Mid-Atl: Great weather in December!

I hope the rest of you are having a great weather day.  It's a bit windy here but WARM! Did anyone else get out in the garden today?

Stupidly I overdid it but accomplished a LOT. After the broken hand this summer and physical therapy, I had a fibromyalgia flare up then life got nuts, so I didn't get to my fall cleanup chores.

Things are now (mostly) organized. I finished up the makeshift hoop house since the greenhouse never got built, put shelving up in it so I can start seeds soon (want to have some stuff to show at the Maryland Home & Garden Show in early March), cleaned the back deck and made space to bring the salad table up on it.

I moved some bags of Mel's Mix around the house - they were extra heavy since they had gotten wet. Then I hoisted them into the "grave yard" - an area I had to fence in so my Beagle doesn't get at it. This is where I'm experimenting with a Back to Eden Garden. If you've never heard of it, there's a thread on the Forum about it.

Tomorrow I'd like to work on my medicinal herb "island" but I'm not quite sure what I want to do. I hope to work a little on starting a small Hugelkultur area to get a head start on spring, and maybe make & seed some soil blocks. 

Well I just checked the weather and while it's going to be WARM, it's also supposed to rain in the early afternoon. SOOOOO depending how I feel, tomorrow might just be a get up early, catch church online, sit with the laptop and PLAN kinda day. 

I'm feeling kinda achy right now and heading up to take an Epsom salt and baking soda bath.

"I'm feeling kinda achy right now and heading up to take an Epsom salt and baking soda bath."

Does it really help?

I believe it does.

You hear a lot about detox baths and while I feel it might help, I had to research it further.

Dr. Rosemary Waring has shown that the magnesium in Epsom salt indeed is absorbed by the skin (it shows up in the blood and urine). Magnesium is known to help with pain and also improves sleep.

Baking soda is great for softening and exfoliating the skin and helps soften the water.

With all our snow gone, I put on my boots today and walked out to the compost pile.
1 needs to be turned and another needs to be started, have boxes of old veggies just itching to heat up.
There was so much mud I had to quit, now I must wait till it all freezes again, then I'll just say "heck with it all" and wait till spring when it is dry.

jimmy cee wrote:With all our snow gone, I put on my boots today and walked out to the compost pile.
1 needs to be turned and another needs to be started, have boxes of old veggies just itching to heat up.
There was so much mud I had to quit, now I must wait till it all freezes again, then I'll just say "heck with it all" and wait till spring when it is dry.

I tried that approach to my compost pile last February when it warmed up.  Huge mistake as the contents were wet, heavy, and it took a long time to turn the pile. 

Now I just let mother nature due the hard work as the constant freezing and thawing brakes down the leaves and grass clipping and I don't bother with it till May or June.

I was out playing in my compost pile today. I just putz around in the top mostly. It helps that I laid a lot of oak & maple leaves around it in the fall to walk on when things get muddy. I had lots of kitchen scraps and a garbage bag of shredded office paper this morning so poured it all on and used compost from one of the ends at the bottom to top it off. It was quite pliable.

What do you folks do with your kitchen scraps over the winter when you can't get out there?

CC

After reading the last few threads perhaps in Mel's next ANSFG book he should make the first page of making your own compost to read in big letters ...  " Make your heap so it has a decent all weather path /area to the front so you can work the heap when it's wet and muddy "

 I don't have any problems all my compost bins are on  a4 "  thick slab of smoothed  concrete

I dont live in the Mid-Atlantic region, but in the winter time I do usually make a path and maintain access through the snow to the compost pile.

Once the snow flies and the ground is frozen solid all composting activity on my part is DONE! Anything happening under the white blanket is all that is happening. I don't even add to it in the winter, as the bins are to the northeast and usually get drifted in regularly.

GG

I have a small back yard so every thing is pretty accessible by a walkway or pavers.  I've been putting my kitchen scraps in a cage of dry, clean chopped leaves.  I lift up the edge of the plastic tarp, lift up the little bundle and pour in the scraps.  There is definitely some fermentation going on under the little bundle because of our relatively mild winters.

Hey folks, how's the weather down the coast today?

OOOOHHHHH I love cementing
If I had my way there wouldn't be any thing in my yard but cement, and if I had my way I wouldn't be living here either....
I had to get rid of my cement mixer, hardest thing I ever let go.
If I kept it I would have lost my marriage...LOL,,,,,<<<Where I am composting is way in the back, behind my beds, next to 2 sheds, under giant oak trees.
No way to keep it from mudding up in wet weather.
I love it all anyway..