Pay List: Garden

"I think the only things left to do is: 1) enter publish date in Kindle version, 2) receive and pay invoice from you, and 3) deliver horse poop."

I received those words in an email from a client this morning.  (I do Kindle and CreateSpace conversions for other authors.  It's not on my pay list, but it does pay. 😉)  

I have to believe that I'm the only mystery writer in my neighborhood--or county, state, country--who received such a notice.  But, I'm pleased.  I'm growing an organic garden and making every effort to learn the methods.  Part of my gardening plan is to accumulate my own compost, and there are some very specific restrictions on what can be included in the pile.  

I sought Florida specific information on the Internet. The University of Florida has a rich library of resources for the home gardener.  Then I shopped on Amazon for what looked to be the perfect bin.  

Placing the bin in the yard required some thought.  Far enough away from our windows.  Far enough away from the neighbors' windows.  Placed to not be visible from the street or from the above mentioned neighbors' yards.

The interesting thing is that there is no odor.  I've learned that the secret to odor free compost is maintaining a balanced combination of browns and greens. The browns can be items like dead leaves (no insecticide or fertilizer allowed since this is an organic pile), dried clippings, sawdust, and certain kinds of paper.  Greens include fresh clippings, kitchen scrap, and farm animal manure.  The issue with manure, a.k.a. poop, is that is must be from vegetarian critters, so horses qualify, small fuzzy red dogs do not.

The material needs to be occasionally mixed for aeration--see the tool on the left of the bin.  Gradually, the bottom layer turns to a rich thick compost.  The sliding doors on the lower part of the bin provide access to the finished compost.

The West garden box is almost all planted.  The East box has five vacancies.  Some vegetables can't be planted until October, and with others, I'm anticipating wanting a staggered crop--if I can call a 12 inch square a crop.  The white box in the middle is for carrots, which I'll plant next week.

That concludes the poopy-conversation.

Later.
GEB