In our Southern California garden there are always things growing and
things to do, even in the middle of winter. We have greens, cabbage,
cauliflower, and broccoli, getting ready to harvest as well as
oranges, tangerines, limes, and avocados.
It is time to plant
bare-root roses, fruit trees, and berries, and to prune our existing fruit trees and berry vines. In the next month or so, we'll
be starting seeds indoors for plants to set out after the danger of
frost has passed (usually around the first of April).
One
thing we like to do in January is to look through the seed catalogs (they start to arrive around the first of January) and
garden books for ideas. Another is to add to or begin compost piles.
Compost adds nutrients and organic matter to the soil. It will improve
any soil over time, even if you add no other amendments. For us December, January,
and February are great months to make compost because of the
availability of leaves. We have them, our neighbors have them. We get
them from our neighbors for the asking (and the raking).
There
are a number of different ways to make compost for the garden. Some are
labor intensive, others not so much. We prefer the less labor intensive
sort when we can get away with it. However, the less attention and work
you give your compost, the longer it will take to be ready for your
garden.
The easiest way to make compost is to make a
pile and let it sit for months until it is finished and/or you are ready
to use it. Pick a spot in an out of the way corner of your garden to
make your pile, keeping in mind that you will be hauling stuff to and
from the pile. (If your garden is in the near part of your yard, you
don't want to build your compost pile in the far part of your yard.
Unless of course, you enjoy using the wheelbarrow or carrying a
bucket.) After you've chosen a convenient spot, scratch up or turn over
the soil that will be under the pile. Then, add your yard and kitchen
wastes to the pile, mixing them together as you go. You could build a
bin out of wire or hardware cloth, or other materials, but this is not
absolutely necessary with this method.
Add kitchen
scraps (but no meat or fats) and yard trimmings to the top of the pile
over time. You may need to sprinkle a little water on the pile once in a
while to keep it moist but not soggy.
When you are ready to plant your
garden, remove the top layers of unfinished compost, setting them aside
for starting a new pile. The finished compost will be at the bottom of
the pile. Collect the rich, brown, earthy-smelling, finished compost into your bucket or wheelbarrow, put the unfinished
stuff in its place and head for the garden with your finished product.
You can dig the compost into the soil as you plant or you can use the compost as a mulch, or both.
There
are other ways to make compost that require more effort, but produce a
finished product in as little as two weeks. Duane and Karen Newcomb's
book,
The Postage Stamp Garden Book: Grow Tons of Vegetables in Small Spaces
has an appendix devoted to various methods of making compost.
We
don't have much kitchen waste that makes it to the compost pile because
most of it goes to the ducks, geese, and chickens (oh, and the rabbit,
too). We do use bedding from the goat pen and yard trimmings. You can
read here about
Our Composting System that goes on right in the garden beds.
One of the best books we've found to help us understand the soil is
Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition
, by Lowenfels and Lewis.
Our favorite book on starting plants from seed is 
