The Basics of Composting

photo by Eva Elijas from Pexels

Composting is a beautiful process that can be as difficult or easy as you make it. I definitely believe in the latter, so here's my simplified explanation of the basics of composting.

A small disclaimer: no information about containers for your compost, this info is only about items that can go into the compost. If you want container information for composting, checkout my podcast at anchor.fm/greenatlmom

First things first, compost needs carbon/browns and nitrogen/greens. Many experts say a good ratio of browns to greens is 4:1. Please keep that in mind, however, the more you work with your compost you'll get a good feel for what your compost may need more or less of. I'll also give you two things to watch out for after the list.

Next up is a small list of items that can go into the compost pile.

Carbon/Browns

• Dry Leaves
• Straw
• Newspaper
• Toilet paper rolls
• Paper towels
• Unwaxed cereal boxes

Nitrogen/Greens

Grass clippings

Coffee grounds

Garden waste

Food waste

Brown materials add bulk to the compost and help the air circulate. If you break down any browns as small as possible, this will speed up the compost process.

The green materials provide the nutrients to the compost and again, break them down as well, if you want a speedier process.

Things you don't want in your compost pile:

Dairy products, i.e, milk/sour cream....odor problems can occur, which can attract rodents and flies. Fat lard or oils shouldn't be used, either, can attract pests, as well.

No pet waste should ever enter a compost pile, it might contain parasites, bacteria or viruses.

Diseased or insect ridden plants shouldn't be added to compost because these sources might survive and transfer to the new plants you'll eventually feed with the compost.

The last Don't is a big one: No yard trimmings that have been treated with chemical pesticides.

A little further up, I spoke about the ratio of browns to greens to have for a good compost pile. Well, I also said, I'll give you some clues to help you adjust your pile, if need be.

First clue is, if the compost pile has a strong putrid smell and very slimy.....the pile has too much nitrogen, and needs more carbon. Remember carbon adds bulk, which will help soak up excess water in your compost and help the with air circulation.

The second clue is: if your compost pile is slow to breakdown, then it has too much carbon and will need more nitrogen. You'll know when you've got the right combonation when the compost feels spongy and smells earthy.

Oh wait...I said all of that and I don't believe I said one word about turning the compost....well...give the compost one good weekly turn, at least. 

Now what are you waiting for, keep growing and get composting!

#backyardgardener

#composting

#EvaElijasphoto

#agreenhaven #organicgardening

Welcome to November

Welcome to November, I hope it fills your life with loads of memories and pure joy!

photo by Brigi Uhrin

Happy Fall

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first day of fall. 

Quote of the Week

Photo by Markus Spiske

from Pexels

"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden."

-Minnie Aumonier

Happy Labor Day, Everyone!

Been too Long

Wow!! I've been away far to long...hopefully I can get myself back into the groove....this hasn't been a great blogging or growing season for me, and I hope to share more about it, soon.

Quote of the Week

Last week's quote focused on flexibility as a gardener. This week I want to continue to encourage gardeners to always,  Keep growing in life and the garden. 

                         

A Little Celebration

This year's rain and cooler temps have really slowed down lots of garden growth this year, and not to mention some stressful situations I allowed to take me away from things I love: gardening, mediating, researching stocks, coloring, reading and enjoying a French film on Fridays for my, Foreign Film Friday.

I might share more later, but until then...let's enjoy the beauty of these sunflowers. The patch might not be the biggest, and what I envisioned, but these are the ones that made it, and I'm celebrating their existence!

#agreenhaven, #celebration #sunflowers

Quote of the Week

"Gardeners tend to be the most adaptable of human beings. In fact, gardening....trains you to be flexible, and to find consolations where you can. So the poppies never came up and deer ate the roses? Well, the irises looked great, and the lilacs were fabulous."

                                  -Constance Casey

#gardequotes 

#gardeners

#adaptability 

#ConstanceCasey

Scallions: Full Sun or No?

Picked a few scallions, today. Not very big, but I'm still very proud of them. These were grown in a container on my deck--where I spend several days arranging plants to bask in some sunlight. My backyard is a tree filled backyard that's partially shaded at different times of the day.

As I mentioned earlier, I take the time to move pots around the deck, so all plants can get their time to shine in the sun.

Happy the scallions got their time to shine, don't know if they would've been a bit bigger with full sun, but hey, I'm a first timer and I'm still very proud.

#scallions #greenhaven

#growfood

Quote of the Week

I grow plants for many reasons: to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty, or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy on seeing them grow.

--David Hobson

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler

#gardequotes # agreenhaven

Oh Harvest Day

Today was a great harvest day! The plan was to harvest 10 bulbs, but once the digging began, I couldn't stop until reaching 26 bulbs. 

#agreenhaven #garlic #harvest

#growfood

Yellow Can Bring a Good Thing

The garlic's looking like it's ready to harvest. A few are starting to lean over and the majority of them are starting to experience a bit of yellowing of two of their lower leaves.

There's your gardening clues of the day--happy gardening!

#harvesting #garlic

#agreenhaven 

Decision made

Was in the store the other day with my daughter, Kennedy, and we were going to buy a couple of bags of soil. But we decided against it, and will use a large bin of compost that isn't completely composted(89%), yet, but will still get the job done. 

Quote of the Week

If you've never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.

-Robert Breault

*photo courtesy of Zen Chung from Pexels

#agreenhaven, #gardenquotes

#gardening

Quote of the Week

Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.

                        --Clare Ansberry

The Storm

Saturday morning storms rolled through my area, and the days after I wondered if any plants were lost in the storm.

Friday my 7 year old nephew dug holes for me, while I planted 11 tomato seedlings into the earth. I really wanted to get the other 27 plants planted, but felt after the weekend rain would be a better time to plant, however, I didn't expect heavy storms. I knew it was going to rain, but wasn't expecting severe weather, so I didn't move smaller potted plants indoors or under shelter.

Earlier in the month, the complete opposite happened---I removed all small plants before the "storm" and, lol--"the storm" was a day of scattered light showers. My baby plants could have would stood that.

With my fingers crossed and my mind on good thoughts, I must survey the damage.

Quote of the Week

"A garden is not a place. It's a journey."

-Monty Don

*picture by Leigh Patrick from Pexels

#agreenhaven #gardenquotes 

Totally Tomatoes

Lost two trays of tomato seedlings last month and I'm surprised to have 38 beefsteak tomatoes. Wished I had a bit more variety for this year, but what's done is done and there's always next year. Next stop for these little beauties---the garden!

Sorry for the low quality picture and always remember to keep growing.

#agreenhaven #tomatoes #growfood #organicgardener

Quote of the Week

Into every garden a little a little rain must fall.

                         -Ella Fitzgerald 

#agreenhaven #gardenquotes #rain

#fleurrustique #EllaFitzgerald #EvaElijas

First of the Season: Watermelon Seedling

Look what I found---The first watermelon sprout of the season.

Also the first time I've planted watermelon seeds this early. I usually like to wait until May to plant watermelon seeds, however, I decided to give April a chance, and if it didn't workout, I always knew May would workout.

Even though I'm a zone 7 gardener, my area is still prone to a few days of frost in April after a week of hot days, and this April was one of those times.

When I planted the seeds, temperatures were warm and three days later we got rain and extremely cold weather. The frost actually damaged my hydrangeas, a little, and my thoughts immediately went to the watermelon seeds tucked snuggly in the earth--waiting for its grand appearance.

Would the frost kill the seeds or will the frost come and go quickly and the seeds will be spared?

Looks like one seed has made it through the cooler temperatures, now will the others pop through?

#agreenhaven #growfood

#watermelon

Quote of the Week

There can be no life without soil and no soil without life;they have evolved together.

-Charles E. Kellogg

#agreenhaven #gardenquotes #Charles E. Kellogg

#Kaboompics

Spring Break Sowings: Corn and Sunflowers

Finally planted sunflower and corn seeds in the ground, yesterday. Compared to last year, I'm late getting them in the ground, however, I'm not late getting them planted, though.

This year the corn has been planted in blocks of five instead of a single row. Last year's harvest was nice, and grew pretty well. In fact, the corn was a real head turner and conversational piece with the neighbors---it was grown in the front yard.

My 7 year old nephew's excitement to dig holes and pull weeds made planting a lot easier on me, but honestly it was fun seeing him having a ball!

As he dug holes while my daughter supervised him, I made a small trench behind the corn to be filled in with mammoth sunflower seeds. I always thickly fill in the sunflower seeds for a greater chance of germination. Next step is to lightly cover the seeds with soil, water and wait for their gorgeous emergence!

Quote of the Week

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.

                  -W.E. Johns 

#agreenhaven

#gardenquotes 

Goals! Goals! Goals!

Yesterday I finally did it! I finally made space for a cut flower area in the garden. Now---hopefully, I'll be able to check another goal off of my, "Best Decade Ever" checklist, soon.

Oh, never heard of, The Best Decade Ever---I know this could be its own blog post, but I feel like sharing it; so.....late 2019, Mel Robbins (motivational speaker and author),offered a free online course to help map out dreams/goals of the attendees.

Monday through Friday, there was always a task for the day, and I had a love/hate relationship with the 10 year writing challenges in the beginning. After a week of trying, and finally becoming honest with myself and being happy to do small things, and they can be goals, too. Looking back on 2019 and previous years, helped me to come to this conclusion.

I'm not going to share all of my goals here, but here's a few(no particular order):

1. Learn French

2. Buy a house

  3. Add cut flower garden

                  4. Get in the stock market

                  5. Network with other                              bloggers 

Did you notice the range of dreams and goals? Pretty cool, huh? And I can proudly say, my husband and I bought our house, I've been in the stock market over a year, I'm networking with bloggers, and at the time of this writing, I've gladly spent 440 consecutive days of learning French. 

Looks really likely that the cut garden is next. 

Why do I want a cut flower garden so much? Well, being mainly a vegetable grower, I've grown a few flowers here and there, and they always stay outside. Being able to grow an abundant amount of fresh flowers to freshness up my house with a pop of color would be amazing and cost effective!

According to Nikki over at Savvy Gardening, one should start with easy to grow annual flowers like, zinnias and sunflowers, and how your flowers are organized will help with the maintenance and growth process. Some flowers might need support to keep them upright as they grow.

I'm pretty confident about growing sunflowers. Sunflowers and cosmos, I've grown before. Zinnias, Echinacea, scarlet sage and orange coneflower, no experience at all, and according to the information  from Savvy Gardening, I might not have some plants organized where they can be properly supported. Basically, I cleared an area for the flowers, took a mixture of a handful of seeds, and sprinkled them on the soil, and covered lightly. 

As I wait for the emergence of the first sprout, or any signs of development, this experiment could be a complete garden mess or something absolutely beautiful. I'm pulling for the latter, but one thing's for certain---I'm working on  creating my best decade ever!

#agreenhaven #goals #gardening #cutflowers #sunflowers #zinnias.                          #cosmos

Quote of the Week

"Cares melt when you kneel in your garden."

                    -Okakura Kakuzo

#agreenhaven 

#gardenquotes 

Seventh Day of Spring

Didn't plan on it, but I took the day off. 

Sixth Day of Spring

On the sixth day of Spring, my true love gave to me.....rain from the heavens!! 

The abundant early morning shower and the expectation of severe weather later, made my  decision to stay in and start more seeds, so much easier. 

As I'm waking up on the 7th day of Spring, blogging about yesterday's activities; I want to send my thoughts and prayers to anyone in the path of yesterday's storm, and anyone in today's path. 

#agreenhaven

Fifth Day of Spring

Hey it's another post a day late, but the only thing that matters is the post is made, lol.

Yesterday's tasks were kept real simple and focused on cleaning out bins and discarding any that can't be used anymore. I'm the person that'll get my money's worth out of something, so you can only imagine how worn out those bins had to be, for me to throw them out.

Clearing up the bins in the  driveway was such a small-big task; small in regards, that it was a small and simple task, but big and grand because it brought forth some new ideas/plans for the container garden.

The clean-up was fun, now onto the glow-up!

Keep growing y'all 😊

#agreenhaven 

#gardenchores

Fourth Day of Spring

Today was a short day in the garden, but everyday is valuable and gets me closer to a bountiful garden. 

Sorry no pictures, but I'm heavily into the stock market, and many of my favorite Youtubers' live streams play while doing my gardening tasks, and besides the AMC and Game Stop story is so exciting--can't miss a moment. 

So today, I planted beets, harvested four baby garlic shoots, and  cleared more groundcoverings. 

These tasks probably took an hour and a half to accomplish, but it's another step to a bountiful garden.

As I've completed these tasks over this first week of Spring, I hope you're encouraged to get out and get growing!

#agreenhaven

#growfood 

Third Day of Spring

Beautiful spring day here in the A, and one of the two free days from driving and running errands was spent doing some yard work before the rain comes in, later this week.

Some jobs performed

• Spacing green onions 
• Replanting sage and rosemary(these were drying up indoors and in their former pots)
• Preparing a flower bed around the mailbox.
• Removed some groundcoverings.
• Planted the first 4 watermelon hills. 

Another very productive day in the garden and eventually a very bountiful one, too. 

#agreenhaven 

#backyardgardener

#growfood

Quote of the Week

Spring: the music of open windows.

-Terri Guillemets

#gardenquotes

#spring

#agreenhaven

Second Day of Spring: Being More Strategic

The husband and I started our day at a Macy's store that's closing their doors, today. We were hoping to find a few goodies before the doors officially closed, however, we had no luck---if we needed floor rugs, we would've hit the jackpot since that was the only stuff left besides the store lighting and cash registers. My husband actually thought about purchasing some track lighting for our back porch, but on second thought he decided against it, more so they seemed a bit old.

After walking through Macy's, we headed to our local Lowe's. The hubster was looking for ceiling fans, an extension cord and a couple of two to three converter prongs. I, on the other hand, spent my time in the lawn and garden section wrestling with the idea of getting a shopping cart or not. Lowe's had so many things that I wanted, like these large plastic looking wine barrels that were fairly priced around $15. I could've easily picked up four of them to grow some veggies in, and to add some charm to my outdoor spaces.

With today being the second day of Spring and a very nice weather day, I might add, I loved seeing so many carts full with flowers, mulch, planters, and soil. I seriously wanted to have a cart full of stuff, too, but before I buy anything else for my yard or garden, I seriously need a plan in place. It's nice to have things on hand, but I also need to be strategic about my lawn and garden shopping like I am about my grocery shopping.

Today I did myself a favor---walked around and took note of some ideas. Yeah, it was a good day! Happy Spring, everyone!

Happy Spring!

Spring is Near!!

And the Season Begins

This quick and not so clear snapshot--caught under the grow lights, shows the emerging cayenne peppers strecthing their new leaves out and hopefully ready to grow fully and strong. 

Here's to the new growing season!

And as always, keep growing!

-Shelly

#agreenhaven 

Quote of the Week

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. 

                                 ---John Steinbeck

#agreenhaven, # gardenquotes

Quote of the Week

A garden is half-made when it is planned. The best gardener is the one who does the most gardening by the winter fire.

                  ---Liberty Hyde Bailey

#gardenquotes #agreenhaven 

Spring's Around the Corner: Dollar Tree Finds

Found some great finds at my local Dollar Tree. This wasn't originally a trip for gardening supplies, but I

couldn't resist the Welcome Spring section and the great prices.

Here's a list of a few things I picked up:

Three planters, a pkg of 10 plant labels, two spools of twist ties with cutter, a pkg of 36 clothespins, 8 piece permanent markers set, 3 small seed starting mix bags,and 8 seed packets.

Not including tax, got everything for $15.

Giddy about everything I purchased, but my real excitement is for the seed flower packets!

In a previous post, I shared how I wanted to grow a small cut flower garden to provide fresh flowers in my home. I bought seeds of some past greats in my former garden, like, marigolds and cosmos, however, I found some Shasta Daisies and Zinnia seeds that'll hopefully grow into a gorgeous abundant flower garden and provide nice bouquets throughout my home, all summer long.

#agreenhaven, #gardening #dollartree, #cutflowers

Quote of the Week

Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle.

--Luther Burbank

Happy New Year!

Happy to see a new year and ready for so many new experiences. Last year began my journey into creating my best decade ever, and as I enter into my second year of building my best decade, there's one simple gardening thing I want to do for myself this year: keep fresh flowers in the house. So, it looks like I'll be digging in and creating a nice sizeable cut flower garden.

Here's to the New Year and New Adventures!

Do you have any new plans or adventures for the Year?

#atlantagardener #New Year #flowers #agreenhaven