Composting Misconceptions Column 12/8/11

                I must admit that when it came to composting, I was a reluctant participant for many years. In several gardening circles I would hear others talk about their compost piles like a special pet; feeding it greens, keeping it warm and never adding junk food to its microbial digestion. My eyes would glaze over as temperatures and techniques were debated.

There were several misconceptions I had to resolve before I could really embrace this activity.

Composting is complicate. Those who are into composting are, well, into it. They have read articles and books gleaning information. Good for them. You really don’t need to worry about all that. Pile whatever composting materials you have and it will decompose. Adding water now and then and turning it over will speed the process. If you tend to forget about your pile, as I often do, nature will still run its course.

The yard is too small for compost pile. Think of it this way; if you have a large yard your compost pile is usually larger; with a small yard the pile will be smaller in proportion. If you have a garden apartment or condo, use a 36 gal. black plastic garbage can with tight fitting lid. Drill ½ inch holes around sides and bottom for air movement. To ‘stir’ the compost, lay the container on its side, with lid secured, and roll it around.

Compost piles stink and attract rodents. Most people have this misconception. Compost piles do not attract rodents or have a bad odor unless the wrong stuff is added. The rule here is no animal products: meats/bones, oils, dairy, poo. Do not add sugary materials either. Add only vegetative materials from the kitchen or yard. Healthy compost smells like spring soil.

Compost piles are ugly. Location is everything. Placing it in the middle of the yard or driveway will certainly create an eyesore. Locate it in an out of the way place where it will receive sunlight. You can hide the pile by using fence panels to surround it, or, again, black garbage cans. There are commercial composting containers and bins available on the market ranging from $60 to over $1000 for free-standing tumblers.

Composting costs too much money.  Sure, you can spend a lot on a compost thermometer, tumbler or fancy fencing but there is no need.  To get started make a walled bin from whatever you have lying around—wooden skids, chicken wire and metal posts, even doubled black garbage bags filled and set in the sun work perfectly fine.

I don’t have the time to compost. This was a favorite myth of mine. I believed I was far too busy attending to my and others’ gardens to focus on creating the healthy compost pile that gardeners bragged about. Once my compost pile was started I discovered it took about 30 minutes a month to maintain.

That’s all there is to it. For more information on the perfect pile, contact the County Extension Office or go to the library.

Gifts for the Gardener: Tools 12/1/11 Column

     Gardeners, like most people who work with their hands, appreciate good, reliable tools. Some of my friends show me a tool their grandfather used, and others share with me something new that works like a charm.

     I am one who likes to try the new stuff that comes to the market. I look for products that will ease my gardening tasks. Here are a few that might interest you:
     Not too long ago the St. Francis Garden Society was given a gift of several collapsible 40-gallon containers, sometimes called Spring Buckets or Kangaroo Containers. We have used them almost daily and have had several people stop and ask where to buy them. The collapsible buckets have a circling spring enclosed in a sleeve sewn to the UV resistant tarpaulin. The hard plastic bottom that has drain holes holds the container in place as it is filled with debris. When collapsed it is 3 inches thick and can be hung by the large nylon handles sewn to the sides.
     Containers are popular. However, moving them for winter storage can be a challenge, especially when they are large and heavy. The glazed ceramic containers are difficult to move because it is hard to get a grip on their slippery surface. Lifting these pots is a two-person job and can be made safer by using a Potlifter Strap. This simple and ingenious device is an adjustable nylon strap that fits around the circumference of a container and is designed with handles for gripping.
     I’m not sure there is a more practical tool than the bulb planter that can be attached to a drill. I remember my first attempt at power-drilling holes for bulbs. I noticed the paint stirrer attached to my grandfather’s hand drill and thought it would work in the gardens for making holes. The concept was good even if the paint stirrer didn’t function well as an auger.
     Several years later the proper tool came to market. Bulb augers can be long enough to stand while drilling, or shorter and more easily controlled. There is also a device called a Bulb Bopper that is a tube instead of a spiral auger. If you have physical challenges planting bulbs, or have a lot of bulbs to put in, this tool is essential to your gardening hardware.

Protecting Trees and Shrubs 11/10/11 Column

     Now that it is early November I find myself preparing to nestle in for the winter. My gardening frenzy shifts to calmer activities, such as writing and cooking, and I gratefully look forward to time for reading garden magazines set aside throughout the summer months.
     There are a few more tasks that need attending to before winter enfolds the gardens.
     For shrubs exposed to winter winds and prone to its desiccating effects on their leaves, such as rhododendrons and dwarf Alberta spruce, protect them with a burlap barrier. Place the barrier 4 to 6 inches away from the plant’s limbs on the south, southwest and windward sides. If a plant in a previous winter has shown injury on all sides, surround it with a barrier and leave the top open for air and light penetration. Never fill the space between the plant and the burlap with leaves. The burlap also protects plants from deer browsing.

Photo by Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp of Hoosier Gardener

Another way to protect evergreens is to prop pine boughs or Christmas tree greens against or over them. This helps catch more snow for natural protection and offers additional protection from wind and sun.
     Young trees and those with a thin bark are often damaged by sun scald. Sun scald is characterized by a long sunken or cracked area of bark found on the south or southwest side of the trunk. On a cold winter’s day the sun can warm the bark to the point where it becomes active. When the sun is blocked, bark temperatures drop rapidly, killing the active tissue. Sun scald can be prevented by wrapping the trunk in late autumn with white plastic tree guards or commercial tree wrap. This also protects the trunk from deer rubs when the bucks grow antlers. Be sure to remove wrappings in late spring.
     Protect the lower trunk portion of young trees from mice and rabbits. Use mesh hardware cloth rolled and fastened into a tube around the base of the trunk, leaving about a half-inch space and buried about two inches into the soil. Be careful not to damage the tree’s roots. I often cut a notch into the wire as wide as the root so the mesh tube will set deep enough into the ground.
     Mulch is great as a weed barrier and it helps retain moisture. It also protects plant roots from freeze-thaw damage. This damage is caused by the sun warming the soil surface and ‘waking-up’ the root system. Like sun scald, when temperatures drop suddenly the activated tissue is killed. Pile on extra leaves at the base of shrubs and trees to keep soil at an even temperature. For newly planted plants, the mulch will also help protect against heaving from freezing soil.

For the Birds 10/28/11 Column

     Feeding the birds during the winter is an activity a lot of people delight in. Through the years, I’ve picked up several feeder tips on how to attend to the needs of birds and deter marauding squirrels. Here are just a few.



Artwork by Charlie Harper

      Large bird feeders are a convenience because you don’t have to fill them as often as the smaller ones. One issue with their size is that the seeds don’t always flow out to the edges where the birds can reach. A trick I picked up years ago uses a clear disposable 5-ounce cup (or a 7-ounce cup cut in half around the circumference). Before filling the feeder, turn the cup upside-down and center it in the bottom. Add seed, initially holding the cup in place, until feeder is filled. The seed will slide away from the plastic cup and toward the edges of the feeder.
     Filling a finch feeder with thistle seeds can be a bit messy, especially if you use a mesh sock feeder. Here is a way to make that task easier by repurposing a watering can that leaks. Remove the rose head on the spout; it might twist off or you might need to cut it off. Then, add seed and pour it out the spout into the sock feeder.
     Peanut butter-coated pine cones covered in seeds is a favorite winter food of many birds. Creating these feeders often has been a messy and time-consuming activity until I read this tip that makes the project less of a challenge. Select cones that will easily fit into the wide mouth of a peanut butter jar. Tie a string around the top of the cone. Remove the label from the jar of peanut butter and with a permanent marker write “birds” on the jar and lid. Place the jar in a pan of boiling water until peanut butter is melted. Using a microwave will often melt and warp the plastic jar; for this method place peanut butter into a glass bowl and then microwave. When the peanut butter is melted, swirl the cone into the peanut butter until coated, and then roll it in a bowl of bird seed. Set the cone on wax paper to harden. I usually cut the wax paper to fit around each cone and use it to wrap the one for storage.
     We’ve all experienced the challenges of squirrels at our bird feeders. If you use a pole feeder, buying a baffle for it can be costly. Repurpose a metal Slinky instead. Secure one end of the Slinky to the bottom of an empty bird feeder around the flange that attaches to the pole. When you reattach the feeder the Slinky will slide down the pole. The moving wire of the Slinky confuses squirrels and keeps them from climbing up to the feeder.
     The squirrels also like to devour suet blocks and can consume a small block in two days. To prevent this, purchase a large suet feeder with a mesh space about an inch in size. Center and attach a smaller suet feeder with suet inside the larger one. The birds and woodpeckers can still reach inside to feed but the larger “cage” keeps the squirrels at bay.

Saints in the Garden

St. Adam the Patriarch

First human, husband of Eve

0-930 BC, Eden

Memorial, December 24th

Patron of Gardeners

Adam lived in Eden, was married to Eve and had one son that was a bad apple. Adam’s first son, Cain, was also a gardener, well actually a ploughman who tilled the earth and while doing so apparently tilled greed. Adam was the second gardener on this earth; God of course being the first.  

The name of Adam is said to be connected with the Hebrew word ha-adamah (the ground) in a similar manner that in Latin homo is related to humus.  Both refer to him as being of the earth.[1] Adam was created not only of the earth but initially to attend to it in joy and recreation. The necessity of labor became apparent only after he and Eve had made a very serious mistake when it came to the Tree of Paradise.

This tree has its own familiar presence in our lives. In the tradition of the Eastern Church the feast day of Adam and Eve, whom they consider saints, is December 24th.  It was on this date that a Paradise Tree was decorated with red apples that represented the forbidden fruit. At some point during the 1500’s communion wafers were added to represent the Eucharist, the fruit of life. Shortly thereafter the Roman Church discontinued the Feast of Adam and Eve and eliminated the practice of the Paradise Tree, which then had been renamed the Christbaum or Christ Tree in Germany, which we now call a Christmas tree.

The tradition of a Christ Tree would not fade away from Catholic families, though some concessions were made to meet the directives of the pope. With the removal of communion wafers, the Germans created angels, hearts and stars from white pastry dough with humans and animals made from brown dough. Eventually fruits and vegetables honoring the Creator’s creations were made from marzipan and added to the tree. In the 17th century the Christ tree was nick named the sugar tree, and it is no wonder that children waited in eager anticipation for disassembling it on January 6th.

Artist Dianne Cherr, Pomegranite Tree

There is also a story from The Golden Legend, a medieval book of the lives of saints, which tells of seeds taken from the Paradise Tree, that in this story is called the Tree of Mercy. A very aged Adam knew that it wouldn’t be long before he died. Wanting to be forgiven by God, he sent his son Seth to the Garden of Eden to find an oil of Mercy. Well, the garden had been closed by God immediately after they were expelled and only the angles that guarded the entrance were permitted to enter. One of these angels apparently recognized from the words of Seth the hunger of Adam for forgiveness, and fetched a few grains of seeds from the fruit of the Tree of Mercy…apparently no oil had been pressed.

Upon his return home, Seth found his father still alive and shared with him the story of the angel and the seeds.

And then Adam laughed first and then died. And then Seth laid the grains or kernels under his father’s tongue and buried him in the vale of Hebron; and out of Adam’s mouth grew three trees of the three grains, of which trees the cross that our Lord suffered his passion on was made.

      We all know as Christians that it is through our Lords passion that mercy was granted to us all, and Adam too was granted the mercy he sought so many centuries ago.

[1] Catholic Encyclopedia, p.39.

---

Autumn 2011

Tendrils of Faith

“As we extend the tendrils of our faith above and through the walls of our resistance, our lives become green, verdant, affirming... As we cling to our conscious optimism, finding footholds of faith despite opposition, our lives become rooted in the soil of grace. We are nurtured, prospered, and blessed.”

Julia Cameron, Blessings, p. xii

Saints in the Garden

St. Fiacre

Fiacra, Fiachrach, Fiaker, Fiacrius, Fiakrius, Fiacrio, Fevre

?-670, Ireland

Memorial, August 30th (August 11th, 18th Anglican, 31st, September 1st)

Patron of Vegetable Gardens

St. Fiacre is the patron saint of gardeners, especially of those who grow vegetable and herbs. He was a loving 7th century Benedictine monk who was filled with that unique joy and humor so often seen in the Irish. He is becoming a very popular saint in the 21st century as more community gardens are created to serve neighborhoods and the poor.

While at the monastery in Ireland he learned a great deal about horticulture becoming very skilled in the use of healing herbs, and because of this doctoring skill he had many followers. With so many people seeking his help, he was unable to practice the sacred solitude he desired. With the hope to once again live in solitude, he went to France and for a while lived in a cave near a spring.

Eventually he went to the Bishop of Meaux, St. Faro, and asked for land to establish a hermitage and grow healing herbs and vegetables for himself and those in need. From his own inheritance in nearby Breuil, the bishop gave Fiacre a dwelling place in the forest. St. Faro also told Fiacre he could have as much land as he could fallow in one day. Legend has it that the next morning after Fiacre prayed, he walked around the perimeter of the land dragging his spade (or as one story claims the tip of his staff) behind him. Wherever the spade touched, trees were toppled, bushes uprooted, and the soil was entrenched.

Witnessing the event was one of the ever watchful ‘church ladies’ who adored St. Faro and felt it was her duty to protect the bishop’s holdings. She immediately scurried off to tell Faro that this hermit he was so overly fond of was betraying him with witchcraft. What she did not realize was that the bishop had developed a friendship with the monk and recognized the occurrence for what it was…an act of God.

This garden, miraculously obtained, became a place of pilgrimage over the centuries for those seeking healing. It was said that animals never ate from this garden. “It was as if his unwalled garden was spiritually enclosed.”[1]

There are legends about Fiacre’s garden that relate to an odd patronage to this saint…that of hemorrhoids. This unfortunate condition, called ‘Saint Fiacre's Illness’ during the Middle Ages, may be due to the following (unconfirmed) story: One day after St. Fiacre had worked long in the gardens, he too was suffering with this affliction. Sorrowfully he sat upon a large cold stone and prayed to God for a cure, and that stone softened, curing the hermit and apparently leaving a very specific imprint! People still journey to his garden to sit upon this healing stone and pray that their ailment will also be rectified.

Another tale tells that after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, Henry V allowed his soldiers to pillage Fiacre's shrine. No matter the size of the beast or the efforts of the men, the cart bearing his relics could not be moved beyond the boundary of St. Fiacre's land. It is said that after this incident Henry V developed and eventually died seven years later of hemorrhoids on August 31st, the Feast of St. Fiacre.

And on that note, this posting will end.

---

[1] Mike Hales, Monastic Gardens, page 11.