THE BLESSINGS OF MODERN GARDENING AND LIFE MADE EASIER - MULCH & COMPOST EDITION
Having a great garden can be a lot of work.
Trust me, my main garden this year is a complete mess. After being gone at work for much of the spring and early summer, I did not even get it all planted. Many of the plants are volunteers and sprang up from seeds left behind by last year’s plants. The rest of the “volunteers” are weeds, which are not as welcome. It is hard to fight the weeds from another state, or any job site.
Honestly, except for harvesting some of the produce, I’ve kind of given up on that garden. I will not be planting it next year, as we are planning on building our house and moving down to our actual land. That is where my heart is now, not up at the guest house that we are staying in. I am working on planting down on the land, though.
BACK TO THE BLESSING
For those of us who enjoy growing our own produce, it helps to be aware of what local resources are available. Often, there are compost sites in nearby areas. We had some back up in Wisconsin and we have some in Arkansas too.
In Wisconsin, residents of the city we used to live in could drop off their yard waste for free. Whatever grass clippings, leaves, or branches city residents wanted to get rid of could be dropped off there, free of charge. The city would then make huge piles to compost the materials, and then allow residents to pick up the compost for free too! It was a huge blessing for us for many reasons.
For one, our garden became very rich and was the happy home to hundreds of earthworms. For another, it gave us the chance to meet some great people in the area. (It was where I first met @bluerthangreen and @olympus-mons.)
Now, down in Arkansas, we have a lot of work to get done preparing our homestead. In a nearby town, there is usually a good supply of mulch available for free. Unlike the compost site in Wisconsin, they have a skid-steer to load it for you, at least when the equipment is working and people are not on break. Even when I have to load it by hand, the price is still right.
USING THESE GREAT RESOURCES
As we phase out the existing Green Brier, Poison Ivy, and other “not so useful” plants on our land, we will be replacing them with a variety of edible plants. Additionally, we will be working on building up the soil, which is mostly clay and rock in a lot of areas. Mulch will work wonders as we work towards these goals. Here are a few of the ways that it will help.
*Work as a weed barrier to help prevent the regrowth of undesirable plants.
- Break down over time and turn into topsoil.
- Protect the soil that does exist by preventing wind erosion.
- Work as a moisture retainer to help the plants that we plant stay watered.
I borrowed the dump trailer that @bluerthangreen owns to pick up a load yesterday. On rare occasions during the summer, the site also has compost available, and such was the case yesterday! There is currently a “4 bucket-load limit” per visit, but still! Getting four free bucket-loads of compost for free. is a great bonus.
I had the man fill in the front of the trailer with the compost and he topped the back of it off with mulch. These two are huge resources for a gardener, and I am so blessed that just by taking a short drive I can get such an amazing amount of them!
SOMETIMES QUICK AND EASY CAN HELP
Trust me, I do know how to compost and I also have a wood chipper, so making my own compost and mulch are things that I do. However, picking up a trailer full of them is certainly a benefit of being a modern gardener. As with anything, having a trustworthy source is important, and I cannot personally vouch for these materials by claiming that they are 100% contaminant free or organic. Sometimes you can see things like plastic mixed in with the compost or mulch.
Still, I think that it is worth our while as modern gardeners to be aware of what incredible resources may be available to us in our local areas. No matter what scale we garden on or how much time and effort we invest in it, having resources like compost and mulch can make the job much easier, and it can help us get better results too.
Do any of you enjoy free, local resources like these? Have you met anyone interesting at your local compost site, like I did with @bluerthangreen and @olympus-mons? Do you use mulch on your gardens? Feel free to let me know in the comment section below, or perhaps even make a post of your own about it and let me know!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-free-compost-and-mulch
Until next time…
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I didn't realize that there were places that offer free compost and mulch, but I've done some research on how to make it for smaller gardens using old coffee cans as "mini-composters." I haven't done any gardening this year but this inspired me to get to it. :)
Very cool. Look or ask around and see, you might be able to get some compost when you do get started. Also, I really like your name.
Thank you! :)
Hello @papa-pepper, how are you? Sir can I plz have your 10 mins tonight? I wanted to interview you for my next post. I'll just ask some question. those question will be beneficial for minnows and newbies aswell :)
This comment has received a 0.14 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @shehryar, @shehryar, @shehryar.
We were so lucky to catch the guys trimming limbs along our rural county road this spring! Ryan stopped and asked if they could dump their wood chips in our pasture and he agreed. When I got the knock on the door and told him where he could dump all the woodchips he could possibly have, I ran and grabbed 2 dozen farm fresh eggs and handed them to the driver. He must have really liked those eggs because he brought 5 more loads over the next week! Upvoted and resteemed!
Yeah, those guys love finding a place to dump the chips. Great job!
Man! You are already back up and hard at work!
Yeah, life can get like that... steemit doesn't sleep.
Gardening is one of my no. 1 hobbies. There is nothing more satisfying than to see the volunteers coming up. I also make my own compost. The clean, earthy smell makes the effort worthwhile to put back in the soil what we harvest from the soil to enjoy.
Thank you for your post. Always enjoy the content and the way you present it. I've still got so much to learn but will get there eventually.
This is a good read. I cant wait to own a piece of land. I would like to get into herbal remedies and teas. For now i will work with my little 5 gallon bucket garden lol
What are you planing on planting? We mostly focus on plants and vegetables for our own needs, but this season we planted some flowers for sale.
Check out my beautiful garden located by the river:
https://steemit.com/life/@drumsta/my-vary-own-garden-behind-a-lake-house-for-self-sustainability-vegan-lifestyle-and-food-freedom
In my area, it's great. We have one place for wood chips and another for leaf compost. All for free. I love it because our gardens are extensive and our compost bin isn't enough and buying compost is cost prohibitive. The free resource means that I can have as much as I want as long as I am willing to do the work. For free, I am always willing to do the work.
gardening is good but it requires more hard work
and modern techniques
i think everyone should adopt modern techniques
This is amazing. We have so plenty of that here but nobody cares. People here always wanted to be employed and neglect the important resources that give us food. That is why I'm gonna check from time to time @ronaldjayrama on this. I saw his farm in the province and I've been there. I like the guy especially on his love for farming and self reliance and sufficiency.