If there is one place that we enjoy more than any other on our farm – it is our garden. We use our raised-bed – raised row, no till system to grow all of our food using lots of compost, cover crops – and water saved from our rain-water collection system.
Our garden is not huge by any standard – in fact it measures just 60′ x 40′, but we have grown over 2000 lbs. of tomatoes each year, along with another 1000 lbs. of peppers, onions, potatoes, garlic, peas, green beans and more – all using simple, low maintenance raised row beds. Below you will find a listing of all of our past posts from the garden – including stories, tips and hints. We hope you enjoy. – Jim and Mary
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Thanks for the primer on composting! You make it sound a lot easier than others do
One quick question: how far away from your house do you have your compost pile? We live in the city and have about 1/4 acre but our house sits smack in the middle of it all. So I am trying to decide, distancewise, where to place it.
We are glad to have you here at our blog – and thanks for stopping by from the Barn Hop! We put our compost bin right at the back of our garden – just for the ease of putting garden waste into it. The real key is to place it somewhere where it is convenient to get to – and you will use it so much more!
Jim and Mary
Oh and I found your blog via The Prairie Homestead’s Barn Hop!
How do you get enough scraps to have a large compost pile? I can’t generate that much. Thanks for the post. Like Jennifer said, you make it sound easy.
Thanks for stopping by and for the compliment on the post. We use so much from our kitchen and yard that we really never have a problem generating scraps. This past week we put in watermelon rines, potato peels, eggshells, coffee grounds, grass clippings, manure from the chickens. If you have trouble generating enough – check with local restaurants – a lot will give their scraps for compost piles – and coffee houses are known to save the grounds for customers as well – all for free.
Jim and Mary
This is a fantastic idea! Would you consider sharing on my first blog hop? http://offthegridat-30.blogspot.ca/2012/07/frugal-i-made-it-tuesday-1.html
Finally the answer as to turning the pile… Well I aint been doing that…ops. I made my bin from 2/3 of a 55 gallon plastic barrell. I cut a hole wider than my shovel about 8 inches high. Drilled 3/4 inch holes all around. Think I need more! Grass clippings and canning scraps tops the list. I added some goat droppings as it fills up. I recon I will have to put a cover over it. We have had a lot of unseasonalbe rain this July. Not going to complain at all!!! Thanks for publishing this information……
Watermelon rinds should go to your chickens…they’ll love ‘em!
I really want to do this. Thanks for the tips. I’m hosting a linky party “One Creative Weekend” at OneCreativeMommy.com. I’d love for you to visit and link up this idea and/or anything else you’d like to share.
You mention putting grass clippings in your composting. We have a plot at a community garden and someone had told me husband you can use this. So he collected bags of grass clippings from our townhouse complex when maintenance was done mowing one day last fall and just placed it on our garden and then rototilled it into the dirt…. well this year I have been pulling out grass all over the garden. I said it was from the grass that he put in there last year and he said there was no way, as nurseries had told him grass clippings are good.. they should have gone into our compost bin first to decompose right?
Sally – Normally, i would say that your husband and the nurseries are correct – that they are good for your garden and wouldn’t give you grass. HOWEVER…If the grass was tall and was going to seed when they cut it – then yes, there is a good chance that those seeds came back as grass in your garden, along with any weed seeds that might have been in the clippings. The best thing would have been to put them in your compost pile and let them decompose and heat up – which it it reaches a good temperature – kills any seeds and results in great compost. Hope that helps, and thanks for stopping by our blog
Thank you for replying. Yes that would certainly answer for the amount of new weeks we got as the grass clippings came from the common area of our townhouse complex and that does have a lot of weeks mixed in with the grass. Will make sure to get it into our composting this time. Thank you again