Owning dirt! : Making a compost bin

Who wants to make some dirt??  Make dirt?  That's insane.  From food scraps?  Won't it rot and smell?Well, maybe.  I don't know yet.  I did see some bugs and stuff the last time I threw stuff into my compost bin and seriously thought about calling this whole little project off, but I thought better of it.  Because I want to make some dirt!!

When we decided to build a raised vegetable bed, the idea of composting was a natural offshoot for me. After all, what better way to create healthy plants than with compost?  And why buy it from the store when I can make my own, for free, from the scraps that fill up our garbage every night anyway?  Mmmmmmm, yummy.

The hubs and I did our research on the web, and we decided to go with small, simple and cheap to start off. We bought a large garbage can with a locking lid (it cost us about $14).  Then Jason drilled holes all over it, a few inches apart.  All over.  Top, bottom, sides.  If you look carefully, you can see all the little holes. This allows air flow to occur all over, oxidizing and breaking down the leaves and food stuff into what will become compost.  We normally have it raised on bricks, but I took this picture as I was getting ready to roll it.

Then, we used leaves that had fallen in the yard (less raking and throwing out leaves in the trash as well!) to create a ratio of 4:1.  Four parts "brown" (leaves, newspaper, etc)

to one part "green," For the green, we noobies to composting, in a small, highly regulated city, chose to use only raw fruits and veggies, coffee grinds, tea and egg shells.  They seemed the least risky in terms of safety, and smells, and possible neighbor complaints.  And even though our wildlife is somewhat scarce in NYC, we do have opossums and raccoons where I live, and ain't nobody got time for that. There are a lot of other options people choose; some use bones and meat and cooked food, and there's nothing wrong with that.  We just chose this method.

We keep the scraps in an air-tight locking container that some quick dry cement we had bought previously to patch a small area of our patio came in.  It stays on our counter, and locks tight enough to keep any smells or cats from getting out or in, respectively.  It's designed to keep wet cement from drying out, so clearly it's working. And it was free.  If this works out and I become a master composter, I'll buy a sexy stainless steel one.  For now, re- purposed garbage will do.

Every few days, we roll it around on the ground to get the gross stuff mixed.

We are also supposed to keep the mixture moist, although with all the rain we've been having, that hasn't been an issue.

I'll post an update in a few weeks to see whether it's worked or not!!

Thanks for reading and following!!

XOXO
Marissa

Building Our Raised Vegetable Bed: Getting My "Little House on the Prairie" On

When we first bought our town house in the borough of Staten Island in the summer of 09, we knew that we needed to do a lot of work.  Almost all of the work was cosmetic, and we really felt that we would be able to handle it on our own (HA!!).  The house had incredible potential though – 3 floors, 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, a garage, a fireplace, a backyard, a balcony off the kitchen, an attic for storage, lots of closets, and a backyard that, while small, is big enough for the kids to play in and me to create some garden space.  For those of you who know anything about New York City real estate, this is an insane wishlist for anyone who’s not a trust-fund baby.  To give some perspective, the year before we bought the house, I sold my one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn for close to $300,000.  And this was BEFORE the ridiculous property value climb of Brooklyn real estate to astronomical, unaffordable prices (but before bubble burst in 08). 

We thought we’d be tackling most of our projects within the first year, but as anyone who’s ever owned a house could have probably told us… FAT CHANCE!  Here we are, four years later, with almost none of the cosmetic work done.  Instead of beginning the process of redoing bathrooms, the kitchen, adding crown molding and recessed lighting and redoing our backyard with stonework and an outdoor kitchen, most of our money has been spent on the non-cosmetic: new windows and sliding glass doors, fixed plumbing leaks, new appliances for the kitchen and a new washer/dryer (not to mention daycare, diapers, and other kid-related expenses!).  Now that I’m not working as I convalesce from cancer treatments and soon surgery, it goes without saying that aint nuttin getting done for the next few years!  But that’s ok – as we say every night when we say our prayers, `we are thankful for our warm, safe, comfy, cozy, house.’  And we are.

However, when all is said and done, I wanted to be able to sit in the backyard and relax while my kids are able to play safely, and I wanted to grow my own veggies, outside of the little containers I’ve been using for the past few years on our terrace.   Especially because I am somewhat housebound, and will continue to be through the summer.  So, we put our heads together with some friends, and we came up with an idea that would give us an affordable way to create the basics of what we need to be able to make our backyard usable.

The issues:

·         Backyard on a downgrade, with a difference of over 18” from front to back

·        A drain in the middle of the backyard that was recessed over a foot, creating a sink-hole effect that made it practically impossible for the kids to play without falling and rolling in.

·       Unworkable, rocky soil

The plan:

·        Build a raised vegetable garden

·        Raise drain to be level with rest of yard

·        Level the yard

And that’s what we did! Well, that’s what the men did.  My husband and our friend Dmitry busted their butts for several days building and moving soil. Dmitry’s wife Shannon, who has been doing urban farming for the last few years, brought over a whole bunch of `crops’ to plant (as an aside, Shannon and Dmitry are the couple who introduced my husband and me…).

What we planted: kale, collard greens, broccoli, radishes, and multiple varieties of lettuce (including romaine, red leaf, butter, and more!)

We used the instructions in a Martha Steward Living magazine to build the bed, and the article can be found here.  We did differ from her instructions in that (a) instead of using L-brackets we used small pieces of wood, and (b) we made ours 16’x2’ instead of 18’x4’, just because it worked better for our space. Unfortunately, this won’t be a tutorial on how to build the bed.  I don’t have too many pictures, as we did this the week BEFORE I decided to start a blog, but here you can see the skeleton of the vegetable bed:

And here you can see the bed and backyard with the top soil added to level it off (and the grass seeds my husband planted are starting to come up!):

And here is the bed with all the plants planted!  

 

I am SO EXCITED to channel my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder and harvest my own food!  This is the most I’ve ever tried to garden.  Other than some small container plants on my terrace with herbs, I’ve never really gardened before.  I certainly hope I followed the planting directions properly- I gave the kale and collards about a square foot apiece, and interspersed the lettuce in between.  So this could be an epic win, and it could be an epic fail.  I will keep you all updated as the growing progresses.  I’ll do another post once the colder weather crops are done and I plant the warmer weather crops (tomatoes and cukes and beans, Oh My!!!).  

The Cost: $290

·        Materials to build the box - $115

·        Top soil - $175

·       Seedlings - FREE!!

*****One huge thing that I learned is that when purchasing a large amount of soil, the cheapest and best route is to go to a masonry place and have them deliver top soil.  It cost us about $175 for three cubic feet of soil, delivered, as opposed to well over $400 had we purchased it in bags.****

Thanks for reading!  I would love for you to all comment with your responses, reactions, and advice if you have any for this novice gardener/blogger.

XOXOs

Marissa