Garden Finders

What do gardeners, the local food movement and enthusiastic recyclers all have in common? Sounds like the start of a bad joke – in truth, the answer is that they are spending more time in their backyard being part of the compost revolution.

Composting can reduce your household waste by one-third to one-half, while creating organic matter, a critical part of healthy soil. Composting and gardening is an art tied to science and patience. There are as many ways to compost as there are to prune a tree or bake a cake. Following some basic rules will lead to successful backyard composting.

The basic mix is called the C/N ratio. C = carbon, N = nitrogen. Mix two to three parts carbon (dried leaves, dried old grass, wood chips, shredded newspaper) and one part nitrogen (green yard waste, grass clippings, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds). These need to be added in alternate layers.

Keep in mind that grass clippings from lawns treated with chemical weed killers can kill the microbes in working compost and soil, as well as work their way into waterways. Please use caution when composting chemically-treated grass clippings.

Moisture and oxygen are both necessary. We strive for 65 per cent moisture in our compost piles at the Good Earth site. A quick way to test your compost moisture level at home is to take some of your mixture and squeeze it in your hands, a drop or two of water should fall out. If no water comes out, you probably need to add water to the pile, or add more wet materials like grass and vegetable scraps. If it’s too wet, you will need to add more carbon-rich materials.

Getting air incorporated into the mix is equally important. It’s oxygen that feeds the microbes that break down the materials. Adding air can be achieved by turning the compost pile over with a pitch fork and keeping it from compacting. Your composter should have the ability to let air get into it from all sides.

Once the mix is made, it starts to heat up. You will want to be careful with weed seeds. Temperatures of 130-145 F need to be reached for a period of time, (several hours and up to a month for some seeds) to kill weed seeds. I prefer to keep weeds with mature seed heads out of my home compost mix. In commercial composting, like what we do at The Good Earth site, the temperatures stay this hot for upwards of six months, virtually eliminating seeds.

My partner teases me that I am giving away trade secrets and if everyone knows how to backyard compost, they won’t need to buy our commercial compost (Good Earth). I believe in the principle of abundance, and the more we share the better off the world will be. And besides, composting can be tricky. Not all of us have patience and time to fuss around making the perfect mix, so here is one more ultimate tip: Use Good Earth compost to kick start your own compost. Layer it between your carbon and nitrogen additions. Because it has good composting microbes, it will help to get your compost working. The other thing is, once you start to use compost you’ll love how your garden responds. You may find out that you can’t possibly make enough in your backyard for all your needs. In which case, Good Earth Compost is here for you.

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as spending hours of diligent work and fists fulls of cash on a humble home vegetable garden, only to see the literal fruits of your labor nibbled, stripped or – in the worst case – utterly devoured.?

It was precisely this scenario that had me cursing, then launching a watering can skyward in absolute fury during a routine backyard garden visit. The salad mix I’d planted weeks before had been the star of my humble plot, and now there was nothing left but light green nubs where wide, healthy leaves once shone against dark soil.?

Small pawprints throughout the bed were all the perpetrator left behind, and that was all I needed to finger a culprit. After all, I’d been warned about the crop-killing critter months before.?

“Raised beds” was all the advice a seasoned gardener and friend had given me when I mentioned starting a vegetable garden. “And make sure you cover the bottom in gopher wire.”?

Mitsugu Mori, owner of Seaside Garden Center, verified my friend’s sage advice on a recent visit. And he explained the other benefits of planting in raised beds (other than keeping produce safe from ground-dwelling rodents.)?

“It’s just easy,” Mori says. The process of turning soil and changing the garden during the growing season is much easier in a raised planter. ?

Any serious gardener will agree that “feeding” plants is one of the most important aspects of a healthy and productive vegetable-growing operation. But in order for the plants to feed, they need soil loaded with properly broken down, ready-to-use nutrients. According to Mori, a raised bed gives you more control over your soil, which gives more control over your plants’ nutrient intake and results in higher yield.?

Beds also facilitate better water drainage, are aesthetically pleasing and are invaluable to older, infirm or handicapped gardeners who may not have access to plants low to the ground.?

It’s the last of these examples that prompted Warren Knox, then 16, to build his first garden box for his aging, garden-loving grandfather. When he saw how much his invention helped, Knox started building the boxes commercially.?

Now in his late 50s and based out of Scotts Valley, Knox is still building and selling raised garden boxes in conjunction with his roofing business.?

“The whole idea is proper ergonomics: gardening off the ground and making it easy,” Knox says.?

The boxes range in size from a small 1-by-3-foot “Prince” all the way up to a sizable 4-by-8-foot “King” and can be broken down and shipped anywhere. Knox says his boxes are also a great learning tool for children, and has installed Knox Boxes in elementary schools throughout Santa Cruz.?

His company builds the boxes on stands that lift them completely off the ground, meaning gardeners in wheelchairs or using walkers can easily tend to their plants. But the cost can be prohibitive. The 2-by-6-foot “Balcony” box runs just under $500. ?

A driven do-it-yourselfer, on the other hand, can buy all the materials for a lower-standing, 3-by-5-foot raised bed for under $60 and have it assembled in an hour with just a few simple tools.?

“I got into roofing in 1980, which is a mainstay, but my passion is the box,” Knox says.?

And budding gardeners, it could be yours, too. A raised bed will save you backaches by bringing the garden up to you, and heartaches by keeping unwanted rodents from dining buffet-style on your hard-earned crops.