New Compost Bins

I try to update this blog every Tuesday evening, but we were fairly busy at the museum yesterday, preparing and hosting our second happy hour at Brewer's Alley to premiere our latest brew in the Civil War Beer Series: First Draught. The event was great time and well-attended, and the beer is delicious! It's a tasty twist on Belgian dubbel, so give it a try!

Read About the Event!

Read about the Civil War Beer Series!

I mentioned last week that that we had the Boys Scouts from Troops 279 and 277 at the Pry House. They were taking the opportunity to practice some basic scout skills on a winter camp out, but also pitched in for the museum, helping to get some work done in the garden. One thing they did, was to convert some simple trashcans into compost bins.

I spent some time looking online for some simple, inexpensive, and fool-proof methods of doing compost. Many different people all recommended this method. It simply requires taking a basic plastic trashcan with a secure lid, and drilling the sides, bottom, and lid with a number of holes using a power drill.

These are supposed to make great containers for compost. They make it easier to regulate heat and moisture while keeping most animals out. The many holes promote air circulation, which is crucial to getting the compost to break down. Putting it up on simple cinder blocks further improves circulation.

Like most compost techniques, I add alternating layers of "green" matter - like weeds, grass clippings, green leafy trimmings, and kitchen scraps - with brown matter - like straw, leaves, sawdust, or even paper; really anything that seems woody. Purported experts all have have their own notions of the the "correct" ratio of brown to green. I a trying about half and half.

Three things in particular attracted me to the trashcan technique:

- It doesn't require a large amount of compost material to make it work quickly, unlike open-air piles

- It is cheaper than buying purpose-made compost boxes

- These round cans with firm lids can be easily turned over and rolled around as a simple way to turn the compost periodically.

I am hoping it works out! I will keep you posted!

Clean-Up and Compost

Winter is not very far away, so I am currently working on preparing the garden for the cold months ahead. The annual plants are all done for the year and it is time to remove and dispose of them. Many of the plants are perennials, so they will come back when the weather warms in the spring. Some of these perennials can use a little maintenance now.

I had a few radishes that were forgotten and they have grow to tremendous size! Even though they were allowed to grow so long, they were neither bitter nor hot, but sweet and tasty! Perhaps this was because they grew in the cooler fall months.

I also had a few turnips that never really grew. I gave up on these ones and pulled them out. Most of the turnips were very successful though and all have been picked and enjoyed by museum staff with dinner. I am sorry that I neglected to get a picture before they were all eaten!

Perennial herbs like winter savory and oregano will remain a little bit green over the winter, but the early frosts cause them to die back a little bit. Also, I had never trimmed these plants after they flowered and went to seed.

With a sturdy pair of scissors, I cut back most of the dead matter. According to literature I have been reading, pruning the dead parts will not only improve things aesthetically, but will help to reduce disease and encourage good growth in the spring. I did not butcher the plants though, and I wanted to leave it with a little insulation and security for winter.

Other perennials will die back completely above the surface and will restart from the roots in the spring. Boneset or Thoroughwort is an example of this.

Pokeweed also dies back completely in the winter and sprouts anew in the spring. The young early greens are an old American delicacy, served much like collard greens. Picked too late though, poke greens become poisonous. These pokeweed plants had grown so thick and woody that I had to use a hatchet instead of garden shears to take them down.

Although the pokeweed was too woody and full of seeds (which might sprout in unwanted places), most of the waste matter from the garden is composted. I have been dabbling in composting this year, with limited success. All of my trimmings from this clean-up were added to the compost pile.

I chopped up all of this green matter into smaller pieces to help it break down better in the compost pile. I build the compost pile with layers of green matter, brown matter, and dirt to help the process of decomposition.

Now that winter is almost here, the compost pile will essentially come to a halt. What I am adding now will really begin to break down in the spring, I hope. Some people engage in winter composting, but this is not something I am ready to tackle, as it's a bit more work and requires some extra size or construction to keep the necessary heat in cold months. Next season I would like to engage more seriously in  the compost pile.

Most experts have their own opinion on winterizing garden plants, and they certainly don't always agree. I have tried to follow the best advice I could find in this regard, but it is very much a learning process. Your constructive advice is always appreciated!

A Load of Manure

Yesterday we began working outside in the Pry Garden. It was a beautiful day in Washington County, Maryland, sunny and warm. It's hard to believe it is the end of February! My co-worker Tom Frezza and I began adding essential nutrients to the soil in the garden's raised beds. Kent Geerling, Administrative Assistant for Institutional Advancement at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, was kind enough to provide the garden with a load horse manure from a friend's farm. Kent is also a farmer in his spare time, part owner of Fruitcake Farms, a local Maryland venture in Community Supported Agriculture. I also added some wood ashes from my parents' wood stove. They were only too happy to be rid of them.

Horse manure mixed with straw

Tom and I spent a couple hours shoveling the manure and ashes from one big pile and distributing it among the raised beds in the garden. It isn't glamorous, but it was good to be outside on a beautiful day.

Tom's dog Sawyer was very eager to help.

Our fertilizer did not quite stretch far enough to cover the whole garden, but it was enough for the beds which will be planted first in early spring. I will have to see about finding some more manure for the back beds, which will hopefully be planted with squash, gourds, and watermelon from transplants in May. It is very good to look down from second floor porch and see a difference in the garden. In the coming days I will have to begin tilling the soil in these beds. It is a daunting prospect to do this by hand, but hopefully I will have a little help from some friends.

Unfortunately this warm weather has brought some much more unwelcome activity to the Pry House as well. Our resident groundhogs have already begun digging furiously. I had a face-to-face encounter with one of these mangy mongrels yesterday. Not only are they a threat to the garden, but they are serious threat to the safety of historic buildings like the Pry House and Barn, where they have a tendency to burrow under foundations.

Where The Enemy sleeps