To Quote Praxxus55712 "Today Is A Good Day"

Celosia and Gazania plants waiting patiently for me to love them!

Thanks Praxxus55712 for the quote and the inspiration to always find the good in life. Today was a good day all around. I was up at 10:30am. First time in a very, very long time (I suffer from insomnia, my son works nights and my daughter has been sick for over a month, so everyone's schedule is off) and despite being up "so early", I feel pretty good for it being almost 12 hours later, most of which I spent outdoors doing some type of gardening activity.

The morning found me emptying 2 30-gallon totes of municipal compost into my step beds to prepare for getting more compost and wood chips. Early afternoon found me (and my Son) filling said 30-gallon totes full of compost and wood chips. Hard to believe that 60 gallons of dirt and 30 gallons of wood chips is not enough!! (but I'd already made 3 trips back in May and we had a friend fill his pickup (twice) with the municipal compost when the beds were done to get us started!) I will be making another trip on Monday and probably several at that. That being said, I now have an 18'x6' bed in the back that wasn't there originally that needs to be filled as well as garden space behind the shed that was originally supposed to be a yard waste (aka long term slow) compost pile so there is more square footage to handle now.

Late afternoon found me putting wood chips around the "wild squash" bed (and the 2 plants that refused to be bedded and sprouted up outside the box). This also involved moving the concrete and large rock pile that was created from sifting all the dirt in the front beds way back in April when the weather finally broke long enough to get started on my gardening adventures and were carelessly tossed behind the shed without thoughts of future space use. All of the smaller rocks were actually spread out over the weeds where the compost originally was. The squash bed went on top of that but since it keeps getting overrun with weeds and may be valuable garden space at some point I figured I'd kill to birds (or weeds) with one stone (err, wood chip). Eventually when the chips break down and become some fertile soil I'll sift those rocks out again. For now they're creating some good drainage under the squash bed and  helping to somewhat control weeds.

After that I took the twigs I cut off the forsythia bushes behind the shed about a week ago (because they were slowly  making their way across the street and just generally getting in my way ) that were piled up next to my compost bin and began another compost pile with a bag of leaves I had stashed under said bush and weeds that I pulled from the front beds before filling. I haven't cut the lawn in a few weeks (not that there's much to cut and since it hasn't rained much, it hasn't grown much) so I didn't have grass clippings. Might do that and some weed whacking tomorrow just so I have more greens for the compost pile. I'm also probably going to look for a tarp as well but not sure if I can find a green one so that it blends in with the bush and existing compost bin. Been toying around with an organic version of "drunken composting" (thanks to Reaganite71). The principal is simple (layer grass clippings with food scraps and other browns and spray down after each sandwich section with a combination of beer, cola and ammonia = bacteria, sugar and nitrogen) and the method is supposed to yield you compost in about 10-14 days. Granted his method is mostly grass clippings, but there is no reason you couldn't use this method to accelerate the breakdown of more food scraps and leaves in the fall. This was my thinking. I have leaves, and I have food scraps. I just don't have a normally hot compost due to lack of grass clippings and other superheaters so the food usually ends up a big mushy layer among layers of leaves. Even if I'm turning it, it still takes way too long to break down. It's compost. I know it takes time, but I have beds to fill and plants to get ready for winter harvest planting so I'm kind of in a need for quality compost at the moment. Most of my current 3'x3' bin was a result of everything I ate all winter long plus a bunch of twigs and leaves that were collected earlier in the spring.

Here's the problem I have with Reaganite's formula. The ingredients are not organic. Even if you could find an organic beer, more than likely it was pasteurized so it's no longer alive defeating the purpose of adding the beer to the pile for enzymes and living bacteria. If you were of the type to brew your own then you have a great resource in the spent grains (thanks One Yard Revolution for the informative video) as well as a living beer to use in this recipe. Soda - well, the only thing I'd consider organic about soda is if you replaced it with a flavored water kefir or bubbly kombucha. This is actually a great substitute since you wouldn't need the beer! Ammonia - well, I have no idea how that is made but if it's man made for profit, I'm pretty sure it's not organic. That is a source of liquid nitrogen. Hmmmm wonder where else I could find that?? Ever go to the bathroom? In fact, I suppose you go quite often. I know I do!

Urine is a great source of liquid nitrogen as well as other vitamins and minerals that your body expels when it doesn't use them. It is also an excellent product for your garden and compost pile. Get over it! It's pee. We all do it. Little kids carry it around in a gel laden diaper. Guys do it when the opportunity (or excess beer) strikes. Heck even a few women have been known to let it out outdoors when the urge is too hard to resist and no WaWa's is in sight! (WaWa's, for all you southerners, is the north's version of Circle K) It's time we got back to our roots (quite literally) and started doing things that make sense to protect the environment before there is no safe place left on the planet. Why waste drinkable water to get rid of it and end up polluting some stream somewhere when you can keep it local and put it to excellent use? Think about it - if you have septic (which I do), you're kind of doing this anyway but it's mixed with solid waste (BTW, that's not cool to use in your garden!!). If the urine is separated and you're not sick or on any medications, there is no reason you can't do this. The trick for me is finding a way to store it and access it so that I don't want to vomit every time I open the container. I will have to look into a small storage container for under the house and a separating toilet. I'm also trying to figure out how to set up a grey water system as well so that I can use laundry, sink and shower water instead of letting it overflow my septic all the time.

Sorry about that. I totally went off on a tangent that was unplanned. Are tangents ever really planned?? Anyhow, oh, yeah. I made another compost pile and no, I haven't peed on it. BUT I did add some of my compost tea figuring it will have the beneficial organisms in my current bin to help speed it up a bit while I'm figuring out what to do with this recipe.

Ok, get compost/chips, chip squash bed, make compost, oh yeah! USE COMPOST. I was able to take out about 1/4 of my bin as mostly usable compost to add to the step beds that had been neglected since moving the plants in May. Even though they weren't walked on, they sure did compact and dry out. This is another reminder (thanks again Praxxus55712) that you should continue to water your fallow beds to keep the organisms and ecosystems going so that they're ready when you are to replant them. Lesson learned, the hard way (but, that's how I seem to learn most of my life lessons). So I added my compost and municipal compost (whatever that is made of) to 4 of the 8 step beds that need it. I would have done them all but darn if that old Sun didn't just up and split on me before I could get to them all. I tell you the work ethic these days of some people is just... (another day, another rant!)

I also planted 24 celosia plants in 2 of the beds and laid out plantings for tomorrow. I had purchased a couple of flats back in the end of May but then my daughter got sick so I never go to plant them. I've been (barely) maintaining them on the patio but they were really getting bad and starting to look like they weren't going to survive. I also have a flat of Gazanias that need to be planted in those beds too, or maybe I'll put them on the side of the house where the tomato plants were...but I'm hoping my cantaloupe plants will recover from the varmint buffet and sprawl across it. I don't think the Gazanias will get big enough to be taller than the leaves. I'll have to see. Might need to re-route the cantaloupe outside of the bed like originally planned.

I've eaten dinner, gotten plenty of hydration (added 1/2 litre of pedialyte to my water with a splash of kombucha today while outside so I didn't dehydrate - probably what kept me going so long!) and omg - I wrote a blog post and it's only 11:30 pm!!! Wow. I think it's time I went to bed, or at least lie down so my body can begin to recover from everything I did today and get ready for more tomorrow! It sure feels good (I'm tired and sore, don't get me wrong) to have a day like this. I feel like my gardening mojo is almost back. Which is a good thing because I have beds to prepare and plantings to organize before it's time to get going for the winter garden!

Yup, today was definitely a Good Day!