Soil Amendments: the Robb and Lisa Way
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Given access to the smallest scrap of earth, I'll start a garden. And once gardening commences, composting is not far behind.
In Baltimore our constantly-fighting, tree-hating, next-door-neighbors detested our compost bin, because they were convinced it was the source of every rat in the entire city. Personally, I think they should have directed some of their negative energy to our upstairs neighbor who regularly threw his kitchen scraps out his third-storey window. He was a toothless, ex-cop, cross-dressing gazork, and perhaps the next-door-neighbors found him a tad unapproachable. Who knows, in a city like Baltimore?
At the farmhouse outside of Cooperstown, I started the compost pile that earned the affectionate nickname "the raccoon's snack bar." Once I got access to the tiny plot in West Oakland, I was carrying compost buckets into work each morning.
Yeah, I'm pretty much of a compost wacko.
From the moment we took possession of our little cottage, we've been composting.
However, not all food waste goes into the compost pile. Eggshells and coffee "pucks" (we make lattes at our house) go directly onto the garden.
Our garden in East Oakland has a serious slug problem. They'll completely destroy a young plant overnight. If you research non-chemical methods of slug-deterrence, you'll read about setting out saucers of left-over beer, and about sprinkling ground eggshells on the soil. I'm not sure where other people get this stuff, but we never have extra beer around our house.
Eggshells, on the other hand are easy. We stick the empty shells in the oven, because dried out shells are so much easier to grind up than fresh. Our vintage oven has a perpetually-lit pilot light, so eggs dry out quickly. Somehow, while we've become very methodical about sticking eggshells in the oven, we've utterly failed to develop the habit of taking them out before we preheat the oven. When Ellen was visiting, we actually managed to set eggshells on fire. How we didn't notice the horrible sulfur smell that led up to combustion is still a bit of a mystery.
When we're not trying to set the house on fire, we're shooting moody photos of slightly burnt eggshells. A short depth of field is always arty.
We spread eggshells over the most slug-infested areas of the garden, and the slugs apparently eat the shells with relish. Toasted eggshell must be a most delicious delicacy, because the shells completely de-materialize almost overnight. It's mystifying.
When the coffee "pucks" fill up our adorably mis-labeled canister, I'll sprinkle the coffee over our garden. When I had a friend working at a coffee shop near my studio, I used to get used coffee grounds in five gallon buckets. I'm told that the earthworms love coffee grounds.
Robb takes a different approach, and lobs coffee at the feral cats, when he sees them harassing the birds.
So, does anyone have any further questions about our soil amendment techniques? Have I left anything out?
Given access to the smallest scrap of earth, I'll start a garden. And once gardening commences, composting is not far behind.
In Baltimore our constantly-fighting, tree-hating, next-door-neighbors detested our compost bin, because they were convinced it was the source of every rat in the entire city. Personally, I think they should have directed some of their negative energy to our upstairs neighbor who regularly threw his kitchen scraps out his third-storey window. He was a toothless, ex-cop, cross-dressing gazork, and perhaps the next-door-neighbors found him a tad unapproachable. Who knows, in a city like Baltimore?
At the farmhouse outside of Cooperstown, I started the compost pile that earned the affectionate nickname "the raccoon's snack bar." Once I got access to the tiny plot in West Oakland, I was carrying compost buckets into work each morning.
Yeah, I'm pretty much of a compost wacko.
From the moment we took possession of our little cottage, we've been composting.
However, not all food waste goes into the compost pile. Eggshells and coffee "pucks" (we make lattes at our house) go directly onto the garden.
Our garden in East Oakland has a serious slug problem. They'll completely destroy a young plant overnight. If you research non-chemical methods of slug-deterrence, you'll read about setting out saucers of left-over beer, and about sprinkling ground eggshells on the soil. I'm not sure where other people get this stuff, but we never have extra beer around our house.
Eggshells, on the other hand are easy. We stick the empty shells in the oven, because dried out shells are so much easier to grind up than fresh. Our vintage oven has a perpetually-lit pilot light, so eggs dry out quickly. Somehow, while we've become very methodical about sticking eggshells in the oven, we've utterly failed to develop the habit of taking them out before we preheat the oven. When Ellen was visiting, we actually managed to set eggshells on fire. How we didn't notice the horrible sulfur smell that led up to combustion is still a bit of a mystery.
When we're not trying to set the house on fire, we're shooting moody photos of slightly burnt eggshells. A short depth of field is always arty.
We spread eggshells over the most slug-infested areas of the garden, and the slugs apparently eat the shells with relish. Toasted eggshell must be a most delicious delicacy, because the shells completely de-materialize almost overnight. It's mystifying.
When the coffee "pucks" fill up our adorably mis-labeled canister, I'll sprinkle the coffee over our garden. When I had a friend working at a coffee shop near my studio, I used to get used coffee grounds in five gallon buckets. I'm told that the earthworms love coffee grounds.
Robb takes a different approach, and lobs coffee at the feral cats, when he sees them harassing the birds.
So, does anyone have any further questions about our soil amendment techniques? Have I left anything out?
Comments
I have to say that I havent found an eco freindly way of deterring slugs yet. As you say, eggshells disappear, beer...well I totally, there shouldn't be 'spare' beer anyway, it's as bad as people who use good red wine to cook with!
I think the coffee/feral cats is the best idea, not only deters the blighters but breaks up on impact thus spreading over larger area.
Thanks for visiting my blog by the way
As far as the safe-in-the-soil but-not-in-the-compost idea, I think that's silly. Perhaps this person heard that eggshells in damp cmpost don't seem to break down as quickly as shells on the dry ground. But chemically, this makes no sense to me.
Likewise all that stuff about no citrus or no cooked veggies. Or that there's some difference between composting and decomposition. So much voodoo, in my opinion!
Larva lady-ZZ
Zelienople PA
I'm a relative newbie at composting, but I just added the latest batch from our composting box (got it through "San Jose Composts!") to our veggie garden- 5 wheelbarrow loads now all mixed in and ready for tomorrow's planting!
I always forget about coffee grounds, as we are not big coffee drinkers and someone already collects the grounds from work for his own garden...I think the local Starbucks still will give out bags of their used grounds, though...
--Leah in Centralia
Beer works well for me, and the shells are probably dissolving away into your soil overnight, if it is starved. Or other critters eat them for the lime, I know birds eat them for the lime as well, so they can produce stronger eggshells for themselves.
Sand can sometimes work because it is supposed to cut up the little buggers and they dry out and die.
Ducks LOVE to eat slugs. Get yourself a free range duck and kiss your slugs good bye! Get a duck that needs a home because its wings are clipped or broken or etc, from an animal rescue unit.
Or build tiny tiny bird houses for wrens, who also love to eat all pesky bugs, and I believe they will avoid your bees. Thats all I got.
Annalisa
Annalisa
But we're also demented composters, and I've been known to bring home banana peels and apple cores from conference lunches. Not to mention collecting coffee grounds, in addition to those that we produce ourselves.
A microwave version of your crispy eggshell method is making the gardening rounds here -- I can't say it makes a tremendous difference in mine (in terms of their breaking down), but maybe I'm not zapping them long enough.
Compost is always a good thing!
Lisa
Tried the eggshells and the jays ate them. Now I just toss them out without grinding for the jays before they claw up my garden.
You don't use good left over beer for slugs. You buy a can or two of cheap icky beer on sale.
What I had learned was to take left over plastic containers like soft margarine spread. You cut slots around the top, big enough for slugs to squeeze through.
You put beer in it, put the lid on and put it in the ground so the slots are ground level. They crawl along, smell the beer and in they go. This prevents other animals from accidentally ingesting the beer, or from curious toddlers dipping their fingers in the bowl . . . you get the idea.
KuKu