Second Year SFG in Canada

trolleydriver wrote:And here we go. This morning's haul of neighbourhood leaves collected from four neighbours. Total number of bags is 22. There will be more.

I remember when LM did that with the leaves. She ended with with I don't know how many but I think it was a record, and had to make a gigantic fenced in pile. Or was it 2 or 3 piles? Can't remember.

Are you going to mow them all first?
CC

Wow!

CapeCoddess wrote:

...

Are you going to mow them all first?
CC

CC ... That is my plan but there are two possible problems.

1. Some of the leaves are quite wet and may not chop up well with the mower.
2. We are expecting more rain.

There are still lots of leaves to come down so I should be able to increase my haul.

sanderson ... do you think I will have enough for the 3x3x3?

I think the last one used up 14 bags of raked leaves plus some shredded hay as browns.

This afternoon we had a periods of sun plus sleet/snow a few times and 36 Km/Hr winds. High temp was about 4 Celsius.  

My next door neighbour asked if I wanted to go get wood chips so we took his pickup truck and got a load of free, partially composted, wood chips from my church.  I also picked up 11 more bags of leaves from other neighbours.  The yard is filling up with bags of leaves plus yard waste from our garden and a neighbour's garden.  Mrs TD thinks I have gone crazy.  She may be right. 

Looking good, TD.  Next year your garden will produce even more stuff.

Congratulations on getting your name in RED. 

Y
Yo

How many gallons or cubic feet do the paper bags hold? I would love what you just picked up.

sanderson wrote:How many gallons or cubic feet do the paper bags hold?  I would love what you just picked up.

By my calculation they hold about 4 cubic feet or 30 US gallons.

So I just dumped out onto the lawn one bag of "leaves" that I pikced up from a neighbour yesterday. The intent is to run over them with the lawnmower to chop them up. Below the top layer of leaves there was a lot of pine straw mixed in with the leaves. I am concerned about using this combination of leaves and pine straw in my compost bin. I know that pine needles breakdown quite slowly in the compost. Should I be concerned? Any thoughts?


Here are the contents of that first bag dumped on the lawn. Lots of pine straw. The next 4 bags had very little to no pine straw.




Here is what that pile looked like after I went over it with my mulching lawnmower. After mulching I went over it again to collect it into the bag on the mower.




Here is a comparison before and after chopping with the mower. The original bags of leaves are filled to the very top. Three bags of leaves do not even fill a bag after chopping up.

Great photos, TD. Your final product looks so fine that I think those pine needles will disappear in no time, or as least take as long as oak leaves take.

I have pine needles in my compost, mowed and whole. I'm not concerned about them and if any get in the way of my planting I just move them over. I supposed it depends on what consistency you want from your final compost.

Got the hardware cloth/mesh installed and finished the front slats on the new compost bin.  Also chopped up 11 bags of leaves with the lawnmower. Tired now.

No wonder you are tired, TD.  That was a LOT of work.

You do such neat work; my only consolation is that the microbes do not know the difference and they will do their thing regardless.

Like Cape Goddess, I have no problem with a mixture of pine needles in your bin.  When I collect my leaves I try to get as many as I can from the different trees especially as the dominant trees around my area are silver birches and oaks.  In our downtown are several species of small leaved trees so I collect as many of them as I can.

I was especially pleased with myself today as I walked over our nearest pedestrian crossing going into downtown that was free of leaves as I had picked up three bags there on Sunday while the weather was only damp.  Those little trees are now bare so there should be no trouble at that spot for the rest of the season.  It is  raining again and looked to be set for the day.

KJ, Good little Samaritan!

TD, A work of beauty! Yes, lots of bags, to be reduced to a fraction of the bulk when mowed.

This is rather exciting, TD. Can't wait to see the new bin in action!

CC ... don't get too excited ... it's still iffy as to whether or not I will achieve the goal this year.

Today I chopped up a pile of garden waste (flower plants and veggie plants) which will contribute to the greens in the compost bin. On the chopping block in the photo is a cabbage that was partially eaten by a critter. If they saw me the neighbours must think I am crazy working outside in this very cold day.
  



Looking inside a bag at some of the material that was chopped up.




This is another pile of yard waste (including the contents of the bags) yet to be processed. The pile I chopped up today did not produce a whole lot of greens for the compost bin. I'm a bit concerned that I will not have enough.



I decided to quit the chopping exercise when the snow started coming down heavier. 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

The SFG gets its first coating of snow since last Winter.



The fish are shivering in the pond.



The cars are getting a coating as well.

 YIKES! Snow already? We're having lots of much-needed rain.

I love snow pictures so Sanderson thanks you. If you get a break in weather, you can chop everything in larger pieces just to get the bin filled. Also, maybe a tarp under the chopping blocks to catch the splatter. I can only imagine what you look like wielding that machete. That's another view for the neighbors that rivals some of us outside with bathrobes, flip flops, and headlamps/flashlights, checking for slugs and munching pests.

I made the trek through the snow to the SFG to gather some greens for a smoothie.




The Kale is not bothered by the snow.




Swiss Chard not faring as well.




Almost ready to go into the Vitamix blender.




Garden waste waiting to be chopped up when the weather improves.

trolleydriver wrote:

Aww...this photo reminds me of Canada with all the red brick.
Can't even remember the last time I was there...

TD, please don't send any of that snow this way. I'm not a fan!

CC

Another trip (post snow) to the SFG to see what is happening.

This lettuce seems to be hanging in.



A few small Kale and Spinach plants with holes (caused by slugs?).

trolleydriver wrote:Another trip (post snow) to the SFG to see what is happening.

This lettuce seems to be hanging in.



A few small Kale and Spinach plants with holes (caused by slugs?).

That is what my lettuces and kale, chard look like too, TD.  I thought pill bugs due to the size of bites and there are a ton of them in there....

Intrepid TD.    Do not look up the meaning of that word in the dictionary or you will get a big head.  There are about 34 other words that mean the same thing.

i.e. fearless, unafraid, dauntless, etc. etc. 

If you were fearful, afraid or daunted, then you would really be a hero. IMO.

I love it ! Intrepid TD,  yeah, I think I have the same type damage on my remaining radishes.  Sow bugs.  Everywhere!