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!

Boy Scouts Lend a Hand

This past weekend, we had Boy Scout Troop 279 of Point of Rocks, MD camping in the barn at the Pry Farm. They were joined by members of Troop 277 of Brunswick, MD. Troop 279 is was my home during my time as a boy scout, where I earned my Eagle Rank in 2006.

During their stay, the scouts helped me to get some work done in the garden, getting it ready for the coming spring.The boys did great work in removing lots of dead matter from the beds and sprucing up the garden paths.

We also got up on a ladder to replace the twine on the hop trellis. Unfortunately no one got a picture of that comical operation.

The scouts also took some round plastic trash cans and converted them into new compost bins for the garden. The work mostly consisted in drilling a series of holes in the cans to promote air ventilation for the compost in progress. I have been dabbling in compost before, but I think that these new bins will be a more work able system. I will talk more on that in a future post.

This is not the first time that Troop 279 has been camping at the Pry House to do volunteer work for the museum. The troop has been coming to the house for years, even before the museum was opened in 2005. Their first service project was helping to clean out decades of dirt and broken-down animal manure from the bottom of the Pry Barn. If only I had all of that dirt for the garden!

You can see me here as a boy scout, wearing my Civil War reenacting uniform. I had no idea then that I would some day work at the Pry House as it's director of programming and official gardener!