Vegetable Garden

In the long, slow process of getting the vegetable garden put away for Winter. The storms in September, when we here in Cincinnati were witness (and victims) of Ike's winds, took out a 30' cherry tree in the back. It came down in such a way as to victimize several other trees, so now I get to pick up the pieces. Literally. (piles of wood pictures)

I also have the start of a solar shed going up. I've got a friend, a carpenter, helping, so it's going a little slower than I think it would if I did it myself, but I suspect it will be sturdier in the end. I'm pretty excited to have this complete.

I might have had the gentleman (a neighbor, actually) who cut up the tree cart it away. As I work at it, I think I might do something like that. I went out and bought a used chipper shredder, and I couldn't be happier with it. The amount of leaves I've got just so far, with more on the way I hope, would be great in a couple of years, unshredded. Shredded, I hope they'll be useful next year. I'm mixing them with the coffee grounds I have from work.

I've been collecting 3 5-gallon buckets of coffee grounds from the cafeteria and the coffee lady at work, each week for the last 3. I extol the virtues of coffee grounds, as I happened to mix some with sawdust from the tree and it heated up within a couple of days. So, I figure I can use it in equal parts directly on the garden, with the leaves, and finally with the sawdust (from the friend). That should keep me going all winter.

No work on the shed today (a shame), so I'll be sorting out the piles. It's amazing that almost a full day of shredding, with my little shredder, yields just this much mulch. Oh, well. I'm sure there will be more than enough to mulch in a path from the porch to the garden in the end.