...survive the winter.   Leaves make good mulch for many reasons.   They’re free, so they fit my budget.   They get blended with grass clippings, weeds, & kitchen waste throughout the summer to make compost, which makes fertilizer for roses and other plants, which means said fertilizer fits my budget.   No one tries to steal them, well, except for windstorms.   So I go out into the brisk fall weather...

...made a late night run to the store to get cold medicine. Today we slept in. Poor Chris is reading on the couch in between bouts of coughing. I made a pear & apple pie, churned the new scraps into the compost in the garden, and tidied up. My hip has been killing me, as well as lower back, so not staying on "the puter" long. Have some sewing to do. Tomorrow is grocery store and kid school activity...

...its that special time of year where the leaves fall off the trees and you feel compelled to do something about it. (or ones SO or housemates indicate something should be done) Leaves make for great compost, but are both easy and hard to compost correctly. Leaf litter left undisturbed is how you get dirt in deciduous forests. It just takes 2-3 years to decompose on its own. Of course your leaves...

...like potatoes, carrots, turnips, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and much more.  Even if you're not planning on planting Fall veggies this year, there's plenty to do in the Fall garden.  Rejuventate compost bins that have gone a little stale in the summer heat, and feed them with Fall leaves.  Fertilize your lawns and trees,  top-dress your flower and vegetable beds with compost, and start planning...

a few different things - i got 3 huge bags of leaves from my neighbour.  i was told to leave them in the bags and they will compost in there in about a month.  should these be in the sun or the shade?  they are black plastic if that makes a difference. other than buying "organic fertiliser" how would i go about supplementing potted plants?  i want to stay way from miracle grow (im also too cheap...

So when I tidy  up the house plants I generally put the leaves in the compost.  I am about ready to toss a few of my hanging baskets in there because we have had several heavy frosts and they are now dead.  Any reason why I can't dump a flowering house plant into my general compost pile.  I would imagine no, but figured I would ask.

Hurrah! We have just been to the allotment, constructed a tumbling compost bin and dug over a very small patch of earth (3 x 5ft approx) with the intention of planting GARLICS in it in a couple of weeks' time. We removed two binbags full of ROOTS from the dug-over patch (there are still loads left though, aargh), said hello to lots of earthworms and a centipede, and then covered the patch up with the...

...That's probably because I didn't let Ms. Peterson have it yesterday. But I had to come up with some way to release all that pent-up emotion so it won't just eat at me all day. My solution? The compost pile. I don't think I had previously appreciated just how satisfying it is to stab and twist a pitchfork into something over and over again. The yelling and cursing helped, too. About five minutes...

The compost bins arrived yesterday - they were sitting round the back when I got home! W000000t etc. And the best thing is that they come in GRATE BIG CARDBOARD BOXES - just right for MULCHING!

No connection between these two topics! I'm thinking of friends because I've just made contact with someone I worked with over 40 years ago. This was via the Internet and specifically Friends Reunited...handles a very large range of recyclable materials including many plastics. I don't know how they are sorted. I notice that goods increasingly use moulded card packaging rather than expanded polystyrene