Our local Farmer's Market is in a parking lot in our town center once a week. It has been open for two weeks now. We get about a dozen vendors. Often the farmer herself will be there to talk with. The major offering at the stands today was lots of lettuce greens of all different types (which I have in abundance in my garden right now). I bought asparagus, broccoli, purple scallions, spinach, radish, hot house tomatoes and a fresh free range chicken. Other offerings I saw: kohlrabi, chard, strawberries, garlic snapes and spring garlic. I believe a requirement for the vendors is that the crops are organically grown in Massachusetts at a small farm. Don't you love summer food!
I have a very personal compost question. Do you put food in yours? It doesnt look like it. I want to start composting but I am really afraid to put food in it for fear of bugs and rodents. I can't buy a tumbler right now. I just wondered if using just browns and greens (from deadheading and weeding) will produce good compost. Thanks, gina
ReplyDeleteYummy! I've never seen purple scallions before. They're beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWell that's kind of a private topic to be discussing in a blog....
ReplyDeleteBut, like you guessed, I very rarely put kitchen waste in the compost pile.
Reasons: mostly laziness, also the squirrels carry it off, and I get more waste than I need from the yard.
I have read that compost needs a certain mix of greens and browns, carbons and nitrogen sources, eggshells and coffee grounds. But I don't pay attention to this. I just throw in my garden waste.
I use a lot of leaves in the fall, the old tulip leaves in the spring, the vegetable plants I pull up when the garden is done, trimming from the roses and grapes, halloween pumpkins, etc.
I end up throwing away (in the town garden waste pick up) things like yew and rhododendron clippings, branches and about 3/4 of my raked fall leaves.
I think my compost looks great. It breaks down nicely in about 2 years with one turning, it never smells, I can make more than I need, and my soil test results have been fine (actually they say I add too much compost).
So it seems to me that you're fine using garden clippings only.
You don;t need a tumbler. My parents just have a pile and it works fine. Its far from their house and neighbors and they are not lazy like me. They add ALL of their kitchen vegetable waste and their vegetable garden trimmings. They often let squashes grow on the pile.
I also think those purple scallions are very pretty. I may look for seeds next year.
ReplyDeleteLovely photo. Today I got from the farmer- green shallots, celery, eggplant, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers and mangoes!
ReplyDeleteRe compost I keep a compost pot in the kitchen into which goes all our fruit and vegetable peels, and empty it every day into a large plastic plant pot outside. After a couple weeks when the pot is part filled, I then pour on potting soil, and plant vegetables or whatever ornamental needs repotting. This probably only works because we live in the tropics-so compost breaks down fast, and live on an acre, so there is no smell from the pot.
Okay, I did it! I threw it in a pile beside the garage. I had so much sod that I dug up and straw i bought for cheap mulch. I did a few layers of straw and sod so I'll see how it goes. Thank you so much for sharing your inner most composting secrets ;)
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