Gardening on a large corner lot, which is a bit more than I can handle,
brings out some of the neighbours! Last spring, after I had sowed the back with wildflower seeds, I kept the sprinklers going all day--moving them around so the seed and soil were wet through. That night there was a knock on my door, and one of the neighbours asking me if I was well! I said: " yes, but why wouldn't I be?" She replied---"well your sprinklers were on all day" !
Most of the neighbours will compliment me on my lawnless ways!
But there are a few in every neighbourhood who need to impose on others' freedom !

I'm one of those that if the neighbors tell me what to do and when, I'm really good about dragging my feet and not doing it Since late winter and early spring are really busy for me at work several years ago my neighbor commented on the fact that I still had a snowman on my front porch. Stayed there another 3 weeks after that one!

Yes, I am a Contrarian also

I think it's a public service (and a pleasure) to educate someone who thinks that they get to tell other people what to do.

Are you my mother?
Do you have a badge?

If not, "ask", don't "tell".

Better yet, "Mind your own business!"

But Rick the funny thing is when I give advice (unsolicited of course) to my daughters if they say "are you my mother" I can answer with "YES" and then they'd still roll their eyes and ignore me

Back to soil and compost (in case we get nailed for getting off thread ) I've added 15 bags of composted manure to my new veggie garden that I'm starting next Spring. I've been reading and it says to blend egg shells to a powder and also add coffee grounds to the garden. Anything else you can suggest to add next Spring? It has quite a bit of clay in the soil but it tilled in pretty good with the compost. Since it's on a slope I'm hoping I can amend it enough that it will have good drainage over the years.

True: mothers, police and even bosses don't always get their way when they get confused about whose life they have control over (their own, only).

I think that a gentle slope is a life-saver when you have poorly draining clay soil. Drainage! Gravity is our friend.

I tend to make raised beds on slopes, even if the side walls slant downwards, or look like a stair-case. I figure that the down-slope wall keeps the amended soil from running downhill.

But I found that raised bed walls that are too tall tend to let TOO MUCH moisture escape or evaporate (I use concrete paving stones stood on edge as walls, 3/4" thick or 1" thick. Water and moisture go right through them as if they weren't there. Sometimes I line the walls or corners with heavy plastic film.




>> blend egg shells to a powder and also add coffee grounds to the garden. Anything else you can suggest to add next Spring?

Lots of composted manure and coffee grounds are great! I agree that egg shells do better if ground up (in my heap, they stayed whole and white much too long). I would also add to the soil almost anything organic other than wood or paper (they consume too much N when they decompose IN the soil). Chopped leaves or grass are great, whether you compost them first or not. Kitchen scraps.

You can till it into the soil, if you were going to till anyway. Or you can spot-compost by digging holes and burying compost makings.

Don't neglect adding organics to the soil via mulch (slow sheet composting)! Wood chips and anything else organic and chunky can go on TOP of the soil where they will shade roots, retain moisture, prevent weeds, and then break down and add nutrients to the soil.

(If you have animals, avoid burying meat, diary or fat, since they will attract volunteer diggers.)

Is the calcium from the eggshells good for all the garden or just the tomatoes? As far as kitchen scraps, I'm afraid we have too many animals (bunnies, squirrels, deer, raccoons, dog, cats, etc. in the yard that would like to dig), but I have a garden soil with earthworm castings I was going to add in the Spring. I added it to the perennial garden connected to it so I'll see what comes up in the spring. I'll be tilling again so I can really get things worked into the soil and break up the clay. I normally add a lot of shredded hardwood mulch to all of my perennials, but wasn't sure what to mulch with in the veggie garden.

It never heats up and if it does it's only for 2 or 3 days, not the two weeks everyone on the internet brags about, even though there's enough (too much) greens in there. It's also in a very inconvenient place at the moment if that counts

Legalily said:Is the calcium from the eggshells good for all the garden or just the tomatoes? As far as kitchen scraps, I'm afraid we have too many animals (bunnies, squirrels, deer, raccoons, dog, cats, etc. in the yard that would like to dig), but I have a garden soil with earthworm castings I was going to add in the Spring. I added it to the perennial garden connected to it so I'll see what comes up in the spring. I'll be tilling again so I can really get things worked into the soil and break up the clay. I normally add a lot of shredded hardwood mulch to all of my perennials, but wasn't sure what to mulch with in the veggie garden.

I think you can do pretty much the same as you do in your flower garden for the veggie space. They will be happy with all the amendments,.

This is the time of year I love to be out collecting leaves. I like to bury my few eggshells, I can dig a hole and bury the eggshells quicker than I can crush them up. I don't get enough to make a noticeable difference so I add dolomite lime when I think I need calcium.I just finished covering my veggie bed with shredded leaves. Each year I do this and each year they just disappear into the soil. The first few years I used a shovel and dug in the leaves, now I just put a layer on top. I let time weather and the worms do their job and it is working pretty well. I also have a slope, but I had no clay in the veggie bed, it drained very well from the start, too well, I could not keep it moist at all. So my method is the same with my clay beds and my non clay beds, but the goal is different. I add compost and mulch to both but with the clay beds I am trying to improve drainage, and with the loamy beds I am trying to improve moisture retention. Thank goodness I have neighbors that don't complain about my compost piles, they just think I am a little strange hauling in leaves when they are trying to haul them off.

I may have to fence the garden in if I want to put leaves on it. Sometimes the wind feels like it's going to blow the house right off the hill! All of our leaves blow right to the edge of the timber off the yard. I might see if I can round some up!

Whole leaves do present a problem, but shredded leaves don't (for me at least) plus I love to try and keep them moist for a few weeks then they just seem to settle in.

RickCorey said:Thanks very much, but it looks like "City of Seattle" and "public places".

The park I live in is on private land, and outside Seattle city limits.

But that would have been good ammunition.

My idea...

was that you could join or start an urban forest preservation group in your town.

They have these groups everywhere...
I posted the link to the group that looked like it was closest to you.... maybe you could get in contact with them to discover how to go about organizing.

If it's a public space where a lot of people live.... certainly qualifies...

on the east coast....
they gotta show cause for removing those valuable urban trees...

Gotta start conserving somewhere...
we're all gonna run out of air... be going down to the store soon to purchase brand name oxygen...

wasn't very long ago that if someone had told you that you'd be buying drinking water... you'da laughed at them.

I actually have a leaf shredder I could resurrect and then spread them and keep them moist. That should work. Thanks!
Did I see on one of the forums you had surgery? Hope you are doing well (and if I have the wrong person hope they're doing well! )

Yes, I did have my gallbladder removed, but the way they do it these days it was no problem, my throat gave me more trouble than anything else(I assume they ran a tube down it). I did take four pain pills, but it was more because I thought I might have some pain, not because I actually did. If my throat had not been causing me to cough I really don't think I would have needed the pain pills at all.

Inside my park, I think everyone except the owner wants to keep the trees we have.

Outside the park, I thought it was 99% asphalt, but Google sat imagery shows there ARE trees if you get away from the main roads.

The first few years I collected leaves I used my lawn mower to shred the leaves and became very efficient at it. But I because wiser with age I suppose and realized that by being more selective in my routes I could actually collect other people's shredded leaves. I don't recall actually shredding leaves last year, if I did it was very few. I have already done one batch this year, but that was just because my neighbor had a lovely pile of maple and Sycamore leaves across the street(they shred much easier than my oak leaves). It became easy to tell which bags had shredded leaves and which ones were whole, just by the weight and feel of the bags. Then I would find huge piles by the road that had been shredded with mowers. Some of the high powered commercial mowers do a marvelous job of shredding leaves, much better than I can do with several passes over them. Plus a truck load of shredded leaves will be at least multiple times the load compare to unshredded ones. I do collect unshredded leaves when a pile really appeals to me, but I use that in the path ways when just working back and forth on them helps to break them down and keep them in place, plus I want them to actually last longer in the paths.

Maybe I could just make a big pile on a tarp and turn the grandkids loose on it then put the shredded leaves on the garden Glad you're doing well Larry.

I also collect fall leaves and those are spread all over the garden each year. No tilling here. Yup, those earthworms come and break it all down. Ends up with beautiful rich, loose soil.