What did you do in the garden today?

[gtaus]

Yeah, I’m grateful for our compost pickup. I think they use the natural gas for local buses and such. I should probably look into it. But I’m very much looking forward to putting our home grown compost on the garden beds next spring!

I have heard that some communities there in the Pacific Northwest have compost drop off machines where you dump your organics into the machine and it grinds up, mixes up, and composts the stuff. Not quite sure if everything is kept in the machine or if the bins are emptied out and transported to a larger scale composting facility.

It would be great if anyone living in such an area where they have such a composting machine system could upload some photos and tell us how it works.

I see advertising every once in a while, for the Lomi home composting machine....

It does not really compost the organics. Basically, it dehydrates the material and grinds it up. Still, it's a step forward in "composting" for people who don't have better methods.

I wonder if those community composting machines are like giant Lomi machines? I think it would be great if you dumped off a bucket of organics in the front of the machine, and then you could go to the back of the machine and get a bucket of dried, ground up, processed "compost" for your donation. Probably not close to a 1:1 payback, but some way to reward people who feed the machine.

I have been watching these home kitchen composting machines for a number of years. They can't seem to sell or make enough of them to get the price down to point where more people will buy them. I'm thinking less than $100 per machine and maybe they would be more successful. I have heard positive reviews from people who have them, so the system works for them.

Of course, if you have a backyard flock, you are still better off feeding all the kitchen scraps and leftover directly to the chickens. Lomi inventors state that as well. Their target customer is someone who probably lives in town, or an apartment, and does not have other options such as a backyard flock or compost bins for composting.

Here is a great video on the Lomi with the CEO of the company explaining what the machine does and who it is for. I found the 18-minute interview interesting...

 

[fuzzi]

Good afternoon all. Got the bamboo around the top of the garden and fairy lights are attached too. Now I just need to move dirt and get ready for planting. Going to concentrate on filling up one bed with the soil on hand mixed with perlite so I can at least put in a few things, particularly carrots. Still have some gnomes put in there too
View attachment 3681318

Got the picket fence up, but the chickens kept after the aloe I had in the large side of the sink so I put a metal agave in there instead. The little watering can has solar lights as water so I put some glass pebbles in the bottom of the sink. Think it needs another package or two though

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Can’t wait to see what it all looks like at night!

What will you be putting in the bottom of the beds?

Last year I tried Hugelkulture for the first time and it worked great. You put wood, branches, other organic debris in the bottom of the bed, so only the top 8"-12" is soil. It helps with drainage and with the cost of soil. It also slowly adds compost to the bed as it decomposes. I believe @gtaus has discovered it also helps retain moisture so you don't have to water as often.

 

[The Welch Chickens]

Today I planted some allium bulbs for the first time. I'm excited for them to come up this spring! They are the purple kind, like these:

 

[gtaus]

Last year I tried Hugelkulture for the first time and it worked great. You put wood, branches, other organic debris in the bottom of the bed, so only the top 8"-12" is soil. It helps with drainage and with the cost of soil. It also slowly adds compost to the bed as it decomposes. I believe @gtaus has discovered it also helps retain moisture so you don't have to water as often.

Thanks for the shout out @fuzzi

@igorsMistress - I really became a believer in the hügelkultur method of raised bed gardening a couple years ago when we had a terrible drought summer. I did not have running water in my main garden. All my in-ground plants and plants in my "normal" raised beds dried up and died. The plants in the hügelkultur raised beds survived with maybe 70-80% normal harvest at the end of the year. That was a big eye opener for me.

Since then, all my new raised beds use the hügelkultur method. The wood acts like a giant sponge, holding water to be released later when the plants need it, whereas normal soil drains out and dries up pretty fast. As the wood decays, it actually works better as a sponge.

The decaying wood feeds the plants from below, but the surface level of the soil drops a good 1 to 2 inches every year because that material is composting in the raised bed. That is about perfect for me as I refresh the top of the soil with fresh chicken run compost every spring to bring the level back up to the top. So, the plants get fed new compost from the top as well. The chicken run compost is also very good at retaining moisture. Another plus.

I should also mention that after that terrible drought summer, I decided to move my garden to my backyard next to the chicken coop and run and within distance of using a garden hose from the house to water the hügelkultur raised beds. Even though I could now water the raised beds every day if needed, I find the hügelkultur raised beds don't need to be watered as frequently as a normal raised bed would, plus the hügelkultur wood acting as a sponge helps to keep the plants more consistently fed with water.

My main gardening efforts are now concentrated in my backyard, but I still have the old garden without running water for extra plants. I will still have some plants that get planted there in the old garden, but they are on their own for the most part.

Here is a picture of my pallet wood hügelkultur 16-inch-high raised beds v. 2.0 that I am currently building in my backyard...

 

[CNJ]

I dug up and moved my OCD pineapple plants again today. They must be pissed off with me. I watched a few pineapple videos and got inspired. The main points were 5-gallon pot per plant, lots of sun and fruiting fertilizer. It takes a full cut crown 6 months to fruit in proper growing conditions.

These plants were started by cutting the crown into 4 pieces. It took a year to get to this size. They were kept in a gallon bucket on the side of my house that has the least amount of sun light. I think starting with a full crown would have faster results and full sun is needed for it to fruit.

I'll be transplanting 4 more plants into 5-gal wicking buckets for a total of 7 pineapple plants. I can't wait for them to fruit.................

This product will induce fruiting: https://a.co/d/e40eBNR

 

[FrannyNZooey]

I have heard that some communities there in the Pacific Northwest have compost drop off machines where you dump your organics into the machine and it grinds up, mixes up, and composts the stuff. Not quite sure if everything is kept in the machine or if the bins are emptied out and transported to a larger scale composting facility.

It would be great if anyone living in such an area where they have such a composting machine system could upload some photos and tell us how it works.

I see advertising every once in a while, for the Lomi home composting machine....

View attachment 3681334

It does not really compost the organics. Basically, it dehydrates the material and grinds it up. Still, it's a step forward in "composting" for people who don't have better methods.

I wonder if those community composting machines are like giant Lomi machines? I think it would be great if you dumped off a bucket of organics in the front of the machine, and then you could go to the back of the machine and get a bucket of dried, ground up, processed "compost" for your donation. Probably not close to a 1:1 payback, but some way to reward people who feed the machine.

I have been watching these home kitchen composting machines for a number of years. They can't seem to sell or make enough of them to get the price down to point where more people will buy them. I'm thinking less than $100 per machine and maybe they would be more successful. I have heard positive reviews from people who have them, so the system works for them.

Of course, if you have a backyard flock, you are still better off feeding all the kitchen scraps and leftover directly to the chickens. Lomi inventors state that as well. Their target customer is someone who probably lives in town, or an apartment, and does not have other options such as a backyard flock or compost bins for composting.

Here is a great video on the Lomi with the CEO of the company explaining what the machine does and who it is for. I found the 18-minute interview interesting...

I was gifted a container of Lomi fertilizer stuff last year from a friend who had more than she could use. I think it did ok in the garden this year. Not really any complaints. But I probably wouldn’t purchase one since we have our bins. She said that it’s much larger and louder than you think. It also takes forever to make the compost. They run it overnight in their garage. Yes, I think their target audience is for folks who don’t have room for typical compost bins and/or just want the compost for house plants or smallish yards. It’s great that it exists though!

 

[igorsMistress]

What will you be putting in the bottom of the beds?

Last year I tried Hugelkulture for the first time and it worked great. You put wood, branches, other organic debris in the bottom of the bed, so only the top 8"-12" is soil. It helps with drainage and with the cost of soil. It also slowly adds compost to the bed as it decomposes. I believe @gtaus has discovered it also helps retain moisture so you don't have to water as often.

I’m experimenting. One will be hugelkulture, one I’m using these water things that came with the beds and two will just be raised bed mix and perlite.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Mintues, with no back pain...

View attachment 3680939

Yes, but I don't have one of those.... Unless I can talk you into coming down South to build me one....

 

[igorsMistress]

It’s a very pleasant evening outdoors. Our view from the patio

 

[Sally PB]

^^Lovely! Looking forward to pictures of those bins filled with plants, lit by those lights.