If you love fresh greens, there is no reason not to grow them yourself, even if you have only a tiny terrace or handkerchief lawn.
When Jon Traunfeld, a regional specialist for the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, showed me his homemade salad table, I wanted one, and I wanted to put it right outside my kitchen door. It has a whole different appeal — less work! proximity! — than my big vegetable garden.
Essentially, it is a garden on wheels that you can move around, into sun or shade, a big benefit when the sun gets too hot for spinach. It’s waist-high, so people with creaky knees or bad backs can just stand there and pick a few leaves for dinner. And it’s a cinch to water and weed (not like that jungle I call my kitchen garden.)
“It also means the groundhogs and the rabbits aren’t going to bother you,” Mr. Traunfeld said, standing by his leafy table, which sits on a terrace at the extension service’s Home and Garden Information Center in Ellicott City, Md. “Though, we have two deer trapped inside our fence. If they find this, we’re sunk.”
Now I've got to build one of the *&%$ things...
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Watsy, do NOT put weeds in your compost! The seeds don't always die. But table scraps other than meat are good: eggshells, peelings, newspaper, grass clippings, etc. Color print, weeds, meat, metal, etc. are a no-no. They sell cheap "tubs" made of recycled palstic with holes and a lid for around $30-40. They work well, and you just have to turn the pile once a week-ish with a pitchfork. They're maybe 4' in diameter, 3' tall.
Watsy, you're off to a good start. The good stuff is at the bottom. The creme de le creme de compost sinks to the bottom. You need to turn it. I bought one of those crank things, but I got ripped off -- be careful. Somebody else will have to advise you about those types of composters. I had no luck. The best thing for me has been wooden boxes. Table scraps are great -- just not meat leftovers or grease and fat. That is what will produce the bad smell. If you are so inclined, order some red wriggler worms to throw in there. They break the stuff down tout suit. We do use a shredder to break up branches, pine needles, and leaves. Worms and shredding do speed up the process. But any type of compost once established and functioning breaks it down. Remember you need some dead brown stuff too (carbon) and your green stuff (grass, table scraps) for nitrogen. I don't remember the proportions. I'll find them and post again.
Tovart, Starrs, & Anonymous, Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try this. I would have never thought to put newspaper into it. I'll keep the weeds out of it, and put some worms into it. It sounds like a wooden box would work best, but it would have to have holes or openings for the air to circulate. Or, if it doesn't have a lid, it might not need to have any holes.
Please note, Texans. Hidden in the article is the information that the "soil" is so shallow it may need watering 2x/day during the hottest times. I would never keep up with that without some kind of rigged-up automatic watering.
I posted here about a fabric "tape" you can put up around your garden to keep out deer. The name of the spray is, I believe, "Deer Stop".
May father in law swears by it. Good luck.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.