It's Easy Being Green

This weekend I watched oodles of neighbors wrestling with the falling leaves.  Whole lawns have disappeared beneath carpets of red, orange and gold leaves as they tumble from the trees lining our streets.  I think it’s beautiful and shows the changing seasons but it seems most think of it as an annoyance.  This weekend neighbors up and down the block dug out their noisy leaf blowers and moved all the leaves either into the street or onto the lawn for mowing.  Not only is it noisy but it’s also kicking a lot of emissions into the air and for what?  This morning most of the lawns have disappeared again.

I’m taking the wait until the tree is bare approach to leaf raking.  I’ve gone out a couple of times in the last month and created a couple of big piles to compost.  I like that idea instead of piling them into lawn and garden trash bags to be hauled off to the dump.  Then I can use the compost around the garden beds and in the lawn to add beneficial nutrients into the soil.  If you don’t have the room to compost in your own yard, you might want to think about giving the material to a local yard waste recycler.  Usually your local dump or transfer station will know of someone in the area who can help.

Composting isn’t that difficult though.  Even if you’ve got a little corner of your property you can dedicate the process, you can do a lot.  I’ve simply created a large pile of dead leaves in one corner of my yard by the garage.  It originally was well over 4 feet tall but as they have started breaking down, the pile has shrunk down to about 2 feet tall and half as wide.  Once a week, I head out with my pitchfork and turn the inside of the pile outward.  That mixes the dry, whole leaves into the middle where they can begin to break down.  I also keep the pile moist, like a rung out sponge.  So, if it hasn’t rained during the week spray your pile down with the hose.  Over a few weeks you’ll begin to notice the leaves breaking down and turning into black gold, compost!

For tomorrow:  How you can continue your fall cleanup while reducing the environmental impact

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While the snow has all but left us here in the mountains of Northern Arizona, the weather has still been pretty cool. That’s how it should be this time of the year. It may warm up into the 60’s during the day but temperatures quickly drop off into the low 20’s overnight. That’s of course too cold for a garden going outside. Despite the fact that I’ve got spring fever and want to get my veggies on their way outside, I have to give them some gentle nudges inside, first.

Two weeks ago I planted two seed starting flats worth of tomatoes and other veggies which will require some time to get themselves established before they actually produce anything. More than likely I won’t be able to get any veggies outside until sometime in May so the few weeks they have to begin sprouting inside and forming root systems will be beneficial. My first flat of tomatoes has sprouted but the seedling are already too leggy. With tomatoes you want to keep replanting them fairly deep, allowing roots to grow off their main stems every time you replant them. This ensures your tomato plants will grow strong and healthy. They’ve already outgrown their little seedling flat so now it’s time to transfer them into small pots so they can continue their growth.

If you happen to save all those little plastic nursery pots you probably don’t have to worry about what you transplant your seedlings into. As it turns out, the last time we moved we through most of those pots littering our potting shed into the recycling bin. So, I turned to some newspaper to form little transplant pots just like the peat pots you could buy at the local nursery. It’s cheap and allows you to put the newspaper to another use, recycling it before it’s demise. Just like the peat pots the newspaper pot is biodegradable and will eventually just disappear into your soil. I found a great video showing how to make some newspaper transplant pots, so take a look below.

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If you live someplace warm like Phoenix, you might already be getting your spring garden into the ground about now, hoping for a harvest before the Summer heat kills off your plants.  If tomatoes are a part of you new garden, remember this fun tip.

You can snip a branch of your tomato plant and put the stem in a cup of water until it roots.  Once the roots develop, put the new tomato plant into a pot and watch it grow.  Many people apparently clone their tomatoes and keep the new plants inside for a winter harvest, long after their garden has been covered in snow and frost.  That’s a great tip I hadn’t heard about!

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