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Cats, Compost, Books, Paths, & Flexibilty

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

*My Post vanished as I, a poor typist now trying an ergonometric kybd for self
discipline, hit some wrong combination of keys, so I recreate it here, and and
tp the alphabetical menu, Books.
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GARDEN CATS:  Epsom salts and Miracle Grow make a hydroponic mix.  Epsom salts
and sulphur are both laxitives and very similar to constituents in
fertilizers.  Who knows what this cat is munching on which the other cats pass
up?!  Tape worms I read, generally cause little of the distress of folklore
past.  A more serious condition may exist, like cancer eve.  Perhaps the human
society could advise whethter or nopt this is a xommoin issue. With the net
having sites for lost dogs, I would guess www.37.com or such serarch engine
could find a cat, pet, or pet disease/care site.

COMPOST:  Obviously 3 bins are preferable for most.  There are alternatives. 
Like a car, pick what works for your situation.  Fast composting (a month of
ideal matter) yields a more nutrient rich result.  It is turned @ couple days
and moistyre temperature monitored.  Very slow compost is totally the
opposite.  Most strive toward the fast, but stop short by far, ending up in
the middle somewhere.  They like the result and reasonable labor required. 
They water it when they water the garden, and turn twice a week at most. 
Weekends alone are fine.

While 3-bin has advantages, if labor poor and space poor, the predecessor
tothis method was a tall pile is a restraining container.  Material was added
to the top.  No real turning was done.  However @ 4-8" a layer  of 1-4 " of
dirt or resultant compost was added to innoculate the newer material.  Some do
this right in the garden, resulting in a mulch-like activity called lasagna
compposting.

Most cities now offer the $90 plastic bins, for $20-40, to reduce landfill and
as a PR campaign.  This is done thru the garbage folks or a garden dept often
within some section of public works.  Rodent control is a main thrust of this,
when composting is expected to begin ossurring with frequency within a city. 
It does function well as the firtst of a 3 bin system.  Adding a bit of
innoculated compost will urge it along and the plastic retains moisture.

Usually the made bins use 1/4" hardware cloth, a square hole zinc galvanized
wire.  They are 2', 30", or 3' by same, resulting in 3 cubes, side by side,
sharing a common wall.  Pictures are in most $7-8 home repair store Ortho-type
books, sometimes with instructions.

If the "tall" single system is used, air is a factor and pvc "rods" are added
every 6" or so, or some material to keep some amount of air flow very slowly
granted access, other wise anaerobic (an-without, ae-air, in case your Latin
is rusty, LOL) rather than aerobic bacterial result and smell result, other
than a musky-earthy aroma.

Here's a neat toy I dreamed up and saw later in a Mother Earth.  Using a
garbage disposal, install it in a 5 gal bucket.  Use a $15 GFI if you carry it
to a garden and use it outdoors on an unprotected 3 prong circuit, ot indoors
at the sink.  Pre mulch with it, the food stufs you will add, like the guy/gal
who used his/her blender.  In the garden discharge into bin 1.  In the kitchen
disharge into a bucket in the sink, and dump what water you do not wish to
carry as far as the garden after contents settle, losing only a few
nutrients.

I replaced/upgraded my disposal with a more powerful quieter one and used the
old one for this.  New a cheap one is $30 on sale... but $30 is a lot on
manure you could buy.

BOOKS:
Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew, 1981.
Good idiot's guide for newbies.
He began this as an enginneer would tackle it,  As one, I readily appreciate
it for that quality.  He does not empahsis any particular portion of the
gardeing problem, but gives some attentioon to almost every issue.  Most books
cover 1/2 of the garden issue, requiring a half a dozen overlapping books to
cover the topic semi-adequately.

60 Minute Garden, Jeff Ball, 1985.
I dislike his TV personna, personally.  But so what?  Who cares?  It is a
great companion book to Mel's (upon which this List is predicated) and almost
says the same thing differently, yet does touch well upon aspects Mel could
not fit into his book, which will add well to a garden.

Steven Hawking was told he would have his book sales cut in half for every
formula he put into "A Brief History of Time."  Books are written to "recipe,"
and publishers tell an author a lot how to adjust for maximizing returns.  A
lot is lost, and Mel cannot be blamed.

Tell us if fruits or some aspect of YOUR garden require other material.  A
library will be loaded with books on medicinal herbs, beneficials and for
birds, companion planting, planting on coasts and space ships.

PATHS:
What material have you with which to work or that you like?  Mel uses scap 1x6
& 1x12 for a 12" wide path.  Ball suggests 18" as a minimum.  I have a main
12" path, 3ft wide rows unlike Mel's 4' wide, 4ft-infinite length rows, and
many a 2x4 "path," (3ft apart where Mel's are 4ft) but I have a keen sense of
balance, and plant to minimize labor.  I rarely see a weed until fall. 
Obviously I use a hybrid of Mel's system and many others.  

Pine needles are acid but drain well and are ok if you have them and use them
with your eyes wide open.  Hay is expensive but is 2-3%N WILL be compost,
looks nice if raised beds are to be had so it is contained between.  Brick
costs but can ber used for patios later, moved, adjusted, looks nice. I
dislike gravel. Pre-prep site work is high.  It gets into soil eventually.  Is
a pain to ever relocate.  Bark is a compromise.  I suggest one notch coarser
than you envision, as appropriate.

PATHS, of Another Sort....
The common use of the "Row, Wide Path System" to which Mel and seed packages
allude, would be considered incomprehensibly thoughtless to the point of
stupidity for those in a limited space situation, by anyone I know.  Of course
we don't need such a wide path as farmers with equipment and less intensively
amended soil... For years the "Double-Row System" has amended the loss of
plant/path ratio inefficiency in space use.  One with only a small yard can
easily go to a triple row or quadriple, ad infinatum depending on plant
spacing, until at "16 Plant-Wide Row," carrot spacing is reached.

This is a consequence of city, not know your neighbor, non-extended family
life, combined with day-to-day rush and not stopping to smell the roses, much
less consider what a fine wine the petals make, just like danelions.

Ole Al Einsetin, a school failure until he discovered an interest when during
patent office-clerk job, had nothing on anyone in this group.  He merely
focused and imagined how it might be.  What if...?  He could not pay his own
rent, he was so focused.  Any idiot has learned something and knows stuff Al
and you and I do not.  No dumb question exists. And we will all have an
occassional answer which seems dumb, but someone will put a twist on it to
make it brilliant in it's simplicity.  Maybe even write a book.  ("And cull
and reduce it, to "Fit the Recipe" parameters.)  Like, 'Hey gang, I thought of
this and know it sounds stupid, but I think it would work except for this
problem I can't seem to get around.  Any ideas?'

Mel has organized many simple things, making a not complicated, but very
encompassing concept, "a garden, easier to see and understand."  Everyone
would write a book about a car differently, while an engineer, writes a
"Manual."   Organization, was key.  Just like painting.  Planning ahead. 
Solving each problem and sub-problem, like a crossword puzzle where one item
affects another.

If you have been to buzy in life to notice life and understand it, read the
book.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Study the wheel, and then make it better than
it is, for YOUR "car."  Bad back?  Reduce to 3ft Squares and raised beds yet
higher, or an 18" wide path to allow easier kneeling.  Learn and study.  Chat.
 Then be flexible.  Organize to avoid tripping over the paint can or
forgetting to source and locate drop cloths in a timely manner.
Bill

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