Organic Compost Survey

I am in the planning stages for adding the final two raised beds to my garden. These will be 4x6 foot beds and will house 12 tomato plants along the long edge, trellised up nylon cords, leaving 36 squares for other plants. Since I have to fill these beds with Mel’s Mix and my own supply of compost is limited, I have been researching what types of organic compost are available in my area west of Boston. First of all, I have written off Lowes, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. I am only looking at what is available in bags at  local garden centers and nurseries.

The following is the list of bagged organic composts I have found and review in this diary, along with my own compost:

• Dave’s Own Compost
• McEnroe Organic Premium Compost
• Dr. Earth Natural Choice Compost
• Vermont Compost Company Compost
• Coast of Maine Quoddy Blend Lobster Compost
• Gro-Well Organic Garden Compost
• Jo-Barb Farms (Bolton, MA) Compost

Dave’s Own Compost

I have a black plastic compost bin behind the shed which I use to produce my own compost. I used to use 4” square plastic-coated fencing cut into sections and rolled into cylinders. I could fill these with leaves and pine needles, then throw in kitchen scraps and some top soil. Harvesting was easy by just pulling the fencing straight up, leaving the pile standing there. The top layer of partially decomposed material could then be pitch-forked back into the bin, leaving the pile of completed compost sitting there to be screened and used in my garden.

Unfortunately, the open nature of the bins made it easy for squirrels and raccoons to play around and toss the contents all over the place, plus they tended to dry out very easily in warmer weather and were easily crushed by heavy snows and falling tree limbs. I switched to the plastic bin two years ago and it has worked out fairly well. The bin gets some leaves, plus garden refuse and kitchen scraps, including egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, melon rinds, corn husks and cobs, spoiled produce, stems from collards and kale, etc. I fuss at my wife to keep fruit and avocado pits out of the scrap bucket since they do not decompose in anyone’s lifetime and are as obnoxious as rocks in the compost.

My own compost is dark brown in color, crumbly with good tilth. Some partially composted egg shells and pine needles are present but that doesn't bother me. It looks lighter in color than the bagged composts because it was drier when I took it out of the bottom of the bin.

2012 Planting Schedule

The seeds are in and I have a rough planting layout for the 2012 season. Next is developing a schedule for starting seeds and setting out plants. I found Rachel’s post on her Grafix Muse Garden Spot blog a good starting point for information and I highly recommend a visit. All the calculations needed to develop the schedule are based on average last frost date for your area. A source of that information is Plant Maps, which lets you put in your zip code and find last frost and first frost dates. Bolton is hardiness zone 5b with an average last frost date of May 1-10 (I used May 7 for the date) and an average first frost date of October 1-10 (I used October 8). Note: the new USDA hardiness map shows Bolton to now be in hardiness zone 6a, so who knows if the last frost dates I used are correct. A few weeks probably doesn't matter and I use my own gardener instincts to adjust actual planting dates.

Next you need to determine the safe date to transplant based on the hardiness or tenderness of the variety. For example, tomatoes are safe to transplant 1-2 weeks after the last frost date, while broccoli can be set out 2 weeks before last frost. From the transplant date you calculate backward to the seed starting date. To do this you need to know the average growth time from germination and the time to germinate. The result is the seed planting date for each variety.

Given the last frost date, most of the information you need to determine a planting schedule is available on the seed packet or in the seed catalogs. With these numbers, you can calculate back to the seed starting date, or you can take the lazy way like I did and use one of several online resources. Johnny’s Seeds has a seed starting calculator here. And Maggie Wang posted an easy to use spreadsheet on the You Grow Girl blog here.

With all this help I now have a planting schedule I put on Google Documents. You can see my schedule here, which will be updated with actual dates as the season progresses. It is only a few weeks until the first seeds go into trays and I am really looking forward to the new gardening season. By starting my own seeds, I am no longer dependent on what I can find at the local greenhouses and garden centers.

Planting List 2012

It’s now March and winter around here seems to be finished, despite a sloppy storm going on now. It is supposed to be 50 degrees and rain on Saturday so any snow accumulation from this storm should rapidly melt away. We had a mild winter, almost a record mild one. There is no snow cover to melt and no super-saturated soil to deal with. So one’s thoughts naturally turn to gardening. I have my seeds in hand and a new grow light. The planting schedule is in preparation. Here is what I am planning to plant this year.

Dave’s SFG Planting List for 2012

• Basil
• Bean Bush Provider (PT)
• Bean Bush Fresh Pick (J)
• Bean Pole Fortex (J)
• Beet Bulls Blood (BC)
• Beet Red Ace (PT)
• Broccoli Early Purple Sprouting (BC)
• Broccoli Di Ciccio (BU)
• Brussels Sprouts (purchased plants)
• Cilantro Large Leaf (PT)
• Collards Georgia
• Cucumber Diva (PT)
• Cucumber Summer Dance (PT)
• Cucumber Pickling Jackson Classic (J)
• Dill Fernleaf (PT)
• Eggplant Barbarella (J)
• Eggplant FairyTale (J)
• Endive Dubuisson (J)
• Escarole Natacha (J)
• Kale Dwarf Blue Curled, Vates (FM)
• Lettuce Black Seeded Simpson (PT)
• Lettuce Red Sails (PT)
• Lettuce Buttercrunch (PT)
• Lettuce Red Romaine (BC)
• Lettuce Mesclun
• Mustard Green Wave (PT)
• Parsley Italian Flat Leaf
• Pea Snap Sugar Ann (BC)
• Pea Snow Oregon Sugar Pod II (BC)
• Pepper Bell Red Ace (PT)
• Pepper Bell Aconcagua (PT)
• Pepper Jalapeno (purchased plants)
• Pepper Thai (purchased plants)
• Pepper Anaheim (purchased plants)
• Pepper Black Pearl (PT)
• Radish Icicle
• Radish Cherry Belle (PT)
• Radish, French Breakfast (PT)
• Turnip White Tokyo Cross (PT)
• Spinach Tyee (PT)
• Squash Zucchini Dunja (J)
• Squash Zucchini Costata Romanesco (BC)
• Squash Pattypan Sunburst (Fedco)
• Sunflower
• Swiss Chard Orange Fantasia (PT)
• Tomato, cherry Sun Gold I (purchase plants)
• Tomato, cherry Black Cherry I (PT)
• Tomato, cherry Matts Wild Cherry I (PT)
• Tomato, Roma Striped Roman I (BC)
• Tomato, Cherokee Purple I (purchased plant)
• Tomato, Juliet I (purchased plant)
• Tomato, Moskvich (purchased plant)
• Tomato, Striped German I (purchased plant)
• Tomato, Black Krim I (purchased plant)

Sources for seeds this year are: FM, Ferry Morse; J, Johnny’s; PT, Pine Tree; BC, Baker Creek; BU, Burpee; F, FEDCO.

Worm Composting

This is a picture of my new worm composting system in place near the boiler, which will hopefully keep the worms cozy this winter in the basement. I considered worm composting in the past but never did anything. Now that I have my Square Foot garden that needs regular additions of high quality compost, the idea is more attractive. A lot of our kitchen scraps can go into the composter without making a trek out to the compost bin behind the shed. In the winter with a new 3 foot snow fall, that sounds attractive. And my wife was actually interested in the idea of having a worm composter in the house, so that made it easier.

In addition, there are now a lot of well-designed compost bins available which make composting easy and eliminate a lot of the mess, Sure, you can build an economical bin out of a Rubbermaid storage container. And there are lots of helpful tips on the internet, such as the one suggesting using the wife’s turkey baster to siphon the excess worm “juice” out of the bottom of the bin so the worms don’t drown. There are also some nice wooden bins built from cedar, but they are really designed for outdoor use. That is not practical in New England.

The new bins I looked at are compact, efficient and cleverly designed to eliminate or minimize most of the messier details of raising worms, and they are designed to be kept in the house without leakage, odors or escapees. Two I considered were the Can O Worms and the Worm Factory. I went with the Worm Factory 360, the newest model with a taller base and an improved ventilation system. The Worm Factory 360 also is manufactured in the US from 100% recycled food-grade plastic. I ordered mine from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm and it came with one pound of worms (supposedly about 1000 worms, but I really doubt it – although the package did weigh a pound). Below are some photos showing the setup of the composter.

Making Butter

Inspired by an article by Thomas on A Growing Tradition, I tried my hand at making butter. It is amazingly easy and fast. Thomas provides detailed, step-by-step instructions, so check out his article if you want to try this. Below I have a few photos documenting my first attempt at this.

Harvest Monday–26 September 2011

Not much from the garden last week. I cut the two small eggplants the flea beetles left me. A third one turned brown before I got to it. A few peppers and tomatoes, plus lots of green tomatoes off of the now dead tomato plants. I cut the eggplants and then pulled the plants so I could clean up the bed that was infected with halo blight. It took me two hours to unwind the dead pole beans from the trellis and stuff them in a trash bag. Then I had to police the garden, picking up any dead vegetation on the ground or in other beds. Found out Sunday at the garden pot luck that three other plots in the garden also had the blight.



I got a lot of green tomatoes last week. Here are two pounds of them being weighed to make green tomato chutney. I used this recipe by Shaheen posted on her blog a few weeks ago (lots of vegetarian recipes there). It was easy to make and is very tasty.  I substituted Splenda for the sugar to keep it low-carb and that worked fine. The recipe made about a pint and it keeps in the fridge. First use for it was on hamburgers. It would be good on any grilled meat or with a good sharp cheddar.

Now head on over to Daphne’s Dandelions and see what others are harvesting.

Rich and Charlie’s Famous Salad

It’s Pot Luck time in the community garden.  The past couple of years I have brought a large bowl of Rich and Charlie’s Salad and will probably do so again this year. This is a great salad, it feeds a crowd, and the left-overs are good even several days later. The recipe comes from an Italian restaurant chain in St. Louis. My brothers acquired the recipe years ago and passed it on to me. It is very simple to make and can be prepared ahead of time.

Salad

• · 1 head Romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
• · 1 head Iceberg lettuce, washed and chopped
• · 1 can hearts of palm, drained and sliced (optional)
• · 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• · 1 red onion, diced
• · 1 4 oz. jar chopped pimientos, drained
• · 1 pkg. shredded Parmesan

Layer the romaine, iceberg, red onion, artichokes, hearts of palm, pimiento, and cheese in a large salad bowl. The salad may be covered and refrigerated at this point. When ready to serve, toss with the salad dressing.

Dressing

• · ½ c salad oil (Canola or blend of Canola and olive)
• · 1/3 c red wine vinegar
• · Salt and pepper

Thoroughly blend the dressing ingredients, pour over the salad and toss.