In The Garden..container or acres..whatever..

[Mary Kay]

How odd..I use some really good fortified soil like Miracle grow (small bag) around the roots..the rest is just topsoil (cheap.) All I want to do is to give the roots a good start and them use tomato food the rest of the time to feed. But I have heard of using that mositure retaining soil with the little pellets in it..maybe that is the vermiculite?

 

[Seabrook]

I don't believe so, Mary Kay, I think the little pellets is a synthetic material. I have both of Mel's books, and he says to put 4 inches of the "perfect" soil mix into the pot, then top it off with a couple of inches of compost. Most of my gardening books are for organic gardening, and those authors and my local Master Gardeners hotline are so adamant about using plenty of compost that they can barely even finish a sentence without somehow saying the word, lol. I may drive the 20+ miles to get it, but I buy it by the bales so don't have to do it often.

 

[Mary Kay]

Thanks Sea..This stuff gets complicated fast!

 

[CES]

I once tired to use composted dung in some veggies i was growing in pots....don't try this if the compost still has a bit of scent and the pots are sitting on the from porch of an apartment building. it was a bit stinky for weeks.

 

[Seabrook]

Just a tibit to pass on:
In CA, there is a soil and plant debris recycling center in every city large enough to warrant one. Trees, shrubbery and soil from excavation sites are hauled there to recycle. If you need fill-in dirt from soil erosion or mulch or compost, you can get it there for free. If you need a lot, you pay a very small fee. That's where I get my compost from free. However, you must shovel into your own containers. Some centers even have rock and gravel. To find the ctr closest to me, I called my tourist center - a chamber of commerce would also know. It turned out to be only about a mile up the road from me.

 

[Seabrook]

And by the way, welcome back CES - sure is nice to see you again. Hope you kept cool during your travel.

 

[Mary Kay]

Well drat! We dump our large limbs and palm fronds in one of those type dumps! I never thought to ask if we could take compost home? I thought it was just an organic land fill.

 

[CES]

The free compost sounds great- it makes so much sense and shoveling it yourself is no big deal.

 

[Seabrook]

Well like I mentioned, that's just the way it is in California, not sure about other states. CA leads the pack in environmental issues, practices and solutions, so each state may vary. At one time, there was going to be a pilot program in Los Angeles County to make everyone recycle by mandate to see how it went - not sure where they're at on that though.

I recycle by habit, and it sure is a PITA, since I have various sacks of stuff in my laundry room that I have to step around. In my neighborhood there is an area for trash dumpsters which have recycle bins for cardboard, plastic, mixed paper and comingled. One time I took a 13 gal. plastic sack down full of bottles and cans (w/cash in value) and threw them in a container. A woman saw me and jumped out of her car and began chewing my out for not taking them out of the sack. I explained to her that I left them in the sack so when the homeless and desparate came by, they could just pick up the sack easily and be gone with them. She didn't like that idea that the homeless should be helped. She must have been mental, b/c when the homeless take them in to cash in, they automatically go to recycle anyway.

Now when I lived on the beachfront in San Diego, we all put our cash-in-value cans outside near the sidewalk for the needy, and they eagerly cleaned every bit of it up every night. That's the way it should be. In the biblical days, it was called gleaning from the harvest.

 

[CES]

Every time i put out a recycle bin it disappears- so i put my cans into a plastic grocery bag and hang it on the fence for the people in my neighborhood that collect the cans for cash to pick up.

 

[Fudgey]

We recycle our cans.....they go to the boy when he needs gas money....LOL

 

[Lisa66]

Well drat! We dump our large limbs and palm fronds in one of those type dumps! I never thought to ask if we could take compost home? I thought it was just an organic land fill.

Oh, to be able to say "palm fronds" in reference to my own yard......maybe some day *sigh*

Regarding recycling, it is wonderful here. We have the usual bins and all the paper, cardboard, various plastics, metals and glass are accepted - but that's not the best part. The best part is the unofficial recycling system, which is the army of guys in rag-tag trucks driving around the night before trash day with everything imaginable piled so precariously that you wouldn't want to follow too closely behind them. I'ts almost like they cooperate, working in shifts. The red truck with the wooden sides comes early (around 5:30), a white van comes a little later, a white pickup just after it gets dark and there's a silvery-looking truck that comes around 11:30 or midnight. It makes sense since everybody puts their trash out at different times, I guess. I gave the white pickup a gift this past week: a big, long heavy hunk of copper piping and a small, working TV. Times are hard for many and it makes me happy that I can help someone with something I don't need, some of which would just go to a landfill. The ultimate in recycling...

 

[classwife]

You made the guy picking up the copper very happy !!!!

 

[Mary Kay]

Oh, to be able to say "palm fronds" in reference to my own yard......maybe some day *sigh*

Lisa, you made me laugh! Sometimes I foget that I do live in a nice climate. Well until you guys start asking if we are ok after a hurricane..LOL
My daughter's boyfriend helps support his mom, since he is a drywaller, the money is iffy right now. He goes "Pickin" a couple times a week and does alright. We gave him all the metal we had at our old house (stuff that would have been hauled off).
What is really upsetting is the people who pick while it's still being used..hospital ac's, telephone lines, copper markers from Military graves ect.

 

[classwife]

...that's not pickin ! That's thievery !

 

[Mary Kay]

Has anyone seen this plant "Coral honeysuckle or coral trumpet plant anywhere in normal nurseries? I tried to find it this spring..nada! This plant is a true honeysuckle witout the scent..drat..but it's not invasive like the Japanese scented honeysuckles. It will be the start of my little butterfly garden next season along with a plumbago (blue flowers)..Then I will look for a spikey white plant to complete the scene! LOL
Coral Honeysuckle

Plumbago

 

[purplefowler]

These communal compost things sound great. Our local tip makes compost but they resell at quite a high price and it isn't always rotted down enough. I try to make my own but I have too much chook poo so it is too acidic for most stuff except my blueberries. My tomatos have signs of leaf burn but I have my first red tomato coming (so excited!!!), although if you head over to the pet section you will see why I don't think my precious pumpkins might not make it

 

[Fudgey]

I haven't ever seen that kind of honeysuckle before. I would love to have some that smells good!!!

 

[Mary Kay]

The problem is the Japanese white/yellow honeysuckle is super invasive, some states are calling it a weed...like kudzu. It chokes off other plants and speads like wildfire. There are cultivars being sold that still smell wonderful but are sterile..therefore it won't spread. Buy only that type white honeysuckle unless you fancy burning part of your yard (and the neighbors ) killing the Japanese variety. Ask if the type you are buying is non invasive like the Coral.

 

[Fudgey]

Thanks for the info