Composting - a Sheet-mulch Method

People tell me all the time that they can't compost at home, because the smell will attract bears and other wildlife to their yard.
Here's a method we call "sheet mulching", done in a way that discourages wildlife. The primary access barriers are straw to reduce odors, heavy wire mesh panel to restrict digging or burrowing critters, and a few heavy flagstones, so the mesh panel cannot easily be removed.
Of course, I must qualify that with the story of the REALLY BIG BEAR who entered my backyard years ago, during an especially lean drought year. The bear flipped the flagstones across the yard, tossed the mesh panel after them, and proceeded to munch down on rotten veggies, straw, dirt and worms. When I saw the evidence the morning after, I couldn't imagine how hungry the poor bear must have been, to stoop so low on the food chain.
I won't go into too much detail describing this sheet mulching method, because the pictures should suffice. The layers are simple:

• Flagstones, over
• Mesh panel (heavy-duty fencing mesh, galvanized steel) over
• Straw (preferably chemical free), about 3" thick, loosely laid, over
• Garbage (without meat products, just organic plant matter) over
• Last week's garbage, straw, soil and worms - pull back the loose straw, spread new garbage over old, and cover with some old, some new straw, then water generously. The worms will come up and start processing immediately.

Oh, one last thing, which I did not include in the photos - the best critter repellent you can use is urine - piss on the wet straw just before you replace the flagstones. Men might have an easier time with this than the ladies, but it can be one good reason for a gal to keep a man around.
Happy composting!
MT

Spring Skiing on Sopris

My daughter March, my friend David Bedford and I went for a Spring Ski on Mt. Sopris, Sunday June 1, 2008.

Fruit Blossom Christmas Tree

I have always frustrated the ladies in my house, especially the young 'uns, with my unorthodox Christmas Trees.
First there was the National Forest tree, harvested in the hills above Ruedi Reservoir, and hauled home on the roof of the VW Beetle we drove exclusively back in the 80's. The problem was one of perspective, when I had gone off to harvest this tree by myself, leaving the young ladies home to help Mom bake Christmas cookies. I failed to have with me the proper female representation, which would have resulted in a proper tree.
Instead, I selected a little, stunted tree that was being blocked from any hope of sun by three enormous trees, that did not look as if they were going to retire anytime soon. This scrawny thing was immediately christened "Dad's Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" by our then 5 and 7 year old daughters.
The next year, I visited our local tree rancher, and bought a small, beautifully shaped Colorado Blue Spruce, and a huge plastic pot to plant it in. For several years, I got away with bringing "Mr. Christmas" into the house on a hand truck, padding it's container with all kinds of insulating blankets to keep it from thawing and waking up. To the annual cries of our children, I moved Mr. Christmas back outside before New Years Day, so it wouldn't lose it's seasonal rhythms and die when shoved back into the cold. Eventually, the tree got too big to bring indoors, so I gave it to some friends to plant in the backyard of their new house.
Since then, we've tried a fake tree nobody liked, and a rusty-metal Christmas Tree Sculpture, which was a story all its own.
Our daughters came home for Christmas 2007, and I had installed a completely new kind of Christmas Tree, which met, finally, with their complete approval. Haley and March are in their twenties now, and independent. They are also, as life experience would allow, more tolerant, maybe even appreciative of their Dad's quirky ways.
This Christmas Tree was a large branch from our backyard Apricot Tree, rigged into a bucket of water in the corner of the Living Room, and wired with strings of tiny red lights. It looked very artful, if I don't say so myself. The ladies all loved it. I was happy too, because I'd used a live tree branch that I was going to prune off this winter anyway, and the parent tree would live on, making new branches and new fruit every year.
Imagine our surprise, when two weeks after I had installed this Christmas Tree, flowering buds began to pop open all over the branches. In the next several weeks, the branch rewarded us with a full display of hundreds of Apricot blossoms. They filled the house with their beautiful spring aroma. (You can see a slideshow of the blossoms by clicking here)
For the rest of the winter, I gained a new perspective, and incentive, for pruning fruit trees. Our house became an arboretum, with vases in every room, sporting apple, pear, plum and cherry branches, all of them growing blossoms and/or leaves. Those with only leaves turned out to be from trees taking the 2008 season off from fruit production. A handy preview tool, these winter blossoms.
Would you like to have a blossoming Christmas Tree next winter? Stay tuned to this blog, where I will publish a way for us to get together and place local Holiday blossoms in as many homes as we can around here. We will also have our plans for this "Fruit Blossom Christmas Tree" sale on our Fat City Farms website:
http://www.fatcityfarms.org

Re-grown Lettuce

My wife Jan brought home what seemed to be an over-packaged head of lettuce, one of these large heads of Colorado-grown Bibb Lettuce, complete with it's root ball (hydroponic?), in a large plastic bubble package. Don't always trust your first reaction. This may be treasure in disguise!

Indeed, when we finished eating the lettuce, I placed the root ball in a wide-mouthed glass of water, and left it to sit on the counter by the window. Three days later, voila! The plant is growing new leaves. I planted it in the garden after a week, but it was set back by a couple of hungry, marauding slugs. I had forgotten to fill the slug pool with some Bud, distracting them by opening the neighborhood pub. No matter, the head started growing again immediately when I did get the slug-distracting pool of beer installed.

The second head of lettuce like this we ate, I'm leaving it in the window for a week or two longer, let it get a good headstart on the pill bugs and slugs.

Now, what to do with the large plastic bubble?! It is recycle-class #1, so I could just toss it in the recycling bin, and know it will be headed back into clothing, new packaging, or whatever.

Or, I could save a few of these bubbles for autumn, when I harvest the lettuce again. Then I'll plant the root ball again, only this time back in the bubble, to protect it from the cool nights, while I see if we can harvest a round #3 from each head of early summer lettuce.