The Compost Bin

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."

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!

My father's grapes need your help. Does anyone know what's wrong with these grapes? I'm thinking it's some kind of disease but all of my searches have come up empty.



I was looking forward to some good wine this year but if all 250 of his vines become affected by this, we'll be out of luck. If any of the Compost Bin readers are grape people, if you could let me know what the deal is, I'd really appreciate it.



Where are those Fruit of the Loom guys when you need them?

Spring is a crazy time in the garden. It's sort of a hurry up and wait situation. Getting the yard cleaned up, starting seeds indoors, growing spring crops outdoors, planting annuals and splitting perennials is a lot of work that needs to be done in a short amount of time. Then the waiting begins. When will last frost arrive, when will the seeds sprout, when will I get that first red tomato?

Today is sort of a catch up post because for all this activity that's been going on in the garden, The Compost Bin blog has been too quiet. Here's what I've been working on lately.

The homemade compost tumbler is working out nicely. The other day I stuck my hand deep in there and I could feel the heat. I may use the thermometer from my turkey fryer to check the temperature to get a real reading. They say that weed seeds are killed at about 160 degrees. I'm no where near 160 but it's really doing well since I added some grass clippings.

Speaking of grass clippings, I'm now the proud owner of a reel lawn mower. My cordless electric lawn mower finally died and Black and Decker wanted $140 to put a new motor in it so instead I bought a reel lawn mower with a bag attachment for $100. No gas, no tune ups and very little noise. It sounds like scissors when I'm cutting the grass. It's taking some getting used to but I'm happy with the purchase. I keep repeating that real men use reel lawn mowers whenever people laugh at me.

The mulch pile is down to about 10 wheel barrows left. I stopped mulching my beds when the trees declared war on the humans. What's with this crazy pollen this year? Everything actually has a thick film of yellow dust on it and allergy sufferers (like myself) are dropping like flies. Once the assault of pollen and tree litter is done, I'll finish off the mulch. I'd love to order some more because of course I underestimated again but I don't think it's in the budget this year.

And of course, the vegetable garden. After some good success last year with broccoli rabe and other cold season greens, I really expanded my early plantings. In the garden right now and doing well is arugala, brocolli rabe, turnips, swiss chard and pak choi. This weekend I planted some beet berry and chiaga beets too. The blue potatoes are doing well in both a raised bed and also a whiskey barrel type of planter.

My indoor seed starting rack with grow lights is pretty empty. I only started 48 seedlings this year and they only fill up 1 of the 4 shelves. In fact, my wife has decided that those empty shelves should be filled with laundry baskets and other junk. Of those 48, half are tomatoes and half are peppers. I'm going to start more, probably perennials but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd like to grow some balloon flowers, amber wheels, columbines, lanterns next. The seeds are sitting there waiting for me to do something with them. Poor little guys.

And I'm very happy with my purchase of a 24" iMac. You may have noticed that I've created a movie or two around here lately. It's very easy and actually lots of fun to do this with iLife 08. Plus I picked up a High Definition Camcorder for about $130. These two purchases have inspired the filmmaker in me and I'm hoping to someday get up the courage to start a gardening podcast.

Next up, I have to find time to build more raised beds, get the spring vegetables in, build a cucumber trellis, make a batch of compost tea, and build these cool self-watering planters from Rubbermaid bins that I saw in a gardening forum. It should be a fun season.

What have you been up to in your garden lately?

Colleen at In The Garden Online recently put up a quick post asking if anyone was on Twitter. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a micro blog where you post short little updates of what your doing or working on. Lots of people also use Twitter as a form of instant messaging. Unfortunately because of this, they have blocked it's use from within the office of my 9-5. But it's a good thing that I have an iPhone. Yes, the man won't be keeping me from my Tweets.

I've added a badge over there on the right that displays my last few Tweets.

Now thanks to Colleen there's an explosion of Garden Bloggers on Twitter. Nice work. I was getting lonely on there by myself.

Blog Action Day seems like a good idea to me, so I signed up a few weeks ago. If you haven't heard of Blog Action Day, it's a day when bloggers from all over the world who usually write about tons of different topics, blog about one very important issue, the environment.

Not really a big stretch for a garden blog about compost to post about the environment but it'll be fun to come up with something. Most likely, my post will still be about compost but it's okay because composting is becoming very in style amongst the green living crowd.

Here's what they have to say about it on the Blog Action Day website:

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

So if you aren't doing anything on the 15th, why not join the rest of us while we try to get people talking about a better future.

Happy Anniversary to me and my blog about compost. This is my 200th post and according to my archive, it seems that I've been doing this since August 9th, 2005. Yikes, I must be one of them internet old timers. Back in my day we didn't need blogs, if you wanted to tell everyone what was on your mind you just yelled it out the window. And get off of my lawn you young whipper snappers!

I may not be the most consistent blogger (I would think that after two years, a good blogger would have about 500 posts) but I make up for it by spreading myself as thin as possible and starting new sites all the time. In fact I'm going to use this 200th post to talk about my two latest blogs, PokemonToday and WebkinzToday.

Being a Dad is great if you like keeping up with the latest toys. And who doesn't love toys? I get to learn all about what's interesting to 5 and 3 year olds and Pokemon and Webkinz are definitely interesting to my kids. Sometimes I'll get a call at work from my son that goes something like this:

Son: Daddy, how do I keep my Pikachu from evolving into a Raichu?
Me: Can't you ask Mommy?
Son: Mommy calls them PokeMAN, she can't help me.

I thought to myself, since I have to learn this stuff why not share it on a new blog? And by the way, if you don't want your Pokemon to evolve you need to hold down the "B" button.

So if you want to know the lyrics to the Pokemon Theme Song or need to know how to get to Webkinz World, feel free to check out my new sites. Perhaps 200 post will come a lot quicker on one of these new blogs.

This isn't really gardening related but with all the tomato talk in the Garden Blogosphere at this time of year, I'm sure someone will find this interesting.

DIYLife has posted an article on how to make a glowing tomato.

The mad scientist in me finds this pretty amusing and the first thing I thought about after seeing it was could I do it with a watermelon? :)

I received a really interesting comment the other day on an old post about building raised garden beds. The commenter works in the pressure treated wood industry and really provided a great explanation of the types of wood that are available and what's in store for pressure treated wood in the future.

Here's his comment in full. I feel that it deserves a new post instead of just remaining buried with that old post.

To add to the pressure treated question.

Pressure treated is my family business, and I would like to offer a fair opinion backed with research and personal experience. I am a fourth generation wood preserver.

For many years, the choice of pressure treated lumber was wood treated with CCA, Chromated Copper Arsenate. However, CCA has become a thing of the past except for in certain specific commercial and industrial markets. Let me assure you, it would not be easy for the average consumer to get their hands on it since the voluntary transition to newer, and safer chemicals.

Which brought us ACQ and Copper Azole. ACQ stands for Alkaline Copper Quaternary. The Alkaline holds the copper in a liquid form, and the quaternary is basically an anti-bacterial soap. Much better in many ways. However, as the author has pointed out, there is a flaw in this chemical. It corrodes aluminum as well as other metals. CCA and the other two choices have always recommended using stainless steel or other approved fasteners, however, the new guys on the block seem to have the predominant problem of corrosion.

Why does it really corrode? Copper doesn't get along with aluminum. Simple chemistry. The nature of this treatment allows a tiny amount of copper to leach out, which causes surface contact with any fastener. If that fastener happens to be aluminum, a chemical reaction occurs, and in a short time, maybe a couple years, no more fastener. But do not become discouraged. There is an even newer kid on the block.

You will see it as a few different names: MCQ, Smart Sense, MicroPro, MicroShades, or Micronized Copper Quaternary. ACQ is held in solution, a liquid. MCQ is chemically different. It is made of tiny (micro) particles of copper. These particles are forced into the wood cells or pores during the pressure cycle. Once in, they stay in, also forming a barrier keeping in the quaternary. The leaching of chemicals out of MCQ is practically non-existent. So much so that aluminum is actually approved for use on this type of treated wood.

It just started going into production the end of 2006, and is becoming available in almost all states. If you can not find it, request it, or shop somewhere they do carry it. Most of the independent lumber yards will carry it, and Home Depot has it available in some stores as well.

To add a side note, I purchase organic and/or natural produce when available. I did not want to use ACQ in my organic raised bed garden, if I had to, I would have use a liner. However, I am building raised beds this year, and dragging my feet paid off this time, because MCQ became available, and I trust the research behind this product. ACQ was the step away from CCA, MCQ is the step up to a new level of safer treated products. I hope this helps answer any questions. Thank you,

John Bumby
The Maine Wood Treaters

Thanks for your insight John.

Hey, you're not a song bird! The bag of seeds that I bought said it was great for song birds.

Well at least he's not a turkey.

The Bloggies come and go every year and all I have to say is where are the garden blogs? Yes, I know that gardening is a small niche compared to topics like Tech or Entertainment but being completely shut out of the bloggies isn't fair.

Well Colleen at In The Garden Online obviously feels the same way because she is now holding the first ever Mouse And Trowel Awards.

Sorry Boing Boing and Gizmodo but you need to be a Garden Blog to qualify for the Mouse and Trowel Awards.

You can get the details of how to nominate your favorite Garden Blogs in many different categories at the Mouse And Trowel site. Hey Colleen, why not a Best Pictures of Compost category for next year. :)

Does your spouse ever say things like, "We need to buy more plants" or "Why don’t we build a greenhouse?" Well if you do, then I’m happy for you. You’ll have many great years in the dirt together. But if your more like me and often hear things like, "The garden is big enough", "You are not a farmer" and "Bring this garbage out to your crapbox", then this list of 6 Gardening Lies is just for you.


The vegetable garden will save us money
Sounds like a truthful statement doesn’t it? Yes, honey we won’t have to buy that $1.99 bag of salad at the supermarket because I can buy a packet of seeds for the same price. Please ignore the cost of the potting soil, the self watering seed starting trays, the electricity from the lights used to start these seeds in the basement, the water bill, the cost of lumber to build those raised beds, the fencing…

There’s a discount when you buy more than 18 yards of mulch
Who wants a few bags of mulch when you can have a dump truck unload a gigantic pile in your driveway. It's like a giant billboard that says, "Neighbors of NJ, behold my mighty pile of mulch!"

No, I didn’t just buy that plant, it was already there
Don’t you remember last year, we went to the nursery together, I think you picked that one out. What’s that? No, I don’t know where that receipt came from. Why am I holding a shovel?

But they’re perennials so we’re saving money in the long run
It’s like putting money in the bank. They’ll keep blooming for years.

We really do need 5 types of tomatoes
Nuff said.

I’m going out to the garden, I’ll be back in a minute
I’ll just water these plants and then I’ll be right in. Maybe a little weeding too. Hmm, these vines needs a trellis, I think I have some extra wood in the garage…

If you’ve ever told a gardening lie, please share it in the comment section. I'm always on the look out for new material.

I just discovered this cool little web comic about a leaf. It's called Rustle the Leaf and it's creators say they started it "to facilitate the sharing of environmental views in an engaging, nonconfrontational manner, and to introduce and reinforce environmental education with people ages 6 to 106."

It's a cute idea. Sort of a Smokey The Bear for the 2000s. I know a lot of people between the ages of 6 and 106, so I plan on spreading the word.

As a blogger who writes about composting, I have set up a Google news alert to notify me of any compost related news. Yes, it's sad but it's true. In the news today is an interesting article about zombie chickens.

It reports that when egg laying hens reach an age where they aren't as productive, the hens are being euthanized and then composted. Yikes! But the even scarier part is that the euthanizing process doesn't seem to be 100% effective because some "zombie chickens" rise up out of the compost piles.

Maybe it's time for me to get rid of the compost news alerts, but I definitely plan to keep a close watch on my compost bin.

What gardener doesn't want a neat weather station gadget? This one even shows the phase of the moon for all of you moon phase gardeners out there. I've been put on gadget probation by my wife so I don't think Santa will leave me one of these this year.

Just recently took the kids apple picking. We packed up the minivan, picked up Grandma and drove up to New Paltz, NY. We have local apple picking about 5 minutes from my house but we decided to make a day out of it.

My daughter eats more apples out in the orchard than she picks to take home, but we still got enough for a few pies and maybe some apple turnovers. The best part of apple picking is the snacks. Who can resist the apple cider doughnuts that these places always offer. They also had roasted corn on the cob. That's something I wouldn't associate with apple picking but it was delicious none the less. I'm a big fan of apple butter too. Unfortunately they didn't have any at that day. But that's okay because like I said, there's a place near my house where I can get it.

This other apple picking place that we go to has hot apple cider doughnuts that they serve with a scoop of ice cream on top. Delicious!

Nothing beats a brisk autumn day, hot apple cider and apple cider doughnuts with the family. Oh yeah, apple picking is fun too.

Round two in the Garden Battle Series. Who will win this time, Garden Art Dragonfly or Real Dragonfly.