The Compost Bin

Well here it is, the middle of June and I don't have a vegetable garden anymore. The day before the hail storm in New Jersey, I had tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, rhubarb, corn and more but now I have nothing but shredded wheat.

It's really amazing how a bad hail storm can destroy a garden. I was so worried about the woodchucks eating my plants that I never considered that I should worry about ice falling from the sky.

Its definitely too late to start over using seeds. I may pick up a few tomato plants at the nursery just so that I can get something from the summer garden. But mostly I'm just going to move on and focus on planning the late summer/fall garden. There's lots of great cool season crops and root veggies that I've been meaning to try.

Well I'll start planning it once I clean up this mess.

Just when I think I've got the yard word under control mother nature decides that there's a lot more to do. Northern New Jersey was pummeled by a freak hailstorm yesterday that not only left several inches of ice on the ground but also shredded all of my plants and trees.

I took these pictures 4 hours after the storm when I got home from work and you can still see the ice in my yard. It was really weird to be outside in June and be able to see your frozen breath and we usually don't have ice on the pool toys.

Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy with the clean up for the next few days. Check out this local news video for more on this crazy weather.

Image by Walter Parenteau via Flickr

San Francisco recently approved the most aggressive recycling law in the United States. Residents will now be required to separate their garbage into three color-coded bins, blue for recycling, black for trash and green for composting. You read that right. San Francisco now has mandatory composting.

I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Keeping this waste out of the landfill will cut down on landfill methane.

They’ve found that around 30 percent trash that goes to the landfill is compostable. But in landfill conditions, that waste is composting the same way it would in a home compost bin. In the landfill the piles don’t get to breath as much and the decomposition is Anaerobic. And the number one by-product of anaerobic decomposition is methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. If the production of methane can be reduced it would definitely help reduce our carbon footprint.

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Somehow my yard has become a hotel for ducks.

As long as they stay out of my garden, I'm okay with my new tenants. It's the woodchuck that has to go.

Have you ever wanted to kill zombies by strategically placing pea shooting plants all over your yard? Nope, me neither. Well that is until I started playing this addictive little game called Plants vs. Zombies. Now all I can think about is killing zombies.

You may be wondering what gardening has to do with the undead. To tell you the truth, I don't really know. But the makers of this game had a cool idea and then ran with it. You place pea shooting plants, mushrooms, cherry bombs and lots more stuff all over your yard and collect as much sunshine as you can while you wait for the zombie horde to start marching towards your house.

And the cartoon zombies will amuse you with their crazy ideas on how to protect themselves. Some wear a traffic cone on their head, some hold screen doors and like to pole vault. In the later levels, they even wade through your pool with inflatable floaties.

Plants vs. Zombies is an easy to learn Flash game that will have you hooked in no time. This is one of those games that you'll start playing and then the next thing you know it's two in the morning and you didn't get anything done all night.

Check out the game demo video.



It even has a free demo version that you can download to try before you buy.




I was just going to play the free version myself but I wound up buying the full version after playing it for a while.

So load up on peas, frozen peas, flaming peas and all the mushroom spores that you can because "a huge wave a zombies is approaching."

My pest control motto for berries has always been to stop worrying about the birds, chipmunks and squirrels that are eating some of the berries and just keep planting more of them. Eventually there will be enough for everyone.

This year that might actually be true.


Blackberries


Strawberries


Blueberries

I think that over the winter all of the wildlife in my yard got together, had a few meetings, and they have declared war on my garden. Here's one of their agents of evil stealing a strawberry.

Well listen here wildlife, you know how I had the yard certified as a Natural Wildlife Habitat all those years ago? Well if you keep eating all of my food, I'm going to have it un-certified. No more food, water and shelter for you greedy little critters.

Seriously, I think this year's vegetable garden is going to consist of nothing but peppers and tomatoes. The latest victim was a bed full of kohlrabi. Thankfully, none of the little creatures have messed with the peppers and tomatoes. But I had better keep a close eye on them.

It can't officially be summertime until after the dogwoods flower, the rhododendrons bloom and my pool gets visited by one or more of these wacky New Jersey ducks.

Go home duck!