I have many trees in my yard, and every year, there is a big mess as leaves fall from the trees. Sometimes they turn into a mouldy, wet mess. Other times, the trees are covered with a sooty blanket, and it is difficult to see through the leaves.
Every year since, I have tried something new that supposedly makes the mess go away. Every year, I am more convinced that the mess will continue until the tree is finally pruned. Every year, I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner.
Christmas has traditionally been brought about by the sack of gifts that are given, and hung in front of the tree. The tree is decorated in traditional style and many of the gifts are pine cones. Every year I am busy wrapping the cones for display in my house. They are pretty and add a bit of colour outside. On the miserable coldest winters day, I feel a great sense of disappointment for the gifts that I have worked so hard to gather.
Last year, I decided to do something different this year. I went to the hardware store and bought burlap wrapped Christmas trees. The neat thing about them is that they don’t have leaves covering them, so they don’t have anything to block the wind. They are already coloured blue and red, so they don’t need me to point out the good things about them.
The favourites of mine are the red wrapped trees because they look dramatic with the lights off and everything else. I have given away a couple of dozen holiday baskets to friends and neighbours and they just look amazing. My mother in law is one of the donation heads for the Make a Minute foundation, and every year she gets the daunting task of moving all the shopping baskets around the garden. On the plus side, she gets to bring the basket every year for the party.
As I was raking out the leaves last week, I was thinking about how much of a mess most peoples outdoor or indoor composters are. I was particularly dismayed at the state of the garden beds, as I have gardened extensively in previous years with little to no garden waste.
For years now I have been finding different ways to complete composting. I was throwing out all plant hangers and end tables, and use the bottom of fruit bowl stands as well as the base of garden stakes. There is still plenty of opportunity to put garden products in the heap, such as fallen leaves, grass clippings, ripe fruit and vegetable tops, tea bags, cardboard, newspaper, coffee grounds, fruit boxes, pet droppings and the list goes on.
There will be other jobs I will be undertaking this year as I try to repair my lovely compost heap, which suffered a bit of a wake up after theulatory storms of 13 winters. In the past week I have realised how tiring and many hours are lost in moving around the heap, and I intend to change my tactics.
So what else, apart from throwing out old pallets and jugs, can I use to create my own steel soup can? Well, you can steel yourself for long periods by stacking unwrapped items of metal in a heap, making sure that you leave enough of the outside exposed to smoke. When the hot gases and light whistle through, you can wrought iron anvils to form the walls of your new shop.
Bricks can be used to make attractive walkways in your garden, but require a supply of fresh air to be able to walk properly. When you have gained a little strength, you can create a permanent path by carrying soil to form the base of the bricks and adding another layer mixed with crushed bricks on top of the previously formed path.
I hope you find this hint of help and I am sure you will follow my pointers exactly!
