Simple Moodlings \'sim-pѳl 'mϋd-ѳl-ings\ n: 1. modest meanderings of the mind about living simply and with less ecological impact; 2. "long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering" (Brenda Ueland) of the written kind; 3. spiritual odds and ends inspired by life, scripture, and the thoughts of others
Lee and I collected a lot of leaves from our neighbours (with permission) on the day before the city's designated leaf and yard waste collection at the beginning of November. I never did count how many bags, but I'm guessing it was well over sixty.
The next day, I took the dog for a big morning walk, and went out after lunch to put the garden to bed. It seemed a daunting task -- moving those bags of leaves around, loosening up soil in our garden boxes, and then covering the boxes.
Bare soil is dying soil, or so say many soil scientists -- beneficial microbes, worms, and insects that help rejuvenate dirt and create compost need protection through our harshest seasons -- and the rest of the year, too. That's why my yard has leaf litter covering the soil all year long. It can look a bit messy, especially in the spring before the plants fill out, but it's better for them overall and I don't have to water as much when it's hot.
Here's the yard after two hours of work. See the beds against the back fences covered in leaves?
It's kinda hard to tell, but that's probably 250 sq feet of soil work and coverage.
I used some leaf bags to fill our leaf corral to the brim,
and stored a dozen others for next year's composting.
Two hours and another 250 sq feet later, it looked like this:
I ran out of steam when it came to packing leaves around my front yard rose bushes, but figured it was okay to leave that job for the next day. When Lee got home from work that evening, he was surprised at how much I'd accomplished, and I teased him that he has a superhuman wife.
Of course, that evening I had to take ibuprofen. Somehow I don't think superhumans have such sore muscles after an afternoon of heavy yard work, but I'm not as young as I used to be.
When it snowed three days later (more snow than what you see below as I took this picture after it started melting on Saturday), I was happy that the garden was tucked in for the season. We'll start all over again in the spring, hopefully with happy, healthy, and moist soil. Time to enjoy more indoor pursuits in place of gardening!
I've been falling down on the job when it comes to sharing news about those three important Rs and waste reduction lately... my Master Composter/Recycler hat got put on a shelf for a lot of this past pandemic year as it's hard to get out and volunteer when we're not supposed to be meeting in person... and I haven't been a very motivated moodler, either...
But lately, there's lots happening for Edmontonians when it comes to how we deal with the garbage that our living produces. I'd like to note that even, maybe especially with the changes that are coming, it's still incredibly important that we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can, with an emphasis on reducing.
The pandemic has helped us reduce our waste in many ways because it's more challenging to safely go shopping, and many of us are learning that we can live just as well with less. I'd like to think that once COVID passes us by, we won't be off on a consumerism binge, but will continue to swap, share and keep our waste to a dull roar. Maybe we can go back to refilling our containers, carrying our travel mugs, and using our reusable everything (I've been trying to do those things as much as possible anyway, but it's definitely been more of a challenge thanks to the corona virus).
I'm excited to share a couple of videos today about Edmonton's new Waste Strategy, which is beginning its roll out this month. Our city rested on its laurels a bit too long while some of the municipalities around us already adopted garbage and green carts, but we're finally catching up, and it's a good thing! It means that our waste collectors will be able to use automated trucks rather than having to lift thousands of bags of garbage each day, saving their sore muscles.
It also means thousands of tons of organic waste can be diverted from the landfill and turned into compost, and I hope it also means that more people will Go Bagless, that is, stop collecting grass clippings and choose to mulch for the sake of healthier lawns. And hey, if home owners are sorting things into their green carts anyway, it only takes a phone call or text for a Master Composter/Recycler volunteer like me to pay a socially-distanced visit and help set up a compost bin with the contents of a green cart. That compost will do wonders for your lawn or garden patches!
It's all good, really, it will just take a bit of getting used to. So if you haven't heard much about the new carts, and would like to learn more, consider attending an online cart rollout session so you know what's up. Have a peek at the short videos below. And if you want some hands-on help or you have questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment in the box below -- I'd be happy to help. That's what Master Composter/Recyclers are for!
I've been growing an organic garden for a couple of years now -- no pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers. And the key to it all is using compost instead of Miracle Gro. Instead of adding blue stuff to my water, every two or three weeks I simply put a couple of handsful of compost at the base of plants that need to be fertilized... and allow watering to trickle the compost's nutrients down through the soil to the roots. This year's tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers and annuals are doing very well with this method.
Simple, homemade fertilizer from my compost pile is much better for the planet than these chemical compounds that are made in factories and trucked long distances that increase the greenhouse gases in our already stressed atmosphere. It's not that hard to do, and it's satisfying to work with natural processes to enrich soil and grow my own food. And the results are wonderful to witness!
To prove my point, here's this year's garden tour by video, posted mainly for my own benefit (I can look back on my moodlings and remember how I've done things in the past) and for any other interested gardeners. Note to self for next year: plant the snow peas like the scarlet runner beans this year, and continue to use leaf mulch around tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. I tried this method for the first time this year thanks to a Master Composter refresher course back in May called "How to compost without using a compost bin." Mulching really cut down this year's weeding for me. And I'm not kidding -- if anyone wants to grow Ralph's Romas, let me know -- I should have extra seed this year.
The south side of our house is our yard's hot spot, ridiculously hot in the summer. It's got its own micro climate, situated in the fifteen or so feet between two bungalows and with a rock path where we dug a channel to funnel water away from the foundations. With the sun beating on the side of our house, the temperatures can reach the 40's C (100's F) when really, they're in the high 20's and low 30's (80's-90's). In spite of that, in the soil along our foundation I continue to plant nasturtiums every year because their bright flower faces make me happy -- and they're tasty in salads, too.
Of course, yard hot spots require a fair bit of water, especially in the near-drought conditions in Alberta this summer. I've been running along the south side of our house with my watering can almost daily, ensuring that the nasturtiums have enough to drink. But today's a cooler day, so I took a little time to reduce my watering efforts by adding more mulch to the nasturtium beds.
The nasturtiums below are pretty happy -- when I planted them back in May, there was a layer of leaves on top of their bed that got mixed into the soil.
But their friends to the west didn't have that luxury as the wind blows everything into the east corner and sweeps the west bed clean, leaving bare soil. These plants are smaller, and a bit sunburnt.
What I really should have done was dig some leaves into all the soil before I planted. Note to self: do that in the fall. For now, though, I added some damp and matted leaves around all these plants as I still have bags of them from last fall for use in my compost pile.
Here are the beds, happily mulched.
Watering efforts won't be so frequent now, and I'm betting the slightly sunburnt look of the west bed will dissipate over time. Mulching gives soil and plant roots protection from the sun, adds organic matter for the plants to absorb, makes it harder for weeds to take root, and prevents moisture from evaporating as quickly.
All of these are reasons my city is presently pushing a grasscycling campaign -- if people leave grass clippings on their lawns rather than bagging them up and sending them to the landfill, they're effectively applying a layer of moisture-retaining, nitrogen rich mulch that will improve the health of their grass (and the city won't have to spend so much effort taking hundreds of thousands of bags to the composting facility). Here's a recent video of our mayor promoting grasscycling. I love that he doesn't take himself too seriously and can ham it up for a good cause!
Mulch can be made of almost anything organic -- even weeds (stripped of their seed heads) can be placed around plants to hold in the soil's moisture. Sometimes, as I weed, I leave the unwanted seedless plants on the soil to mulch and give added nutrients.
Do you have any yard hot spots? If so, mulching can cool them down, cut weeds, and save water. I'll post pictures from these efforts later in the summer, so you can see what I mean...
