Feb. 26, 2008 - Composting in Alaska

As some of you may or may not know, we have a little challenge with everything we do here in Alaska. I am very interested in composting to amend our garden soil, cheap and very effective, right up my alley. I had an idea abou a month or so ago that I would keep all of our food scraps, egg shells, etc. in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and then when garden rototilling time comes we can get it into the garden and let the rototiller finish breaking it down a little. Will it work? I have no idea! There is a lady here locally that writes gardening articles in the Sunday newspaper and I noticed a couple of weeks ago that she has started for the season, so maybe she will address composting soon. The stuff that is already in the bucket is beginning to decompose. I also plan to keep a pile cooking in the yard all summer using yard clippings and black plastic. I will continue to study and find any more effective methods of amending our soil. I do have to say that I am a cheapo gardener. Thus the evidence of an unlandscaped yard, coupled with the fact that my husband does not enjoy landscaping but he does like to grow a garden.I am slowly enlarging and landscaping the beds at the front of our home and I plan to do it myself which means lots of me digging with a shovel. I may finish those beds by the year 2038. Plus, I only buy half off perinneals at the end of the season when I can find them. The rest I grab from all the wild perinneals surrounding our yard. I am not posting a picture of my yucky bucket but I will keep posting on this little nature project of mine as time progresses.