Simple composting question!

UHG! How am I supposed to put anything on my want list if I don't know what all is out there??????

Flowers, do you have your flowers posted somewhere?

Stars & bars? Boy am I learning a lot!!!

its all in the places you visit and what you see, then come home and reseach to see if it is good for your area. I have found things I didn't even know existed because for so long mountain fold stuck to the same types of plants over the years. They are sweet but the new additions I'm starting to see are great too Trina

venice no as most of mine are just now taking off after the last couple of years of planting. Have been focused mainly on getting grass to grow and trees put in first.

The Hydrania has been there for years. It was gorgeous this year. I've started to change the color a time or two but have decided I like the blue the best.

I'd love to get some Laurel, and I don't care if it's ok for my zone when it comes to plants, if I can't grow it outside I'll grow it inside!....Hubby's working on adding me a climate controlled room of windows onto the house just for that purpose...because I'd like to grow some orchids and other tropicals that won't grow here....and then he doesn't have to help me move plants in and out of the house for summer anymore...cause some are starting to get too big to move

I have several on my property and found the right sun shade mix is the answer to blooming. I have the mophead and had blooms as big as basketballs this year. The pink one was in too much sun and never bloomed again after being in the ground two years. I moved it last year. No blooms on it this year but hopeing next year will be the showcase.

well if you and moon can't do it nobody can lol

venice I would say you and Trina are close to the same age and thinking late 20 to early 30. How close am I?

How do you like these roses trina, Pink Knock Outs.

wow smilelymom did you see that??? Love it.

ok time to go to bed, think I am posting answers on other forems for this one LOL All have a restful night and hopefully will talk again tomorrow. Busy day, so will be later in evening. Think of some good stuff to talk about now ya hear lol

My ditch Azaleas. The trees weren't there when I planted them about 30 years ago.

Very pretty roses.

I have killed or the weather or the Japanese beetles have killed 3 knockouts! I am not trying them again!

Well, Trina has teenagers so that would make her ------- years old!

I have a son that is 43 years old so that would make me ------ years old!

Flowers, is that close enough??

wow but young at heart for sure, Jim I don't even want to talk about that azalia its insane Good night

Love the roses!!!...I'll take pics of mine when its daylight...don't pay attention to the weeds though....I'm soon to be 36...but I look 12!

Those Azaleas are so bright! Beautiful!

Now that is what I think of when I think of LA, ditches filled with water!

Trina -- Didn't you say your were barely 100 pounds? You must be VERY tiny!

yep and 5'3" when i go places with the kids people ask if I'm there sister, and when I go out with my husband we get dirty looks cause they think I'm his daughter...it gets a little annoying

Jim, happy azalea...looks like an indica, and they do fine in the sun obviously...see you fine folk tomorrow....sweet sleep all.
Night, Moon

Venice and other makers of Magic Compost,

Maybe the compost question is played out, but it's my first time on DG and I can't resist giving some advice from here in Vermont. I've had many compost piles, from a tiny one in a corner at a rental house to my present three big piles at my own place, where goes all the junk from my veg & perennial beds, the yard, and the kitchen (no meat or dairy, but a handy place for torn newspaper or cereal boxes, as long as there's enough veg stuff to rot them).

3 piles because one I'm using, one is comin' along, and one is new stuff-I have lots of yard "waste." I almost never turn a pile; too much work! Takes a couple years to finish this way in my climate-microbial activity is faster in warm weather and my piles under trees are still frozen June first! But one pile is always ready, and if I need more I just flip the next pile into my finished spot and it's done in a summer month. (I do screen it through 1/2 inch mesh before use, because I throw in unchopped heavy stuff like all the yard rakings with windfall twigs, weeds with heavy taproots, etc. I just toss the rough stuff back into the next pile.)

Compost is so magic! Perennials don't care when they get it, as long as they do. I give the vegetable beds their dose at planting time, then work my way through the perennial beds throughout the summer so everything gets top-dressed once. An inch or two a year is the only thing I ever feed them; I have Siberian irises and coneflowers 5 ft tall and over 100 varieties of perennials growing great!

Lots of critters here: coons, deer, fox, an occasional moose or bear, my cats, (no dogs). No sign of anything in the compost except sometimes a chipmunk hole (they help mix things up) and winter bird tracks after I dump the kitchen bucket on the snowy pile. I s'pose it might be a problem if you have skunks or other varmints who are used to living around human garbage or who don't have other food sources-but I think they are attracted by the meat and fatty stuff in the dumpsters and cans. Like the bear here who go after outside garbage-bear coming out of hibernation are described as "a stomach with a nose attached"-but I've never had one in my compost of plant material.

I can't believe you cooked and pureed the kitchen scraps! Good grief girl! The beauties of compost, besides its unsurpassable value to the garden, are a zero environmental cost (gain, in fact, since it's out of the garbage stream) and a zero cost to you (gain, since it's free fertilizer). Don't spend your electric bill and your time! Look at the woods and the meadows. Nature drops all her "waste" to the ground unprocessed, where it decomposes and feeds the earth. No cooking required.

One solution for you: Nifty closed compost bins of recycled plastic; about $40 from local environmental agencies. I happen to have an unused one, given to me by a neighbor but too small for my use. You're welcome to it for the price of shipping (no idea what that would be, it's light but bulky, I could check it out). Email me at warriors@sover.net if you want it. (I check my email a couple times a week-too busy gardening-so be patient.)

Calling all smarties, Go to beginner landscaping--doug mcquinn. This struck me as too funny. Moon your gonna be busy on this one for sure rofl.

ooh, Flowers. yes, I see beautiful roses. I have to say, they are my favorite flower, but I can't grow them. I freak out when the japanese beetles come. they always get some kind of yuck. just ditched my second one. i'm done with them. figure I'm not doing the fairies any good.

So ask the fairies to help protect your roses smiley,

Meadow, thank you so much for the generous offer. However, I don't have much space. My tiny compost pile is less than 2 feet square! My garden is a total of 100 square feet that is in 3 narrow strips around my apartment patio. I figure I can do some minimal composting on my garden when I trim everthing later in the fall. Thanks again but everything I do is on such a small scale.

Smiley, I know what you mean about the Japanese beetles. I always want a very fragrant rose bush but those are the ones they like to chomp on. Last year was my first year experience with them. I went to look at my first bloom on my rose bush and there were at least 12 beetles on that rose, at least one tucked between each petal!!! I had 2 more rose bushes this year severely attacked so I have given up on having them.

I have a composting question. I had some strawberries starting to get furry. Is it ok if I put them in a covered bowl with my mushy tomatoes and keep it inside until it is full? Is there a problem putting moldy food in the compost pile?

No problem at all Venice, mold is everywhere around us, so adding a little more will not hurt one bit.

Worms eat mold without a problem? Or would they prefer something fresher?

Worms want rotten stuff. You won't have any worms in a compost pile you are just starting. The compost heat keeps them away or it would kill them. After the compost is through cooking the worms will come. They help keep it airy and light. As they feed on the compost they leave behind their castings (worm poop). This is the best fertilizer of all. Equivlent to 33.5 ammonia nitrate, yet you can pot an african violet in pure castings and it won't burn it up. All this from the worm expert. Do we have a worm forum. I would be my element.

Worms are soil purifiers in that they eat their way through what ever is there. Here is a little light reading on them.

http://www.gardenstew.com/blog/e1293-9-what-do-worms-like-to-eat.html

too bad the worms i put on dont seem to be doing anything to help my garden, after all the ammendments its still clay! hadr as concrete to dig unless its soaked! But everything grows just fine

Jim, thanks for the worm info. I didn't know how all of it worked.

Moon, thanks for the story on worms!

I have about 6" of cloddy soil but I find worms in it. Under that is the yellowish clay. I don't even call that soil! Nothing survives in that!

ok,seeing if I can do this. Sending you a picture of my big baby.

I wish I had some earthworms.....never ever let a non plant person go get you potting soil...OMG this stuff is garbage!

he's adorable flowers not like my two baby's...here's Skipper he thinks he's a lap dog and he like's to eat my fertilizer and rooting hormone

Hey I did it!!! yipeeee. Look out now ladies and gents the pictures will start flying as soon as I get a driver for my camera. Just keep in mind now my plants are only six years old and don't look nothing like yours lol

and of course my ferocious beast the blood thirsty chupacabra...Tinkerbell

Only six years old she says...I don't have any that old anymore at max my oldest one is 2

Skipper still looks young but getting big! Bet tinkerbell could give him a run for his money.

mine is 14 this October and let me tell ya she rules