Compost

Ever wonder how much compost a family of three can generate? Well, I can tell you that every week we produce about a two-gallon bin of kitchen scraps (veggies, eggshells and coffee grinds, but no meat) . I add the scraps to a compost bin that I made from plans from the Crockett’s Victory Garden, published by Little, Brown, c. 1977. (Go to page 183 to see plans on how to build the bin. The bin is still working fine after nine years.)

Now you just can’t throw the kitchen scraps in the bin and expect to see rich compost. You’ll need to water the pile and turn it every week or so. The bacteria that turn that compost into black gold need water and oxygen to do their job. But if you take just a little time to tend your pile, you’ll have rich compost in just a couple months.

Collards

I’ve found collard greens to be the best winter crop for my garden which is in Chapel Hill, N.C. and has limited sun (about four hours of direct sunlight a day during winter). I plant the collards in mid-August. I keep the caterpillars at bay during the rest of summer and early fall through weekly use of BT. Then after the first hard freeze, the bugs are gone. However, this is also the time when growth of the collards slows. As the winter days get longer, the collards grow ever so slowly. With the onset of spring, growth spurts. Bugs don’t really become a problem until May.

Local resources

The North Carolina Botanical Garden is a good resource for information about gardening in Southern climates.

Wonders of the hard freeze

Once the temperature drops well below freezing (say 30 degrees), then we say “bye, bye bugs,” at least until we get a period of warmth. What a relief.

Why this blog?

This blog will follow the cycles of the season and document the steps gardeners in N.C. can take to have a successful growing season.