Compost: The Silver Bullet

When I first started learning about organic lawn care and gardening much of what I read advocated the use of compost to help solve almost any lawn and garden problem. At first I was a bit skeptical but after reading more I started to believe and a few years ago I started composting. If there ever was a product you could use that would solve a multitude of problems it would be compost. Best of all, it's something you can make yourself.

I still don't think just compost is enough and the combination of compost plus fertilizer will yield better results but there's no denying how effective compost is.

The use of compost can:

• Improve soil structure
• Reduce soil compaction
• Improve nutrient storage in the soil because of the high cation exchange capacity of humus
• Buffers the pH of soil
• Provides nutrients to the soil
• Reduce the need for fertilizer input
• Increases microbial activity
• Reduces incidence of plant disease
• Increases the water holding capacity of the soil
• Remediates toxic soils by binding heavy metals and degrading volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Prevents soil erosion

On top of all that, composting reduces the amount of waste that goes to the landfill. 

The EPA has a number of publications on compost which were what made me start believe in the power of compost. They cover the traditional uses of compost and the not so traditional such as using compost to deal with TNT in soil around an old explosives factory.

If you haven't started composting it's something you should try. It doesn't even have to cost you anything to get started.

Thoughts on Garden of Eden SWAT Raid in Arlington, TX

I read a story earlier today on Huffington Post about Garden of Eden, described as a small organic farm, being raided by the Arlington, TX SWAT team. The original story was reported on WFAA.

At the same time, code enforcement officials executed a warrant to remedy code violations that included blight conditions. They wound up removing 20,420 pounds of materials which they deemed to be a nuisance or hazard.

The story caught my attention because one of the violations had to do with uncut grass.

Normally, I don't like to talk about political topics on this site. I really don't care what other people do. I know what I like about organic gardening for myself and I choose to share the information I learn and my experiences here. I'm too lazy and uninterested to be any sort of activist but after what I saw I had to ask myself what the heck is going on here?

I absolutely understand the need for police to have certain procedures to insure not only their safety, but the safety of suspects when it comes to investigating certain crimes but it seems very suspicious that the drug raid and the code enforcement happened together.

The address of Garden of Eden was listed as 7325 Mansfield Cardinal Rd, Kennedale, TX 76060 so I checked Bing Maps to see what Garden of Eden looked like and was pretty surprised with what I found. Depending on how far you zoomed in I got to see what appear to be satellite images that were taken before and after Garden of Eden was established. The images are included later in the post along with some more of my thoughts.

Watering Grass Seed With A Pump Spayer

For patching small areas of lawn you can use a pump sprayer as a sprinkler to help keep the seed moist to aid germination.

One of the major issues people have planting grass seed is keeping the grass seed moist. If the seed dries out it will germinate slowly or even die so it's important to lightly water the newly seeded area multiple times a day. On hot, sunny days it can be as much as 4 or more times a day.

At the same time, applying too much water can cause problems. The seed can become waterlogged and die, the water can wash the seed away or push it too deep into the soil and the water can cool the soil slowing down germinate just to name a few.

If you have an automatic sprinkler system it's easy to program it to program it to run multiple times a day for a short cycle. I don't and over the years I've been trying different ways to keep the seed moist while the new grass germinates because lugging the hose out to the farthest areas is a real pain since it takes about as much time to get the hose out and roll it back up as it does to water the lawn.

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier but this year when I overseeded a few areas that were damaged in the storm last fall I've been using my Smith 2 Gallon Pump Sprayer.

The Smith sprayer has a clip that will hold the wand in place as well as a switch to keep the water flowing.

It comes with an assortment of different nozzles that allow you to control the volume of water. I usually keep the fan nozzle on the sprayer and find it works well to evenly distribute water over the lawn. It provides a gentle mist that will seep slowly into the soil. (Picture shows me using the yellow fan tip nozzle, the red fan tip nozzle is higher output and will work faster.)

Normally I'll just walk along slowly spraying the lawn a few times a day to keep the top portion of the soil where the seed is moist but other times I'll just set it up, flip the switch to keep the sprayer going. Checking it every few minutes to pump it up, reposition or refill it. I will still drag out the hose out at least once every other day (usually once a day). This just makes it easier to keep the seed moist in between hose watering.

About 2 gallons per 100 sq ft multiple times a day seems to be the right amount for my soil and climate.

Not the most practical way to water a large lawn but for small sections, patching bald spots, watering new transplants or syringing plants during the summer the pump sprayer as a sprinkler works well and is cheaper than installing a dedicated sprinkler system for that purpose.

Connecting Multiple Drip Irrigation Zones To A Garden Hose

Designing my Square Foot Garden raised beds got me thinking about installing drip irrigation in other parts of the landscape. To handle different watering requirements for different garden beds I'll need to split them up into different zones.

I don't have an in-ground sprinkler system so I have to come up with a hose-end connected solution like I'm using for my hose-end lawn sprinklers.

They do make multi-zone garden hose timers like this Orbit Complete Yard Watering Kit or the Melnor AquaTimer 4-Zone Digital Water Timer but I don't need to have the system run automatically since my area gets plenty of rain most of the year. I also don't want to have garden hoses running all over which are both unsightly and a trip hazard.

Instead I figured out a way to to connect multiple drip irrigation zones to a garden hose without having to buy multiple expensive timers or faucet connection kits. Since I use quick connects for most of my lawn watering gadgets (wands, sprayers, Dial-N-Spray, hose-end sprinklers) I'll be using them here too. They really make changing watering accessories quick and easy but you can omit them to save some money if you don't mind taking a few extra seconds to twist on the connections.

How To Draw A Landscape Plan With Sketchup

Having a landscape drawing allows you to quickly plan changes to your landscape as well as measure the square footage of your beds and lawn area so you can buy the right amount of materials such as compost, mulch, fertilizer and more. This can help you save both time and money.

Let's say your lawn fertilizer is meant to be spread at 20 lbs per 1,000 square feet or you need to add 3" of mulch to your beds how much should you buy? It's simple. Just point and click to find out the areas you're interested in to get square footage. It won't be exact but it'll be close enough for most uses.

Sketchup is a 3D modelling program that's very easy to use. Best of all it's free. There are two versions, the Pro requires a paid license but SketchUp Make has all the features you'll need for free.

In this post I'll go over how to quickly make a 2D diagram of your property to help you plan and manage your landscape. Best of all, you won't even need to step outside and take measurements.