WesternPA4-09herb thymes - The Herb Society of America

ush the soil off the top edge of the rhizome, you may be hurrying along
the blooming process in your garden.
Bearded Iris bloom in late May and early June, and their foliage
continues all summer.
My last nag for garden jobs: The Forsythia is still blooming. This is
your phenological (garden observations and care based on observation of
the natural world, not the calendar) clue to apply corn gluten meal and
water it in (unless Mother Nature has done so) to stop weed seeds from
germinating. This works in your lawn and in your flower and vegetable
beds. Please write down the date you apply it, and keep from putting in any
seeds in that area for 5-6 weeks. When its seed-stopping quality is finished,
the corn gluten meal becomes a high Nitrogen fertilizer.
THYME TO GARDEN IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA APRIL, 2009 PAGE 2
BACK TO COMPOSTING: It is time for me to discontinue my back porch compost
container. The soil in the area where I plant annuals in the vegetable patch is now
completely thawed. I just have to do it on a relatively dry day.
I dig a trench or uncover an area down to about one shovel’s depth, and spread
the partly decomposed winter compost into the bottom. Then I cover it up with the
topsoil I removed. The earthworms and the microbes in the outdoor soil will finish
the job, turning my kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps into rich soil.
Now it’s time to establish my nice-weather outdoor compost pile.
We have a large, heavy, compost tumbler at the back of our yard, that we put
in 32 years ago when we bought the house. Does anyone want it Yours for the
taking.
I think this year we need to make compost simpler, just by having a pile.
I plan to make a chicken-wire frame, about 36” on each side, square, with the
4 th side loose so you can open it like a gate. The wire is about 36” wide so it will be
that tall.
Then you use greens and browns –at least twice as much brown as green.
Greens include fresh kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps (Pat is collecting tea bags
and coffee grounds, too.), grass clippings, garden waste; and browns include dried
and brown leaves. When starting a compost pile, purists layer the greens and
browns, like a lasagna.
Add some native topsoil from your yard to the compost pile, to give it the local
micro-organisms which do the actual decomposing for you.
Then you turn the pile with a large garden fork, every day if possible, and water
it if we don’t have an inch of rain each week. When you have more kitchen scraps,
add them, under the top layer. The lasagna look disappears as soon as you start
turning it. COMPOST IS DONE WHEN IT LOOKS LIKE RICH, DARK EARTH.
Bacteria and worms from the soil under the compost pile come in and help with
the decomposition process. A compost pile really doesn’t smell, unless you have
too much green and kitchen stuff in it, and it isn’t decaying. The temperature
inside the pile heats up. You can get a very long thermometer, which looks like a
meat thermometer with a 3 foot long spike on it. Stick it into the middle of your
pile, and wow your grandchildren with the speed the needle goes up!!