N&C Midwest: March and April 2021

Yep, Spring is in the air!  It was 65ºF yesterday, and I actually got some work done outside while enjoying the warm breezes in the sunshine. Remember, SR, it isn't work if you enjoy it!    You're right about getting the Rhubarb out of the heavy, wet clay soil - they just don't like that. I have two new gooseberry plants to get into my BTE garden, but I didn't get that done yesterday, so that is still on my to-do list.  In a couple weeks I'll be starting seeds indoors.

Thanks, SR!  I just sow the onion seeds on top of the moist soil, cover with vermiculite, spray the vermiculite to completely dampen, then put them on a heat mat with a plastic cover over them with plastic. They germinate in 3 to 5 days.  When I transplant them, I bunch them with 3 or 4 plants, poke a hole with the dibble, stick them in and firm the soil around them.  Soon, we're eating fresh bunching onions.  Yum, yum...  

I took out all of the grape vines, they became magnets for the Japanese Beetles, and I got tired of fighting them.

Yes, Gooseberries are a perennial bush. They set fruit on 2nd or 3rd year growth, so pruning is necessary every fall after they go dormant. The bushes get about 4' tall. The berries get sweet when they ripen, and make the most delicious pies, jams, and jellies. But, bite into one that isn't ripe and it'll pucker your mouth for a week!  I have found that most people that like Rhubarb pie, love Gooseberry pie.

Picking the berries can be a bit of a challenge, though. Notice the thorns on the branches?  The deer don't like the bushes because of those thorns.

Started Swiss Chard and Kale seeds under lights today, so they'll be ready to transplant into the beds in mid-April. Can't wait to get fresh Kale & Chard!

The harbingers of spring, the Robins, arrived today, so Spring can't be far off.  There were 6 Robins in the garden area this morning looking to see how many worms they could find. Meanwhile, haven't see any Dark-eyed Juncos (Snow Birds) for the past week, so hopefully they've gone back north and taken the snow with them.

Beautiful day, almost 70ºF, a great day for garden work. Cleaned up two beds, broadcast some Alfalfa pellets to feed the microbes, and then added an inch or so of compost to get the beds ready for planting.  Have bunching onions hardening off so they can be transplanted into one bed in a week or so, and have Swiss Chard and Lacinato Kale seedlings started under lights so that they can get transplanted into the bed in early April.

Pulled the first bunch of Red Welsh Bunching Onions today. Had a couple of them in this evening's salad, and they were delicious! It is nice having perennial bunching onions to provide early spring onions.

Started a new compost bin made out of pallets.  It is 40"x40"x48" high. Still have to line the inside with landscape fabric, and have to put the slides for the boards to close off the front.  It should be a nice addition to the gardens when it is done. Ran out of space for compost last year, so "just one more compost bin" should do it. 

Madrien, you don't mention what you use for the "green" material in your composter.  I use the 2 Jora JK-270 composters to compost kitchen scraps and coffee grounds, and pine pellets for the "brown" material. I have a neighbor that brings me her juicer pulp to compost, so I get a lot of greens to add to the composters. The compost quickly heats to 140ºF to 160ºF, and processes into compost very quickly. With the two composters, I have four bins for compost, and each bin completes in a month.  So, by the time the 4th bin is full, I am ready to empty the 1st bin, and start fill it again. I rotate through the 4 bins all summer long.

Madrien wrote:I also wondered what happens through the winter, does it continue to heat up or is it too cold....and I have the Canadian version of the Jora called Joracan NE271 I believe it is the same as your JK-270

Yes, it will continue composting through the winter, but does get as hot as it does in the summer. The middle of the compost typically heats to around 110ºF to 120ºF during the winter, and it takes longer to finish the compost - about a month and a half or so.  This winter, for the first time ever, the compost in the tumbler froze solid after we had several days in the minus 10ºF range. But, as soon as the weather warmed above freezing, the compost started working agin.

Madrien wrote:Thanks!

I will stick with it then.  Maybe I was putting two much sawdust in it.  I was ready to abandon this expensive item and go old school but maybe give it another chance.  I will clean it out and start from scratch again following letter of the law, lol.

If it isn't heating up, that usually means too much carbon (brown), and not enough nitrogen (green).  An easy way to fix that is by adding coffee grounds or alfalfa pellets. If you have a coffee shop near you, see if they will save some coffee grounds for you, and mix them into the compost. They'll heat up very quickly.

Finished the new compost bin today. Anchored the sides to ensure they stay in place, lined it with landscape fabric to keep the compost in the bin, and added "tracks" to the front to enable sliding boards in to close the front as it fills.  Now to start cleaning the gardens and composting the trimmings....

yolos wrote:Aren't you concerned that the two sides will get pushed out due to the pressure of the compost inside the bin.  I used this with the bin that I built.  A little bit expensive but it works.  I only have to remove it when I am doing a lot of work in the bin such as filling it up.  I just leave it connected when I am just getting a little compost to spread around.  The boards in the front also are easy to remove and just slide out.

I haven't had a problem with the older bins pushing out, so I haven't been too concerned. But, if they do start to push outward, I'll do something similar to what you've done.