Compost 101

I started to compost about a year ago and I've learned so much since I started. Every time I share about compost I get messages asking me how they should start, so I thought I'd share a couple basics to get people started and some resources if you want to dig deeper.

WHERE DO I GET STARTED? Composting can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. I always tell me friends to grab a small bin for your kitchen and identify an outdoor spot that you'll dump the food waste.

WHAT CAN I COMPOST? This is where it can get complex if you really want to get into it and different sources say different things. There are many different ratios of Green vs Brown compost, but if there are too many 'browns' then it will decompose at a much slower rate, and if there is too many 'greens' the compost will be too acidic.

I am on the more simple composting end of the spectrum. I looked at a list of green and brown materials and made sure I'm adding things from both sides and hope the ratio works itself out in the end. Right now, we only compost veggie scraps (green), eggshells (green), grass clippings (green), paper (brown), and leaves (brown).

DOES IT SMELL OR ATTRACT CRITTERS? Mostly no. Sometimes the bin in our kitchen will smell when I open it if I haven't emptied it enough... if that happens, I empty, clean it out and it is back to normal. Sidenote: I have seen people put their compost in a ziploc in their freezer if they can't empty it often enough or if they use a composting service.

The outdoor bin never smells. If you don't already have critters, this will not attract them... If you do already have critters, then you should build a more enclosed outdoor bin.

WHAT PRODUCTS DO I NEED? The great thing about compost is you can start with what you already have! We use an old butter tub in the kitchen for scraps and started out just making a pile in our backyard. I currently have a wire compost bin that I fill up for a couple months then move it over to let the pile really decompose. I've also been keeping my eye out for good deals on a tumbling composter or a cuter countertop compost bin, but I 100% encourage trying out compost with no upfront costs to really figure out if it's something you'll be able to keep with.

I'll continue to add to the post as I learn more information, but really my biggest tip is just get started where you are and build on your knowledge and setup from there.

Vegetable Garden : Growth and Veggies

The summer growing season is over and we cleaned out our garden and I thought I'd reflect back on this season.  Last time I shared about our garden, we built two more beds and started a bunch of seeds. Almost everything we planted this year seemed to do really well... which I'm sure was mostly just luck.  I tried to take a step back and water less, but we were also really busy this summer so I let the garden do it's thang.

Once the veggies started growing (late June?) we started harvesting them on a fairly regular basis. I liked to try and walk around the garden at least every other day to get some outdoor time and take a peek at the garden progress. I would harvest anything that looked mostly ripe so we could wash and eat (or share) that week.

I was out front one day and saw that our tree had something that looked like fruit. I shared a picture on Instagram and asked whether I should eat it (I tried it before I even got any feedback). One of my friends said it looked kind of like a Cherry Plum and they used to eat them out of their yard all of the time.  Well my taste-test didn't poison me, so we picked more and the girls loved them! Not sure if we'll have these plums every year (according to the internet, they need to be pollinated and I don't see a similar tree close to us), but we enjoyed it for this year.

This year was really fun because the girls were really into helping. The girls both loved to water the plants, spot baby veggies, harvest, and help carry our veggies in/wash them. We spent a lot of afternoons having our afternoon snacks next to the garden, which made that little spot of our yard that much more special.

This year, we started growing sunflowers. I purchased this variety pack of sunflowers (affiliate link) and it was fun to watch them grow and see what we would get. I originally planned to plant them all along our fence, but it turns out there were a lot of bricks, rocks, and broken glass along the fence so clearing it out was a much bigger project than I anticipated. I only planted sunflowers along one little section of our fence so we could get a feel for how to grow them. We got a range of colors and sizes and the girls loved checking out the flowers when we were back there.

Overall, I would say this was a very successful garden season. We got a lot of veggies, enjoyed the process, and learned a lot.  We're already looking forward to next year with some plans to build some paths between the garden beds, come up with some structure for the vining plants to grow on, and hopefully clear more space along the fence.

Vegetable Garden : Expanding Our Garden

This year, we were hoping to expand our garden a bit. At the beginning of Spring, I got to work... I built two new raised beds (same plans as last year). I saved a bit of money by using 2x4s from a neighbor, but still purchased the cedar fencing planks to match our other beds. We filled it with dirt we still had from last year and took our sweet time loading them up. The girls like to dig around looking for worms, so they entertained themselves while I did most of the actual work.

Before all the weeds could grow in, I started working on cutting back some of the brush out in the back. I cleared a space so I could dump all of my yard waste (our town has a yard waste pickup day and can purchase stickers or bins for weekly yard waste pick up, but I'd prefer to just toss it in the back). I cut down a bunch of honeysuckle and trimmed some other areas. I also worked on tearing down a lot of the weeds next to the fence. I discovered multiple piles of brick covered in vines. I've been gathering those up and saving them for some small paths through our garden beds. I was hoping to tear out everything along the fence and plant some sunflowers, but I'm finding a lot of bricks, broken concrete, and glass so it is a bigger project than I anticipated.

Around mid-april, we started our seeds. I lay out our seeds on a damp paper towel. I fold them in half and put them in a plastic baggie to let sit for about a week. We have been so busy this spring that I kind of forgot about them. They sprouted nicely and eventually we transferred all the little sprout babies to small pots. I kept an eye on the weather and moved them inside on cold nights.

Early May, I started moving the plants to the garden beds. Because it was such a busy month, we forgot to do daily checks on the garden... and it did just fine.

Around the beginning of June, we started some watermelon, pumpkin, and bean seeds to fill up the other two beds. We hoped to make a little pumpkin patch between the raised beds and the garage, but the weeds were taking over too quickly so we'll push that project off for another year.

Last year, we had deer steal some of our veggies and we're already seeing some deer activity so far this year. The original plan was to finish enclosing our yard with a privacy fence in the spring, but our last couple of months have been insane and I have yet to submit for a permit. Since I've pushed the fence plans off, we still need to have a plan against the deer. I started a small fence around the garden before I realized I had significantly less chicken wire than I thought I did. Projects these days take way too long, so I also purchased some sort of Deer spray for the garden area. I'm hoping that will be enough to ward them off a bit, but we will see.

Lately, we have enjoyed lots of small picnics out near the garden. There are nice pockets of shade throughout the day, so it is a perfect spot to relax. The girls love having me pull them out there in the bike trailer so they can sit and watch me water and weed. I'm loving our little outdoor space as we expand and learn and play out there... and we can't wait to see where the rest of the season takes us.