I could love 2 chickens so much.  =)

Put some in the cold frame and as you can see the celery from last year is still doing really well in there!

Rest of it I added to one bed and then put straw on it for wintering over.  This will be the bed that gets the early spring plants so wanted to get a good head start on it.  As you can see the hens came in looking for worms and already tossed out some of the straw.  oh well... I have swiss chard under the small covered tunnel. 

That is about it for my composting weekend.  I have 2 compost piles of my own but they won't be decomposed for a while, so its nice to have a place to go to that you can get a good quality compost product around here.   You will be amazed at the difference adding compost makes to your beds.  I can't stress enough on how important it is to take care of the soil to make it healthy and rich - feed the soil and your plants will be healthy.   I think this weekend I'm gonna start some seeds in the basement (herbs) and throw down some spinach seeds in the cold frame as well to see how they do.   Might be winter but I can't stop gardening!  =)

The Geek Side of Gardening...

So everyone knows I'm a computer geek... but I love gardening even more.  So how do you marry the two together?  GARDENING APPS!!

I'll run down on a few of the gardening apps that I use on my iPad currently.

1.  Grow Planner.  This is an app purchased through Mother Earth News.  It is a companion of their online Garden Planner (http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx).  I use both online and the app versions.  Sometimes its easier to design the gardens online since the mouse has more control.  But its nice to bring up the plan on my iPad and look things over - update the varieties I plan on growing, and look at the plant guide.  The Plant guide is the best part about the app and it gives you a break down of when you should start the seeds indoors, plant outside and harvest.  You can even have an update emailed to you so you don't forget about what to plant/when.  You can get a free 30 days account online to play around with but its only like $25/year for a full account.  I just got done starting my plan for 2013 - you can print the plan as well as publish to the web.  Here is my 2013 Garden Plan as of now.  I will constantly update it with the varieties I purchase or just change my mind of where I want things located - just an easy drag and drop.  So far the only plant they didn't have in their database was peanuts - which will be my 1st time of ever planting them.  

2. Companions. This app is all about companion gardening - planting certain crops together to get benefits.   The app has most general vegetables listed and it will tell you which other plants it likes to be planted with - and those it should never be planted with.

3.  Permaculture.   This app is kind of a newsfeed app with great articles about gardening.

4. Veg Calendar.  This app gives you data on what conditions different vegetables can grow - like if they are tolerant to frosts or can withstand hot summers, etc.

5.  GardenGuide & HowToCan are both apps but out by Mother Earth News as well - these are meant more for the iPhone but can be used on iPad.  Each gives you general information about each subject for a quick reference.

6.  ShopNoGMO and nonGMO - if you know me at all you know I am Anti-GMO crops.  I prefer to know my food wasn't created in a science lab, but instead is naturally God created.  Both of these apps are great reference apps to be used when out grocery shopping to try to stay clean from the monster-foods that is out there.  Unfortunately over 75% of all processed food now contains GMO crops (corn, soy, sugar beets, etc) - but there are some food companies that care about the well being of their customers and strictly use non-GMO sources - these apps allow you to find out who those companies are and which ones to stay away from.

Hope this helps other Gardener Geeks like me!  If you have other gardening apps that you use and love - please leave me a comment and tell me about them!  Thanks!

Gardening in December in Ohio!

What an amazing unusually warm weekend for us here in Ohio - highs near 60!  Saturday I spent the entire day out in the garden - just wished it didn't get dark so early or I could have got a lot more done.  I was able to finish installing the new side boards on the 2 garden row beds.  I wish I would have ordered more lumber as I'm in love with how this is turning out!  It looks so nice and neat, can't wait till we can get some extra straw next spring to line the paths so its not so muddy.  It started to rain today (Sunday) around 6am and was off & on till about noon.... making the garden very muddy so I couldn't do much more to it.  I did get a bucket of chickweed pulled on the north end where I could be in the grass.  The hens were checking the new beds out yesterday - unfortunately they were still scratching the dirt into the paths...  =/   Will have to mulch the beds heavily next year to keep them from scratching so much, or at least just scratch straw/mulch.

The oregano is still green and alive in the one bed, and the other bed has swiss chard (which I will be covering next week after I up up more hoop supports) and onions.  I actually transplanted some of the onions to get them into certain area instead of sprawled out here and there - I want to see how well they overwinter in the ground and start growing more next year.  

This was a photo taken this morning while it was raining... I smile looking at the new beds... I'm like a little kid - did I mention I can't WAIT to have all the beds edged by the wood!!  Small things like this make me VERY happy! 

We also planted 2 Arrowwood Viburnum at the back edge of the driveway.  These are more of my freebies from Arbor Day Foundation.  They are supposed to be a fast grower and get between 6-15' tall and wide.  Figured this would create a little privacy from the road for when we are having bonfires out back.   Its a multi-stemmed dense shrub with creamy white late spring/early summer flowers and then blueish berries that ripen early fall.   Supposed to provide food, cover and nesting for birds and larval food for butterflies.  The variety pack of plants we got is the wildbird garden collection - so many of them have some sort of berries to feed the birds such as the sargent crabapple, gray dogwood and these viburnums.  They are all just little sticks in the ground right now but I had planted one of these sticks when I 1st moved here out front (Washington Hawthorn) and its as tall as I am already (6 yrs).

I dug up the Dalhias we planted out in the newer flower bed by the big barn - I had almost forgot about them - this was the 1st year I ever had dalhias, yet another plant that has to be dug up like the cannas and elephant ear... my basement is full of tidy cat buckets full of tubers...

I think the rest of the day will be spent with my seed catalog and my iPad using my garden planner app to come up with next years plans!  Can it be Feb soon so I can start to start my seeds? =) 107 days left till Spring!!!   I have a feeling my entire Christmas wish list will be 100% gardening stuff!