It seems that unless you’re home a lot or you have considerable time to dedicate to that compost pile, it basically sits there.  You access the situation and feel that natural processes should take care of the pile, but it simply doesn’t happen – or at least it doesn’t happen fast enough. Apparently there aren’t enough of the necessary members of the decomposing team available to get the job done.

We’ve been preparing for the installation and ongoing maintenance of our Square Foot Garden.  An important component of this is compost. Our first year out we realized that the garden would require commercial compost. We found rich organic mushroom compost (and a few others) at a local nursery, but in order for our garden to qualify as a sustainable garden we prefer using homemade compost.

We’re really cooking up compost now with sunny 100 degree days. I have a pile in the yard for woody plant material. I’m filling it with extra soil that’s dug up from other gardening activities. Eventually it will become a small hill with a water-retention swale system. I anticipate converting this small hill into a berry patch. In my opinion it’s sinful to throw away kitchen and yard waste so we’re composting as much as possible in our Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler. (See my review.)  It’s working!  We’re turning out fresh compost nearly every month now that the process has begun.

While reading through some books on Sustainable Landscaping and Permaculture I’ve been reminded of the importance of inoculating the compost with a dose of the previous compost. I’ve also noticed that the tumbler bin drips compost tea, especially after a rain. This valuable liquid needs to be captured and used in potted plants. Every time we get a heavy rain excess moisture percolates through the bin and compost, dripping out the opposite end. It’s rich in nutrients.

With dogs in the yard I’m naturally not treating the grass with pesticides or commercial fertilizers so our grass clippings are great additions. While we want a certain amount of grass clippings to remain in the yard as mulch, we seem to have an excess.  Anything that blows out on paved areas always gets swept up and added to the bin. I’ve been raking up (and adding) clippings from areas in the lawn where excess grass accumulates.  We picked up a food processor at Goodwill and have been using that to grind up kitchen produce that seems too chunky. This extra effort provides more surface area for the little organisms to get to work.

I have referred to this group of organisms for many years as the Decomposing Team of the FBI (fungi, bacteria and invertebrates). The invertebrate team has two crack squads, the M and m squads (Macro-invertebrates and micro-invertebrates), who really know how to get the process going.  Occasionally when I wander out at night to add something following a later dinner I’ll stop and listen before opening. You can hear them scurrying around, chomping and working with a diligence rarely found today. When I open the lid I’ll shine a flashlight inside to sneak a peak. I love these hard workers with reward of fruit – I wonder if when the fruit begins to ferment if they find it as enjoyable as I find a good bottle of red wine.  Soon after the addition of large amounts of fruit (like chopped cantaloupe and watermelon rind) there is always a surge in activity as if the FBI crew is hosting a party.

This was hidden behind the trellis -- there were two.

There really is a compost bin hidden behind this trellis.

Neither dog pays any attention to this compost bin. I can’t say that was true with previous bins or dogs. The in-the-ground, open compost bins that you turn with a fork have always been favorite grazing areas for our dogs. My previous bins (in our Illinois house) were closed or inaccessible. The open wire bin, placed in the corner of a large vegetable garden, collected much of the bulkier yard waste as well as shredded (thanks to the lawnmower) leaves. The two hidden in the corner behind the trellis had full sun, southern exposures, but required a lot of turning effort. Until we fenced them off the dogs loved to snack on the recent additions, they are true omnivores and love vegetables as much as meat.

This open air wire bin worked for shredded leaves and bulky garden waste.

They haven’t paid any attention to this compost bin and that’s a plus. We have it in plain sight (we consider it attractive) and we don’t neglect the bin (like we might were it not so visible). It’s a rewarding feeling to take kitchen scraps out to the bin knowing it will soon be converted into black gold and not just an addition to the landfill.

Meanwhile, the Square Foot Garden is nearly ready to be planted.  It has been a busy month since my last entry and the dogs have been rewarding our efforts by honoring our needs for them to ignore our developing garden beds.

We don't see what the big deal is, this just looks like a big wading pool from our height.

 

Soft cool soil draws dogs like flies to their droppings during summer’s heat. Fortunately our dogs prefer the hard cool tile floor of the kitchen to anything outdoors. They didn’t express the slightest construction curiosity while we were assembling four raised beds;  instead both preferred to watch through the door from the air conditioned room.  (“Ahem, we might have been born here, but we’re Labrador retrievers destined to splash around in lakes so just have your way with the wood, we’ll check it out later.”

It was off to the shop after locating a nearly half-price sale on local cedar boards — rough cedar, the less expensive wood.  We were eager to assemble four square-foot garden grids.  Planting begins late July or early August which leaves plenty of time for the sun to help the process.  We’re solarizing the area under and around the planters.  With temperatures climbing over 100 degrees almost every day right now the lawn under the black plastic will be grass soup quicker than we can cook our spaghetti. (Life in Houston!)

(Solarizing is an excellent alternative to digging or chemicals. Square-foot gardening doesn’t require preparation by removal of grass, it provides alternatives that your back will truly appreciate. If you have time to remove the grass through this process, why not?)

Assembling the Square Foot Grids

My very well equipped husband not only knows his way around tools but remembers all of those amazing tricks passed from dad to son.  After admiring the fragrant cedar boards, we cut 2” x 6” x 8’ boards in half to create 4’ x 4’ gardens.  He did this to eight boards.  He also ripped one cedar 2 x 4 in half lengthwise. He cut those 2” x 2” boards into six-inch sections using the radial arm saw. (We’ve been assembling our shop for many years with the intention of building a cabin someday – not everybody is as well stocked and I suspect a table or chop saw can do most of this cutting.) Using our drill press (a gift from an uncle) I pre-drilled two holes per side, each slightly off set according to Mr. Shopman’s plan and when I asked why he said, “You’ll see!” 

 

Completed square foot garden frame with black plastic resembles kettle moraine.

We placed two four-foot boards together at a right angle with the rough 2 x 2 x 6 inch pieces on the outer corner and I saw the targets, the offset holes.  My intention was to drill the 3 ½ inch screws into the holes but…?  There is an art to that and not going in straight was problematic and after a few efforts at re-explaining the process (he patiently approached the educational effort from varying perspectives) I sensed he had exhausted his strategies so I offered to let him do the screwing – after all it was only 64 screws. This turned out to be a two-person task anyway.  One of us (me) supported the boards from the opposite end while he screwed the corners and corner pieces into place.  The end result was four four-foot, relatively square, raised bed frames that create a six-inch high boundary between the dog’s yard and our future garden.  (I hope) 

The black plastic is in place with a 2 ½ foot path between each. The frames are in a four-square pattern.  This was the easy part.  Now we’re attempting to locate the soil ingredients as well as cooking the compost.  The square foot ingredients include really large bags of vermiculite – not found at the grocery, big box home store (Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, or Menard’s) so we’re exploring local garden centers and other options.

Smiley Face

Watching the sun’s movement was a relaxing task.  It involved a book, sunglasses, cold beverage, and comfy chair as well as some sunny days.  Two awesome spreading large live oaks outside the fence extended their amazing branches far over our fence and over our yard long before the fence and yard existed.  Sunlight filters through the nearly nude branches during the early spring when these “live” oaks drop their leaves. Fully covered with summer leaves the dense canopy successfully blocks precious sunlight. Anticipating this I watched the sun’s movement and realized the only place for a vegetable garden with sun-loving plants is smack dab in the middle of the yard. 

Vegetables, no matter where you live, mostly require full sun. Lettuce bolts in the heat of summer but it is one of many cool season plants that loathe hot sun. The true gems of summer — tomatoes, basil, peppers, melons, squash, and okra – are show offs that require full sun.  When planning your garden pay attention to the way the sun marches across your yard. 

A room with a garden view -- someday.

 Creating a vegetable garden in the middle of the yard will be a challenge; it will also draw upon latent artistic talents (my brother managed to get all of those genes.) I’m going to consider this garden a potential work of art, hopefully something I’ll be proud of so why hide our vegetable garden in an out-of-the way spot. We’ve decided to place it in the middle of the yard – in plain sight. We’re going to admire it (hopefully) through the large window of our family room knowing that a biologically diverse garden is more interesting than a swimming pool (unless snakes are swimming across the pool).  An obvious advantage to this location is that we can see what the dogs are investigating. (Our dogs are ancient, at some point we’ll have puppies that will need a lot of training and monitoring 24/7).

I watched the progression of the sun for the past few months, including during late winter and early spring, and charted the sun’s progress across the grid.  Our average last frost-free date is February 14 and it’s important to have sunlight warming the garden when the first seeds of cool season plants are plugged into the ground.

Not attractive?

There are so many ways to dress a garden and my hope is to adorn it with native flowers and colorful shrubs and small trees, inviting pollinators and insect-feeding birds. We’ve introduced a wall, no soil, but a curious wall.  They are always curious, but, this soil-free, plant-free wall entices them not at all. They are my team! 

We Begin

Curious Dogs? Dog Views? Our view? Suggestions? What’s next? Today the black plastic is hot. It resembles an aerial view of the Wisconsin’s kettle lakes.  So far it holds no appeal to either of my large, curious water dogs. I absolutely adore my two dogs – they’re family and the backyard is theirs but it’s necessary for my interests to fit into their world.  How will that happen and can it really happen successfully with two very spoiled (I’d have it no other way) dogs.

Until then?

“IS IT POSSIBLE to share your life with rambunctious dogs and still garden for wildlife? Yes, says Kim Winter, NWF’s habitat programs manager, who owns three mixed-breed dogs ranging in size from 30 to 80 pounds. “It’s trickier to maintain habitat,” she says. “Dogs do destroy plants.” At her home in northern Virginia, Winter takes the “divide and conquer” approach to landscaping: Her pets roam and romp in the backyard while most of her wildlife garden goes in the front.” Read the full article.

Welcome to Houston’s summer!  This is the planning-season equivalent of mid-winter in frigid snow-locked northern states. The heat has welcomed me to the planning time somewhat earlier than I anticipated but that’s OK, the process of dreaming is fun.  Our Texas-born Labradors are also struggling with the temperatures, perhaps more than we are, but they are surprising us. 

An Old Dog Moment

I’ve been reflecting a lot on Kopi’s age, his inability to deal with the heat, while wondering just how much longer our elderly chocolate lab has remaining and how we can make his last months enjoyable. While thinking about him as finally being really old he pulls a “funny” that reminds me there is still a lot of  puppy left in our old boy. 

Best friends for life!

He’s bored silly with not traveling or playing in nearby parks, with staying inside and having to accept much shorter (around-the-park-perimeter-only) walks.  Yesterday, with the temps in the low 100’s, he shuffled off to the bedroom and returned carrying out one of his many stuffed animals – Squirrel Baby.  He carried it to the kitchen door and barked a request to go out with the toy but when he realized I wasn’t going to humor his request and join him, he wanted back in.  I returned to reading my book but he wanted nothing to do with me just sitting and reading.

Kopi carried Squirrel Baby over and dropped it at my feet for me to throw.  I did and he ran and got it doing the retriever thing.  We repeated that several times.  Then he wanted me to play tug-of-war but I opted to ignore him.  So he carried it over to Belle (his blond lab companion) who was happily snoozing and trying to ignore him.  He nudged at her a whole lot to get her to play tug but she wouldn’t respond – I could hear her thinking, not now, please stop, just go away and let me sleep, why do you want to do that now?  He dropped Squirrel Baby again, disappointed, and turned around to look at me over his shoulder.  His pleading look and whimper got to me so I decided to play with him – after all, how much longer will he play like this (probably another 10 years at the rate he’s going)?  Our 14 1/2 year old dog played tug-of-war and fetch with me for the next 30 minutes.  Belle never moved during the entire activity. Poor Belle!  My husband advises not to worry that she sleeps so much, all dogs do, but then I look at Kopi who is four years older and resume my worrying again.  Belle’s just not very enthusiastic these days.  

The book I’m reading will hopefully help provide more instructions for designing our dog-friendly garden.  Belle is the reason why we want a dog-friendly garden and landscape.  Mr. Self-sufficient and Mr. Healthy Kopi didn’t create the need for a healthy yard, just a large yard.

The Reason for a Pesticide-Free Yard

We adopted Belle when she was approximately two.  She had been abandoned to an expensive boarding kennel for six months and her owners had no intentions of bringing her home again, nor would they allow anyone else the opportunity to adopt her.  While attending a house concert I met staff from that kennel who was intrigued by my interest in adopting a second Labrador, a companion for my beloved and very spoiled chocolate lab. After hearing their story I arranged for a visit and walking in and seeing her in this cinder-block kennel broke my heart. Her wide brown eyes and big expressive face were staring at me over the cinder blocks. Using those huge brown eyes and turning her head, she followed my every movement from the center of the kennel that was surrounded by 99 other kennels all mostly empty.  She walked around her  kennel while standing on her back legs, with her front legs hanging on to the wall, and watched my movements through the kennel. Are you here for me? Me, me, me!  I knew she was mine the moment our eyes met.

She had a horrible limp and I thought at first it was because of being stuck in the kennel and that her leg was weak from lack of exercise. That assumption was partially correct – it was because of being stuck in the kennel for six months. We learned the next day from our vet that instead Belle had a torn cruciate ligament in one leg that had been neglected for months.  We had it repaired and a short time later the second cruciate ligament ruptured (we were warned it would). By this time we dearly loved Belle and her spirit, even with the boat load of anxieties that came with her abandonment. Her chocolate companion adored her more. 

While we adore our labradorables and want them to have a terrific yard in which to play, and we need to find compromises that include my having a garden as well, there is another force that drives the style of yard.

Gotta love the lop-sided mouth.

Within two years we learned a newly discovered lump in her mouth was a soft tissue mass that was a maxillary fibromatous chondrosarcoma – she had an oral cancer in her mouth and the doctors wanted to remove the soft tissue growth. She underwent surgery, again, to remove the growth and this involved removal of a portion of her upper mouth and upper incisors so they could clean the margins. So, now she has an off-balance mouth when she smiles but her mouth remains sarcoma-free. 

 No Pesticides

Naturally this taught us a lot about her spirit but also about providing healthy spaces for our pets.  I spent several years promoting this concept through my job and my hobbies. A chemical-free yard is as important for our dogs as it is for children.  When she was maturing, going through all of those rapid cell divisions and maturations that lab puppies do she was exposed to the landscaping pesticides and chemicals often associated with golf coarse homes and golf coarses. Her physician “parent” lived in a golf coarse neighborhood and they used lots of chemicals to keep their yard green. Mouth cancer is one of the most common forms of canine cancer – unfortunately canine oncology is a very big business these days. What she was exposed to, however, is no different from what millions of children are being exposed to on a daily basis – it just shows up earlier in dogs.

 We won’t contribute to pesticide poisoning of wildlife, birds, insects, or the groundwater, but the need to maintain a truly safe yard surfaced more as a mission, as a way of life, because of Belle and the promise we made to her and future puppies.  Her surgery was in 2004 and that cancer has not returned. However, several years later (2009) she is on maintenance following treatment for yet one more form of cancer, Osteosarcoma in her back leg.  The prognosis was six months and that was August 2008.  The options were to provide chemotherapy, to amputate her leg (the torn cruciate surgeries meant amputation really wasn’t an option), or to keep her comfortable.  The keeping-comfortable option is what we selected this time. She’s not energetic these days, she doesn’t want to be bothered for play, but she’s certainly quick to smile and respond to a package of food being opened or to clanging of a leash that suggests a walk and she always has a great big kiss for any willing recipient. 

These are the reasons for Two Dog Garden and for creating a healthy backyard sanctuary for our canine friends.  As time goes along I’ll speak more to the cancer, to the known causes, and to her progress and at some point I’ll sob a little as she and Kopi both pass along, but my focus will be more on the process of creating a garden and healthy yardscape.  Please join me and feel welcome to contribute.

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0050/UNP-0050.pdf

My reasons!

How do you dogscape your backyard with large in-your-face dogs? Training, yes, but also careful planning and watching for their needs. Resources for designing petscapes are only a part of this -stories and pictures are the meat of this. Join us.