My brown eyed girl: spring and compost

Ok, I’ve got spring fever and can't wait for that dang ground hog to "not" see his shadow. Well its official there was no shadow and Phil is predicting and early spring. You don’t know just how much that thrills me to the tips of my tiny crocus peeking through the snow.

All this talk of spring has got me going with thoughts of a lush healthy garden of flowers and vegetables.

my mothers day wish

Believe it or not I have been prepping all winter for spring. I am a big believer in compost and although its winter we are fortunate enough to be able to obtain fresh fruit and veggies every day through our local grocery story. Although I myself can’t eat all the fruit and veggies I want, my family loves them. So all winter I have been composting in my freezer, yes I said my freezer, let me explain. I don’t yet have a compost bin (mothers day is coming up and I've already put in my request) anyways, I've found a great way to compost year round in a smaller and less aromatic way. What you will need is an old blender, I found mine at a second hand store, zip lock freezer bags and a sharpie marker.

What you do is when your preparing a meal and you have biodegradable left over’s like peelings and such you toss them into the blender with a bit of water and purée. Pour the pulp purée into the freezer bag clearly mark it with the date and “compost". That's it it's that simple and when spring time rolls around your ready to feed your garden. Just after May, or mother’s day is the best time to start your seedlings and transplants. Place a little pulp in the hole before placing in your new seedlings and or transplants, finish filling in the dirt and then top it off with a sound watering of your liquid pulp and water. You'll find that you get less order while composting and the blender does all the breaking down for you. Once the weather permits you can do your compost puree daily and just pour it fresh on the garden, no more freezer bags until winter.

I hope you enjoyed my little compost tips and remember with compost "no protein" in the mix, only natural ingredients I also have another little tip for all you composter on a large scale. If you have a compost barrel and its getting a little stinky, just add paper. That’s right shredded paper, I have a paper shredder in my home office and I save all the clipping (the shredded paper). Toss the shredded paper into the composter and mix. This will help to eliminate odor and speed up the break down. Someone once told me you could put nitrogen in the mix to help with odor and break down, I have just never done it.