Gardening With BNT
******************************************************************************************* "Gardening With BNT"Your source for gardening ideas including composting tips, pest control tips, attracting beneficial insects and other garden helpers, tips on growing vegetables, annuals and perennials, and much, much, more.October 1, 2003 Volume 1, Issue 1Bill and Terry (BNT) Regling, Editorseditors@bntscountryparadise.com*******************************************************************************************By subscription only! Welcome to your next issue of "Gardening With BNT."You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription.Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of this newsletter.*******************************************************************************************IN THIS ISSUE******************************************************************************************* => Four Tips for Designing Your Beds => Guest Column: Composting the Easy Way => Garden Tool Nook => Hot Tips => Garden Nook => Be a Weed Eater => Reader's Questions => From Our Readers*******************************************************************************************This newsletter is brought to you by www.bntscountryparadise.com *******************************************************************************************FOUR TIPS FOR DESIGNING YOUR BEDS******************************************************************************************1. Plants with opposite textures, shapes and/or forms should by planted nextto each other in your bed. They compliment each other better thanhaving all of the same kinds of flowers in one bed.2. Keep track of which plants retain good foliage throughout the season. Youcan plant them next to other plants that look scraggily after blooming.3.
Plan a focal point for each month that catches the eye with bright color,shape or form.4. Allow enough space for each plant to grow. Leave about 1 1/2 square feetaround each plant. If your garden looks sparse before the perennials bloom,plant some annuals to fill it in. But be careful of what you plant, some annualscan grow very large.*******************************************************************************************Try Plow & Hearth forGifts for the home, hearth, yard, & garden *******************************************************************************************GUEST ARTICLE: COMPOSTING THE EASY WAYby Michael J.
McGroarty*******************************************************************************************Click here to visit the freeplants.com home page.Click here to sign up for Mike McGroarty'sFREE Gardening Newsletter!Having an ample supply of good rich compost is the gardeners dream. It has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. However, composting can be time consuming and hard work. I place a reasonable value on my time, so spending hours and hours turning compost piles doesn't qualify as a worthwhile exercise, at least in my book. Nonetheless, I do compost, but I do so on my terms.
I built two composting bins. Each bin is five feet wide, five feet deep, and four feet high. I built the bins by sinking 4" by 4" posts in the ground for the corners, and then nailed 2 by 4's and 1 by 4's, alternating on the sides. I left 2" gaps between the boards for air circulation. The 2 by 4's are rigid enough to keep the sides from bowing out, and in between each 2 by 4 I used 1 by 4's to save a little money.
The bins are only 3 sided, I left the front of the bins open so they can be filled and emptied easily. I started by filling just one of the bins. I put grass clippings, dried leaves, and shrub clippings in the bins. I try not to put more than 6" of each material on a layer. You don't want 24" of grass clippings in the bin, you should alternate layers of green and brown material.
If necessary, keep a few bags of dry leaves around so you can alternate layers of brown waste and green waste. When we root cuttings we use coarse sand in the flats, so when it's time to pull the rooted cuttings out of the flats, the old sand goes on the compost pile. In or little backyard nursery we also have some plants in containers that do not survive. Rather than pulling the dead plant and the weeds out of the container, and then dumping the potting soil back on the soil pile, we just dump the whole container in the compost bin, this adds more brown material to the mix, and is a lot easier than separating the soil and the weeds.Once the bin is full, the rules of composting say that you should turn the material in the bin every few weeks. There is no way that I have time to do that, so this is what I do.
I pack as much material in the bin as I can, before I start filling the second bin. I pile the material as high as I possibly can, and even let it spill out in front of the bin. Then I cover all the fresh material with mulch or potting soil, whatever brown material I can find. Then when I'm out working in the garden I set a small sprinkler on top of the pile and turn it on very low, so a small spray of water runs on the material. Since I have a good water well, this doesn't cost me anything, so I let it run for at least two hours as often as I can.
This keeps the material damp, and the moisture will cause the pile to heat up, which is what makes the composting action take place.Once I have the first bin completely full, I start using the second bin. As the material in the first bin starts to break down, it will settle, and the bin is no longer heaped up, so I just keep shoveling the material that I piled in front of the bin, up on top of the pile, until all the material is either in the bin, or piled on top of the heap. Then I just leave it alone, except to water it once in a while. The watering isn't necessary, it just speeds the process.Because I don't turn the pile, I can't expect all of the material to rot completely. The material in the center is going to break down more than the material on the edges, but most of it does breakdown quite well.
The next step works great for me because I've got a small nursery, so I keep a pile of potting soil on hand at all times. But you can really do the same thing by just buying two or three yards of shredded mulch to get started, and piling it up near your compost bins. If you do this, you will always have a supply of good compost to work with.Shredded bark, left in a pile will eventually breakdown and become great compost. The potting soil that I use is about 80% rotted bark. I make potting soil by purchasing fine textured, and dark hardwood bark mulch, and I just put it in a pile and let it rot.
The secret is to keep the pile low and flat, so that it does not shed the rain water away, you want the mulch to stay as wet as possible, this will cause it to breakdown fairly quick.So I keep a pile of rotted bark mulch near my compost bins. When both bins are completely full, I empty the bin containing the oldest material by piling it on top of my rotted bark mulch. I make sure the pile of rotted mulch is wide and flat on top so that when I put the material from the compost bin on top of the pile, the compost material is only 5 to 10 inches thick. My mulch pile might be 12' wide, but it may only be 24 to 30 inches high. Once I have all the compost on top of the pile, then I go around the edge of the pile with a shovel, and take some of the material from the edges of the pile and toss it up on top of the pile, covering the compost with at least 6" of rotted bark.
This will cause the compost material to decompose the rest of the way.Once you get this system started, you never want to use all of the material in the pile. Always keep at least 2 to 3 cubic yards on hand so you've got something to mix with your compost. If you use a lot of compost material like I do, then you should buy more material and add to your pile in the late summer or fall, once you are done using it for the season. Around here many of the supply companies sell a compost material that is already broken down quite well. This is what I buy to add to my stock pile.
But I try to make sure that I have at least 3 yards of old material on hand, then I'll add another 3 yards of fresh material to that. Then in the spring I'll empty one of the compost bins and add the compost to the top of the pile.The pile of usable compost will be layers of material, some more composted than others. Kind of like a sandwich. So what I do is chip off a section of the pile from the edge, spread it out on the ground so it's only about 8" deep, then run over it with my small rototiller. This mixes it together perfectly, and I shovel it onto the potting bench.Having a pile of rotted compost near your compost bins is great because if you have a lot of leaves or grass clippings, you can throw some rotted compost in the bin in order to maintain that layered effect that is necessary in order for the composting process to work well.Sure this process is a little work, but it sure is nice to have a place to get rid of organic waste anytime I like.
Then down the road when I have beautiful compost to add to my potting soil, I am grateful to have done the right thing earlier, and I know that I have wasted nothing.Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article.Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com andsign up for his excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREEcopy of his E-book, "Easy Plant Propagation"******************************************************************************************To be a Guest ColumnistSend your article to bnt@bntscountryparadise.com *****************************************************************************************Where America Stays Green on the Internet...LandscapeUSA.com ***************************************************************************************** **HOT TIPS********************************************************************************************GARDEN TOOL NOOKInstall a rural style mailbox on a post near your garden. You can paint flowerson it for a great-looking waterproof nook to keep small hand tools, gardengloves, kneeling pads or even a notebook for writing down garden records. Thisis one way to make sure you don't put off writing down planting times,fertilizing schedules, etc.******************************************************************************************BE A WEED EATERMany of the "weeds" you try so hard to get rid of can actually be eaten andcontain two or three times the nutritional value than spinach or swisschard.Use young leaves from dandelion, chicory, lamb's quarters, shepard's purseor watercress for a wild greens salad. Serve with a vinegar and oil dressing.You can also steam or saut? any of these "weeds." Saut? in olive oil andgarlic and/or drizzle with lemon juice.******************************************************************************************Gardener's Supply Outlet SavingsOrder your fall gardening supplies now and save.Gardener's Supply Fall Outlet Sale - Save and additional 10% on orders of $50 or more ******************************************************************************************READER'S QUESTIONS******************************************************************************************Have a question? Ask BNT.Send your questions to askbnt@sendfree.com******************************************************************************************FROM OUR READERS******************************************************************************************Have a gardening idea, country recipe, or picture you'd like to share?Please send your input to readertips@sendfree.com ******************************************************************************************Copyright 2003 BNT's Country Paradise******************************************************************************************List Maintenance To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter send an email with SUBSCRIBE as the subject to: newsletter@sendfree.com
To UNSUBSCRIBE from this newsletter send an email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject to: unsubscribe@sendfree.comOnline issues can be found at: www.bntscountryparadise.com/newsletter_archives******************************************************************************************Bill and www.bntscountryparadise.combnt@bntscountryparadise.com1430 Marshall RoadLyndonville, New York585-765-9421.
Types Of Bedsteads
Selection of bedstead is also an important thing as selection of bed mattress. The frame, which provides support to bed, is called bedstead. In a stylish bed room bed plays an important role. Various criteria's like material used, frame of bed do matter. Generally bedstead is made up of rectangular wooden frame supported by four legs of wood.
Wooden slates support bed mattress, which are placed in rectangular wooden frame. Now day's different verities and shapes are available in bed. Large variety of bedsteads is available as per requirement in online stores. If people do not want to show base of the bed then they use bed skirt to hide the base of bed. Online stores offer all categories of bedsteads as per customer's requirement.
Iron bedstead-Iron bedstead becomes very popular because of its aesthetic looks. Iron bases are durable and easy in design. Large variety in design is available in iron beds. Life of iron bedstead is longer than traditional wooden bedsteads. To...
Types Of Bedsteads
Beds > Types Of Bedsteads
The Marriott Courtyard Downtown Seattle Lake Union is Proud to be a Sponsor of the Summer Nights Concert Series at South Lake Union Park in Downtown Seattle
The new location at South Lake Union Park offers gorgeous views of Lake Union, breathtaking sunsets and the nighttime lights of the downtown Seattle skyline. The 2005 Series will feature 18 concerts of the best in pop, r&b, rock, blues, jazz and country.
Please visit www.summernights.org to obtain detailed information about the concert series performers, information on parking, transportation, maps, and driving directions as well as ticket information. Tickets for the concert series are also available at all Ticketmaster locations and online at www.ticketmaster.com
As a neighbor to South Lake Union Park and the expanding neighborhood, The Marriott Courtyard Downtown Seattle Lake Union www.courtyardlakeunion.com
offers a convenient location and...
Beds > The Marriott Courtyard Downtown Seattle Lake Union is Proud to be a Sponsor of the Summer Nights Concert Series at South Lake Union Park in Downtown Seattle
A Few Things Everyone Should Know About Disability
Did you know? One year of disability can wipe out 10 year's worth of savings.Other interesting things to know about disability:- 7 out of 10 people between the ages of 35 and 65 become disabled for three months or longer.- The average length of disability lasting longer than 90-days is 36 Months.- Most American families have only enough money in savings to cover two months worth of bills.- In 2000, wage and productivity losses from unintential injuries was $259.8 billion (Statistical Abstract of the US: 2002)- The maximum Social Security disability payment for 30-yr old earning $70,000 per year is just $1600 per month.- To be eligible for Social Security disability, your disability must last at least 12 months.- Social Security Disability will only pay an approved claim after a minimum of 5 months have passed.So if you suddenly become disabled... how would you pay your bills?What is disability?The Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English defines disability as:"Lack of adequate...
A Few Things Everyone Should Know About Disability
Beds > A Few Things Everyone Should Know About Disability
Should I Lease A Tanning Bed?
You can lease a tanning bed or beds for your salon and it may be the best way to go. There are advantages when you lease a tanning bed or beds. If you are the only owner of a tanning bed salon it may be best to lease the tanning bed or beds. Even if you are part of a partnership you may want to consider leasing a tanning bed or two.When you lease a tanning bed or beds for your business you can have the best equipment for a decent price.There are many companies that will lease a tanning bed or even several tanning beds. Check the reliability of these companies before you lease a tanning bed.
Also compare prices and service when you are thinking about leasing a tanning bed.When you lease a tanning bed instead of buying you will have more capital to work with. This can be beneficial to your business. Leasing a tanning bed will keep your line of credit open should you need it for other business expenses.You may find a nice tax break when you lease a tanning bed rather than purchasing...
Should I Lease A Tanning Bed?
Beds > Should I Lease A Tanning Bed?
The Beauty of an Antique Murphy Bed
Murphy beds have been in existence since about 1900, when William L. Murphy invented the patented mechanism to hide his bed away in the closet of his one room apartment while he entertained. The beds have been in use ever since, always appreciated by city apartment dwellers and homeowners who needed an extra bed in a multipurpose room.
During World War II and directly afterwards, the beds dropped in popularity, first
because of the scarcity of steel, and then because people were moving out of the city to larger, suburban homes, and space was not at such a premium. In the decades of the fifties and sixties, the beds were mainly remembered as props in slap-stick comedy, or the place to hide the body in a mystery story.
Now, Murphy beds are experiencing resurgence, as professional people move back into the cities and make their smaller living spaces more functional. Many apartment dwellers are finding these beds already existing in older buildings,...
Beds > The Beauty of an Antique Murphy Bed
Synk Audio Studios Introduces Summer Halos, New Customizable Production Music
Synk Audio Studios LLC introduces Summer Halos, a customizable stock music content package for Musicbed DV, its innovative Mac OS X application for interactively customizing production music from the Synk Music Library. Encoded for interactivity from over 1.1 GB of CD quality audio, Summer Halos extends the thematic reach of the Synk Music Library's catalog of cinematic music beds with thousands of new customizable stock music variations. Summer Halos is composed by Rom Di Prisco, whose credits include "The Sopranos", "America's Next Top Model", "MTV Cribs", "SSX Tricky" (EA Big), "Blair Witch Experience" (Artisan Entertainment), and "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2" (Electronic Arts). Distinguished by positive vibes, strong melodic themes, and style and texture parameters controlling over 245 virtual tracks, Summer Halos is capable of an incredible variety of beautifully rich and textured music beds."We are extraordinarily enthusiastic about Rom's new Synk Music Library title," said Eric...
Synk Audio Studios Introduces Summer Halos, New Customizable Production Music
Beds > Synk Audio Studios Introduces Summer Halos, New Customizable Production Music
Paramount Hotel New York #1 Choice For Quikbook.com Customers
New York, NY (ContentDesk) May 21, 2006 -- The Paramount Hotel New York is the number-one hotel choice for Quikbook.com customers, according to Quikbooks 2005 Customers Choice Awards.
The Paramount, which came in first for location, is at 235 West 46th Street in the bustling Times Square and Theater Districts.
The Paramount is known for its cool bar and lively lobby&
and in the middle of it all, near New Yorks best destinations, said Ray Vastola, president of Quikbook.com.
According to Vastola, hotels in five cities including New York were recognized, based on numbers of bookings and repeat business from Quikbook customers.
Comments from Quikbook customers regarding Paramount Hotel New York include: "The location is awesome.... walkable to theatre ; "Fun...
Beds > Paramount Hotel New York #1 Choice For Quikbook.com Customers
How Trampolines Can Be Used In Compeition
The first competitions were held in colleges and schools in the USA and then in Europe, with the first World Championships being held in London in 1964. Kurt Baechler of Switzerland and Ted Blake of England were the European pioneers and the first ever televised National Championships were in England in 1958. Soon after the first World Championships, the inaugural meeting of prominent trampolinists was held in Frankfurt to explore the formation of an International Trampoline Federation. In 1965 in Twickenham, the Federation was formally recognised as the International governing body for the sport. By 1969, the first European Championship was held in Paris and Paul Luxon of London was the winner at the age of 18.
The ladies winner was Ute Czech from Germany. From that time onwards, European and World Championships have taken place in alternate years-the European in the odd and the World in the even. At first, the Americans dominated the World Championships, but due to many lawsuits...
How Trampolines Can Be Used In Compeition
Beds > How Trampolines Can Be Used In Compeition