Posts Tagged ‘compost’
Walnut Leaves – In Compost
Q: I read recently about walnut toxicity. There is a black walnut tree twenty feet from my garden and some of the leaves are in my compost, maybe 5% – 10%. Will I be able to use it in my...
Composting – Adding compost to the garden
Q: I just started composting last year and have been amazed at how much stuff I’ve kept out of the landfill. I have no idea when I should start adding the compost to my garden bed. Does the material need...
Composting – Nutrient rich food
Q: Are all vegetative items the same for composting or are some more nutritious that others? For example, are orange peels and banana peels basically the same? A: Just as with basic nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc), plants can’t tell...
Compost Tea – Does It Work
Linda Chalker-Scott is a scientist at Washington State University who researches common garden claims and comments on their usefulness. Her thoughts on compost tea are printed below: WSU Master Gardeners are often asked about compost tea (and other products) but...
DeKalb County Free Compost Sites
DeKalb County composts yard waste and makes it available to citizens at four sites. The county gives instructions and hours at this website: Call before you go on a...
Compost – Why We Do it
“My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God’s presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that lets you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first...
How To Amend Your Soil
Good soil is the basis of every landscape success. Most of us are not blessed with good soil – we have lots of clay, which holds WAY too much water. Here is what I do to build the soil in...
How to Get Free Compost
DeKalb County Public Works collects landscape debris and composts it. The compost is piled at four sites in the county. The biggest pile is near the Central Transfer Station, across the street from the county jail complex at Memorial Drive...
How to Make Compost
“I am trying composting for the first time so I bought one of those compost enclosures in August. At this point it looks more like a garbage pile than what I expected compost to look like. Any suggestions?” A: New-born...
How to Build a Simple Compost Bin
Composting your yard waste is simple if you have an enclosure of some sort to hold the trimmings. You can purchase ready made bins from hardware stores and home centers. You can also build a bin from stiff fence wire....
Labels – Read Before Buying
Some people collect stamps. Others accumulate coins. I collect garden product labels. I don’t actually collect the labels. Rather, I make it a habit to cruise the aisles of each garden center, nursery or home improvement store I visit, examining...
Sod – Laying too late
Q: I have a friend who purchased ten pallets of fescue sod. She put down one pallet the same day. The other nine pallets were not installed until two days later. The first pallet put down looks great. Only twenty...
Flower bed – conditioning soil
Q: I have an existing flower bed that was tilled with soil amendments at the beginning but maybe not enough. Will top dressing the entire area with soil conditioner this fall help areas that are lacking in amendments? The bed...
Daffodil bulbs – Determining quality
Q: This spring I reworked a weed-choked flower bed. It had a couple hundred daffodil bulbs in it. I dug the bulbs up and laid them on a mesh trailer and forgot about them. They have been laying on this...
Pansy – Nitrate Nitrogen
Q: I want to revisit the continuing saga of how to fertilize pansies in the winter. You have written and mentioned on the radio that pansies should be fertilized with any product that has a moderate concentration of “nitrate” nitrogen....
Composting – In Plastic Bags
Q: If I leave my shredded leaves in a plastic bag outdoors and punch small holes in the bag so rain water will wet them, will they compost by spring? A: The leaves will eventually decompose into compost but I...
Verbena – Rejuvenating
Q: When is the best time to cut back verbena? Two years ago, when I planted it in the spring, it bloomed beautifully all summer. I did not cut it back because I wanted it to fill a space. This...
Compost Tea – Making
Q: How do I make compost tea? A: My mother used to soak cow manure in a burlap sack to make manure tea for her flowers. Compost tea is similar but the initial ingredient is less odiferous. In fact, compost...
