Saturday, April 16, 2011

Critter Identified/Great Compost Bin Found!!

An unidentified critter has been breaking into my compost bin.  I have an old bin made by Smith & Hawken with a (supposedly) latching lid.  It looks like this, but more worn out & a little warped:

Most mornings the lid is off & there is debris spread out over my yard.  Ugh.  I tried putting a brick on the lid, but that didn't work.  I put a cinder block on there and the whole bin was pushed a few feet over, with a little trail of compost coming out the bottom.  I tried leaving my dog door open later so my dog could go out & maybe scare away critters, but that didn't help.  I tried keeping food scraps out of the bin for a while, only putting yard clipping in it.  Still got broken into & spread around!  Who does that?!??!  So I decided to stalk the little culprit & see who he or she was.
Oops.  It was my dog.  No wonder letting him out late at night didn't help.  I caught him jumping onto the bin, somehow removing the lid, and having great fun with the compost.  This might also explain those mystery bouts of diarrhea he had :(
So- he can open the bin and push the bin.  This is not good.  I began searching online for solutions.  Turns out when you type "dog proof compost bin" into search engines, you get a lot of information on composting dog poop!  Who knew?  Amazingly, also some information on composting human poop!  That is apparently common enough that it has it's own name: Humanure.  News to me, and although I do try to be green, not something I feel like trying yet.
OK, back to the dog issue - I found a great, sturdy, *securely* latching bin that even my dog (who, it turns out, may as well have thumbs) can't break into!  He did push it a couple of feet once, but only when it was mostly empty.  Now it's too heave for him.  Success!  It's called the SoilSaver, and so far I am super happy with it!
This is the bin:
Note - that is not my yard in the background, my yard is way more chaotic than that.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Have to be cruel to be kind

I think I have trouble letting go.  I'm trying to grow more of my own food, but after I plant seeds, I can't stand to thin the young plants.  I just hate the process of watching a seedling push roots into the earth, force it's way up through the soil, straighten it's little neck out, spread it's little "wings" (er, leaves), reach for the sky... and get pinched off and thrown in the compost pile.  So this year I thought I'd try keeping all the seedlings.  I used little soil pellets and put a couple of seeds in each one.  When the seedlings looked big enough, if more than one had grown in a single pellet, I used scissors to cut the pellet in half, then I placed each half, with potting soil, into it's own little container.  I gave them light and water and was super excited to wait & see all my little "babies" thrive!  But they didn't :(  Instead, it seems my bright idea disrupted the root systems of both seedlings, causing almost all of them to wither away.  Great.  So I guess all those experienced gardeners who told me to pinch off some of the seedlings were right after all. 
Back to the drawing board.
And I guess this time I'd better bite the bullet and kill some of the little guys.  I guess I just can't save them all.  Survival of the fittest?
Hey - you know what makes me feel better?  Feeding the culled sprouts to my chickens!

Trying to grow your own veggies, compost your waste, or any other efforts to live more sustainably?  Check out this great contest at Thanks for Today!   http://thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/2011/03/gardeners-sustainable-living-20