by Noel | Nov 9, 2018 | CobraHead, Gardening
I finished my compost pile yesterday. It snowed last night. The pile is already warmer than its surroundings and it’s only two days old. The internal temperature of the pile when I took this picture was 60oF, outside it was 29. I learned to build these structured piles from my son Geoff who years ago was a horticultural apprentice on a biodynamic farm. Geoff taught me a lot of practices used by excellent growers who approached gardening using sustainable...
by Noel | Oct 10, 2016 | CobraHead, Garden Tools, Gardening
It looks like a pile of straw, but it’s really a very structured compost pile. I built it over the weekend. It’s layered and there is actually not that much straw in it. My raw ingredients included a pile of two seasons worth of garden debris – weeds, stalks, trimmings and anything else organic collected around the yard and garden that was not super woody. It was mostly already broken down and partially composted. I had a completely broken down 55...
by Noel | Nov 17, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
Comfrey and Compost PilesI can’t remember how comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) got introduced into my garden, but it probably came from Geoff when he worked at Nokomis Gardens in East Troy, Wisconsin, about sixteen years ago. It’s now firmly established just north of the garden beds and west of the compost area. The plants are gradually expanding their area of control and comfrey can become a pest with its ability to spread, but I’m welcoming...
by Noel | Apr 17, 2013 | CobraHead, Gardening
Compost solves everything! Well, not quite, but one can garden in compost alone and you cannot have too much. This year I’m way ahead. I’ve got a pile of ready to apply material (the smaller pile in the picture). And even though it’s still too wet in the garden beds to do much work, I took advantage of two unexpected warm and dry days to turn the pile I had created throughout last year. This is what I started with. The picture was taken in...
by Noel | Dec 14, 2012 | CobraHead, Gardening
Geologists tell us that Wisconsin was once a land of huge mountains with crests as tall as the Rockies. That Precambrian topography has since gone through quite a few changes. While the state still has some gorgeous and impressive hills, spectacular snow capped ranges are not part of the scenery. I’m working to change that. Here are two mountains of compost covered by our first significant snow of the winter. Just last year, the smaller pile – elev. ...
