Thoughts of composting class, warm weather, and veggies...

~DISCLAIMER~
Due to computer issues, I don't have any new pictures. But hopefully tonight I'll have a few to post.

The composting class last week was very informative! Not only did it give me a chance to see how wet the bins needed to be (A LOT wetter than I thought) but I got to meet a few new folks, hang out with my buddy, and got a welded wire composting hoop. Now to get mine started. I need to find a load of browns though, guess I'll be using the neighborhood's throw outs.

So my seedlings didn't do so well. I'm a veggie killer. I was starting the hardening off process and got wrapped up in the day. They spent the better part of two days outside and of course they were windy, hot, and dry. I lost everything except for a couple of cantaloupes. They are now in the beds and I'm hoping they'll pull through.

So I ended up buying all of my plants from a local nursery. Well, all of the except for all of my crowder peas. I started them from seeds in the beds and boy are they taking off! On Friday I was starting to worry I had planted them too deep, it'd been a week with no signs of life. And then came the 85-90 degree days over the weekend. It's amazing what some good sun shine will do. By Monday night they were almost 2" tall and looking extremely healthy!

Now here's one for you guys that are a little more experienced than I am (like that's hard). When watering my beds, the water drains out of them pretty quickly. Now I know I need to stop before this happens, but how much in the way of nutrients am I loosing in the brown water that comes out?

Since spring is officially here in NC, I hope everyone can get out and enjoy this beautiful time of the year!

Have a great one!

Composting Class

I singed up for Cabarrus county's newsletter when we moved back in Janurary. They have your normal county information as well as some classes offered for kids and adults. Well today I received the newest e-letter and they are having a class on composting. So I immediately sent off an email asking to be registered for the class.

Now I know I might not learn much more than what I've picked up on the internet, but they are offering a free composting bin for participating in the class. I'm not sure what type of bin it'll be, but for free and to be able to meet new folks makes it more than worth it!

Now that I'm all geeked out about going to this class, I'm off to ask the deli owner in the ground floor of our building to save me his coffee grounds.

Enjoy the weekend!

The beds are ready!!

So the next couple of weeks should end our cold snap season and the plants should do well in the garden. Due to some family stuff, we haven't been home the past two weekends. That means no yard/gardening time for me. Well tonight Joel and I made a quick run to the store and picked up some soaker hoses.

I managed to get them laid in and my square feet marked out with string.




And a view from the steps into the kitchen...



I'm hoping the soaker hose will do a good job of watering for me, anyone have an opinion on them?

And my poor seedlings, we were out of town for 5 days last week and I think the lack of watering has set them on a bad path. The cantaloupes still look strong, but I'm not sure any are going to be great producers. And yeah, I know I need to sharpen the mower blades and get them out of the house. ;-)





Hopefully this weekend we'll be able to get to the nursery and grab some seedlings from them. After all, I do have 64 square feet to fill up.