Gardening Q's and A's

[rubywillow]

Gardening Q's and A's

I LOVE gardening with earthworm compost. My favorite is what I get underneath my g'daughters rabbit cages. Some guy has made a HUGE business with worm poo! They aerate, eat the bad stuff, compost quickly and efficiently, and when the fishing urge strikes, Bob's your uncle!

[hulagirl]

Gardening Q's and A's

Thanks Sunbeam for all the sluggy ideas. I don't think I should buy beer yet (dangerous territory) so will try the other strategies.

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Hi Gardening Gang,
Is that a good name for this group?

RubyWillow, there is a worm compost farm just up the road from me. The name of his product is Worm Power. It is sold in garden stores. I will probably start my first worm compost bin in the next few weeks. A friend of mine has been doing this, and she offered to give me some worms. I heard a presentation on this last month, hadn't thought about it in years. No time like NOW!

I make compost in several ways, and also buy (weedless) bags because I never have enough. I use lots of compost in every planting hole, and also mulch with it in the fall.

I have a wire bin for kitchen vegetative scraps. Coffee grounds I save separately, and put them right on the garden as mulch. They are not acidic - I read this somewhere, then did my own pH test. Anyway, I just keep piling the scraps on the pile, then every couple of months take off one side of the bin, pull most of it forward with a long-handled cultivator, stir it all up, then pile it back up. As you do this the small finished stuff settles to the bottom. In the fall, I pull off the top stuff, and shovel the bottom stuff into my wheeled cart, so I can move it and spread it where I need it.

Fall leaves I vacuum up with a blower/vaccum tool, or you can use a lawn mower with a bagging attachment. My vegetable garden is fenced to protect from deer and other maurauders, so I just dump the chopped leaves in there. In the spring I stir them up and push them all aside to allow the soil to warm, then mulch them on the garden after I have planted and the plants are settled in. The leaves are all broken down by fall, and I start again. The lowest leaves do seem to get more eaten (probably by slugs) when the mulch is on, so I wait until the plants are big enough to tolerate this. I should use some of my own advice to control the slugs better.

If you have animal manure to work into the compost, it will be richer in nutrients, but the system I use works just fine. You don't need those three bins that are typically described when you read about compost. You don't need to lift it with a fork, which is way too hard for my bad back. You don't need to alternate layers of brown and green, like thye describe. It does need a balance of air and mosture: too dry and it won't decompose, too wet and it will rot and smell bad. If my pile smells bad enough to offend me, I take the side off the bin, and spread it all out for a couple of days to let it dry out more.

So there, I hope this helps anyone interested in composting.

Mags, I have also used kitchen chemical cleaners to kill unwanted critters, especially snakes. Snakes are actually garden helpers, but they keep coming into our basement, and I have found them a couple of times on the first floor of our house. One came right out the baseboard heating vent. Did you know they can slither straight up walls? Yuck!

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Hulagirl,
I did wonder about people here not wanting to buy beer for obvious reasons, so you might rather buy slug bait at the garden center. Any of those products will would work as bait in the container. You could probably also make a bait with sugar, water and a little yeast. Suggestions, anyone?

[brittzak]

Gardening Q's and A's

This may be GROSS, but I have a rabbit and have been told to take his pop and work it around all my flowers right in to the soil and it is a great fertilizer. Is this true? I havent done it yet, but man one lil rabbit has a bunch of pop. I could fertilizer tons with it.

[gabby]

Gardening Q's and A's

luv......that is gross

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

LuvUAll,
You need to let the poop age first, mix it with leaves and other vegetative stuff, to make it into compost. Takes about six months of warm weather, I think. I don't have animals, so I don't put any manure in my compost, but it would be a richer product if I did.

[brittzak]

Gardening Q's and A's

Very good...glad I asked...thanks!

[rubywillow]

Gardening Q's and A's

brittzak;577968 wrote: This may be GROSS, but I have a rabbit and have been told to take his pop and work it around all my flowers right in to the soil and it is a great fertilizer. Is this true? I havent done it yet, but man one lil rabbit has a bunch of pop. I could fertilizer tons with it.

Brit, I LOVE using rabbit poo, because unlike other manures, it doesn't burn and a little goes a long way. If you have it available its a goldmine! It attracts earthworms, another plus, and it doesn't really smell after a few days and spreading it around. Can't beat it in my book!

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

More2life,
A spray I've used is 50/50 rubbling alcohol and water, with just a few drops of dish soap to help it stick.

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Ruby,
Thanks for the inside poop on rabbit poop. I guess because they produce it in small pellets, you can put it right in the soil without composting. I thought of getting a bunny once, but I'm pretty busy already, working full-time. Maybe after I retire.

[brittzak]

Gardening Q's and A's

Sunbeam,
The spray 50/50 alcohol and water.....does this work for roses as well? And what does it kill exactly, bugs and fungus or just bugs?

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

Luv,
The alcohol spray is for bugs. There is a different spray for roses, the black spot fungus is terrible on many rose varieties. I grow Knock Out and other hardy disease-resistent roses, but I will look up the home made spray for roses and post it.

[Sunbeam]

Gardening Q's and A's

I found this recipe on garden web:
2 tbls baking soda
2 tbls dish soap
2 tlbs vegetable oil
1 gallon water

Spray this on about every 3 days for fungus. The poster at garden web said it also works for bugs, but I'm not so sure about that.

I use neem oil for japanese beetles, which are bad here July and early August.

[klingsor]

Gardening Q's and A's

one good thing for slugs and snails is surround plants ( I mean the surrounding soil ) with the cold ashes of a fire. they don't dare to tresspass them

cheers.