This video is not about figuring out when the compost pile has gone (when it’s gone it’s gone) but when your compost heap is ready to be used to fertilize the garden. In 1 min, 40 secs learn how to tell when the compost is good enough to spread. The bad news is that good compost takes 6 weeks to 6 months to “mature”, depending on the weather, the materials added and many other factors.
“It’s ready when there is no recognizable material left in the compost,” says the anonymous gardening enthusiast. “It should look like dirt but it’s not dirt; it’s 100% organic compost made from decomposed plant material. Not a lot of minerals in there but it’s great for your garden. Spread 5 gallons of the compost on each 4×8 foot bed once or twice a year and it will be really good for your soil.” Okay.
Quick-talking Doug (good name for a weed puller) at ExpertVillage teaches you in a matter of seconds (one minute and twenty-three seconds to be exact) how to pull weeds so they don’t re-emerge in a matter of days. His talk forms part of a series of videos on How to Set Up A Low Maintenance Garden.
Doug says he gets away with weed-pulling for just half an hour a week in his small garden. The main thing is not to hoe the weeds as this simply stimulates growth. “Use your cultivator and work the weed so you can get the root out with the rest of the plant, otherwise the root if it’s left behind will simply sprout another weed,” says Doug. A cultivator, for those who haven’t yet got their hands dirty, is a hand fork for the garden that has bent-in prongs so you can get right under the plant (I mean weed, but hey, a weed is just a plant in the wrong place ).
Another important point Doug makes is that you should not just toss the weeds onto your lawn “or it will just produce another weed right there.” Throw them in trash.
Organic Vegetable Gardening - Click here for more blooper videos
A 208 year old Invisible Gardener from Malibu, California (that’s how it’s billed, folks) takes us into an organic vegetable garden to look at a raised vegetable beds. It’s quite a skill making one. You need timber sides, two layers of 1/4 inch chicken wire placed on the bottom for the gophers and drip irrigation throughout. What’s more, ideally you need two of these giant beds so you can rotate crops, rest the soil, etc. The Invisible Gardener explains how the soil gets to rest and then earthworms (red ones from Africa) are introduced.
Then comes a layer of compost (not too rich) and finally mulch. Did you know that spreading coffee grounds around repels snails? That’s just one of the intriguing things you’ll learn in this quirky ten minute video.
And this is the first in a series so you’ll be able to follow the series as the season progresses, watching the raised beds develop and produce and the Invisible Gardener grow older. Nice concept.
This is a couple of minutes well-spent with an anonymous person from Expert Village who says: “Whether you garden or you don’t garden, you should make compost. It is a great thing to do and removes your compost from the waste stream.” Okay. She recommends a certain type of composter. It’s like a huge plastic bag and is in fact made of recycled plastic with holes punched in the sides. Get one cheap from your local dump or town office.
Then start making compost. Don’t worry about smells: if you build a compost pile the right way there won’t be a problem. It will have a very nice fragrance actually, kind of nutty. The way to do it is to have a wide variety of stuff (peelings, vegetable leaves, eggshells etc.) in layers and the pile must not be too wet, so mix it with dried leaves, weeds or whatever. I like this bit: you should churn in a shovelful of compost to get the whole thing going. It reminds me of making yogurt!
A Garden and Home expert from ExpertVillage.com tells us clearly and concisely this important information as part of a larger section on Learning Organic Garden Composting Online. The bottom line is that compost takes a long time to develop, about six months to two years, depending on the carbon/nitrogen ratio and how often you turn the compost. It is ready when there is no recognizable matter in it any more. In other words, your kitchen scraps, weeds, straw or whatever else you have added to the bin should have decomposed entirely and become beautiful natural organic compost.
Here is a professionally produced short video (48 seconds) that reveals interesting information to help you germinate seeds successfully.
First, you should work very cleanly. Wear gloves when working with seeds, and make sure your container is spotless, too.
Second, soak the seeds for 24 to 48 hours in clean water in a clean glass bowl before planting.
Third, when you have planted the seeds in seed sowing compost in a seed tray container (cover the seeds gently with a little soil), and watered the tray lightly, you should cover the container with clingfilm.
Fourth, keep checking that the soil is moist but not waterlogged.
Fifth, only once the seedlings have appeared, should you remove the clingfilm and place the tray in a sunny area.
In just 52 seconds, Jeff and Heather Lacroix of Louisiana introduce you to a new method of killling ants. It is safe for your plants and safe for other critters too - no poisons to be picked up by animals and children. The way you get rid of an anthill on your lawn is, why, with Southern Hospitality. Sprinkle some breakfast grits over the nest, allowing a generous helping for each ant. As Jeff explains in a Southern drawl, “the ants eat the grits and feel nice and full, but then they explode!” Admittedly this is not a scientifically proven ant removal method but for the price of a bit of grits it’s worth a try. And, no, on the video you don’t get to see ants exploding! You do get some nice Vivaldi music though.
Looking for other proven natural and organic methods of killing ants and fire ants? Check here.
TheGardener talks in his chummy style for 2 mins 21 seconds about terra cotta pots, or rather how to manage them. While terracotta pots really “look the business” according to TheGardener, they tend to dry out in summer so you need to line them with a plastic bag with holes in the bottom. The bag need not show above the rim — cut it off so the top will be below the soil level. Much more moisture gets retained that way.
Also you need to feed your plants, so consider using slow release pellets that will release nutrients over 6 to 9 months. Put them in the soil when planting your plant. If you forget, then use an apple corer to create a funnel down to where you want the pellet to be i.e. near the roots. Saves your fingers getting full of soil, says TheGardener, who is the neatest and cleanest gardener you could ever hope to encounter.
So particular is he that the puts a pair of tights over his wellies when he leaves them in the garden shed “to prevent spiders from getting in.”
Don’t forget to consider organic fertilizers for your container plants!
If, like me, you want to believe that throwing potato peelings into the hedge is the same as feeding the shrubbery, then you will be chastened by this introduction to bokashi. Bokashi is the stuff that transforms kitchen waste into useful compost.
Neal Foley is the Podchef and in this video of roughly 6 minutes he really gets into the chemistry of making compost. He gives a demonstration of how to make fermented wheat bran (bokashi) that you can add to the kitchen waste bucket to help transform useless slops into a non-odorous and effective compost.
Bokashi takes quite a bit of making. You need to have wheat bran, mineral salts, ceramic powder and molasses and also a rich microbe/kelp mixture standing by. You combine them all with hot water (in the video Neal gives the precise quantities for the ingredients) and then let it stand, airless, for two weeks or longer, “the longer the better” according to Neal.
In the fullness of time you mix your organic kitchen waste with it and let the lot pickle until the food has begun to break down. It’s great — “not stinky”, says Neal — and the compost gets finer the longer it stands. Then you can use it to feed your plants, to feed your animals and to put it down the septic tank to reduce odors.
Now I know why people just buy finished bokashi instead of making it themselves!
David Epstein of GrowingWisdom.com fame interviews softly-spoken Susan Lane of Home Depot to get tips on how to get the most out of your cut flowers from the garden or florist.
Granted, it’s a vast subject full of the pitfalls of generalizing, but the 2.46 min video pretty much covers the bases. In other words, you can adapt these tips to just about any type of cut flowers. The principles are the same!
David and Susan limit themselves to three types of flowers (tulips, roses and Peruvian lilies).
Remember tulips originated in a cold climate so for them it’s cold water plus you should turn them daily so all sides of the bloom get exposed to sunlight. Top up the water when necessary.
With roses you cut off the leaves from the part of the stem that will be below the water level in the vase and select warm water to speed blooming and cold water to allow the roses to last longer. Cut the stem just once diagonally to allow the free flow of water up the stem. Don’t cut them more than once or too much water will travel up the stem and the blooms will droop.
I love the recipes for pepping up flower water to make your blooms last! Buy a commercially available dissolving tablet, or make your own mix of a quart of water, 1/8 tsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp sugar. Or just dissolve as aspirin in the water!
Susan says that exotic flowers such as Alstomeria (Peruvian lilies) should have their leaves removed, be trimmed often and the water should be changed just once a week if you want them to last 10 - 14 days at least. Keep them out of direct heat and sunlight.
Enjoy your cut flowers!