Spring is here, time to garden.

One of my favorite things used to be spending time working in the yard., this was when i actually had time to spend doing anything except change diapers and clean up baby toys. Now since we have moved into a new home i have a nice little plot of land in the back with just enough space (and sunlight) to do a comfortable size garden.

Apparently the house sat for at least one and a half years before we moved in and the previous owners put very little time and effort into taking care of it so its been quite a chore getting it ready for fruits and veggies.

This weekend consisted of digging up every little rock in the garden (and there were more than quite a few LARGE ones as well), tilling it, putting down compost, then fresh topsoil. After that was done in went the plants!

We've got strawberries, and every variety of heirloom tomato you could want. Next came building an outdoor compost bin. It went surprisingly well considering i had no idea what i was doing. I just saved a palette from a previous delivery and then stopped by home depot to snag one of their. A few hours of banging later plus i built a nice little frame. All thats needed is a some strong chicken wire then its all done.

Compost in the kitchen

Im an earth nut AND a gardening nut which means anything that combines recycling and beefing up my plants is an automatic no brainer. Since we are in a new home and my outdoor compost heap hasn't been built yet i wanted a way to start my heap indoors that didnt stink up the joint.

Then, she stepped into my life.....

The Norpro kitchen compost crock is an odorless way to save all your kitchen scraps and turn them into compost and it doesn't look too shabby to boot.  I cook most if not all of my food from scratch, I mean, I even feel guilty for using pre-made pie crusts.....THE SHAME! So this usually means lots of rinds and berries and stems and shavings with nowhere to go except the trash. This solved that problem, it eats a good amount of trash without using red wigglers (i dont think there would be enough oxygen for worms to survive in there) and once its done you can go straight to your garden or flower pots with the brown gold known as compost. 

The black thing on top is the air filter to keep all the methane smells at bay. 

I highly suggest this one for any gardeners or even if you just have house plants and want to keep them in best of health. 

For some info on HOW to compost, check out this link, or the book "Compost" by Ken Thompson its not particularly difficult but there are a few things to keep in mind: acidity, moisture level, temperature, worms if you choose to use them, nitrogen levels. It may sound confusing but its very easy after you do a wee bit of reading.