Pissing in the Rain

[Oedipussy Rex]

So I'm standing outside, in a thunderstorm, getting soaked, urinating on the compost heap because I'm serious about making this garden work, dammit.

[Kersus]

Better than into the wind!

[rredmond]

Can the answer be anything but leeks????

[Kersus]

No the answer is always Leeks.

[Oedipussy Rex]

I was talking about taking one in my post.

[rredmond]

oooooooooohhhhhh.

[Oedipussy Rex]

Stupid fricking weather. "Plant as soon as the ground is workable," the seed packet reads. "Time to maturity: 21 days." 21 days, my pimply, pasty-white ass. After a month, all I have are shoots. "Thin to two inches apart about when 2" tall." Two inches tall? I'm still waiting for a half inch. If this is what's happening with the radishes, I'm ho/ding no hope for the cauliflower.

On the bright side, I have plenty of piss-soaked straw and leaves.

[rredmond]

It's good to know that as long as the beer holds out there will be a bright side!

--Ron--

[Oedipussy Rex]

Found out why I wasn't getting the heat I read there should have been. According to all the literature and gardening websites and blogs and forum comments and youtubes videos, etc., composting creates heat, sometimes in the 130 to 150 Fahrenheit range. "When the composting is cooking, you can feel the heat," they say.

I started a new compost bin using the Berkeley Method, developed in the late '60s early '70s at Berkeley University back in the days when research universities could do research that actually benefited society, not corporations. The method, lasagna-style layering of brown material (leaves, straw, shredded paper, and other high carbon items) with green material (lawn clippings, kitchen scraps, and other high nitrogen items) (not animal-based: Meat, bone, fat, etc. take longer to break down and attract unwanted critters, like flies and rats and raccoons and bears) and turning the pile at proper intervals, can produce mulch in as little as 18 days. Today was the first turn and the center of the pile was bone dry, despite the fact that when making the pile I'd empty the lawnmower bag (I was doing the first mow of the year), layer some straw and/or leaves, then hose the pile down. The top layers were fine, but not below where all the work is being done. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

[Kersus]

And here I'm just thinking that soon our partially snow covered grass will need to be mowed and he's mulching! What do you do with grease/oil from cooking?