Shredding and mulching leaves with lawn mower.

I use my exisiting lawn mower to shred leaves.  This answers many questions regarding building or making your own leaf shredder or mulcher.  I have highlighted the steps I do to shred leaves.  My yard is full of oak leaves and this works really good.

Run your lawn mower in discharge mode.  Direction of mower depends upon the discharge side.  Idea is to collect leaves in a pile.  My mower discharge to right so I run it clockwise as shown in figure 1.  The size of the pile depends how many leaves you have.  If you get too many leaves then your mower may start stalling.

Iclose the discharge chute and convert my mower in to mulching mode and run it over the partially shredded leaves pile.  You will be amazed in the reduction in the volume of leaves at this stage.

Once the leaves are completely shredded, I use the bag attachment to collect all the shredded leaves and throw them in my compost.  Easy and simple. I think.

Where to buy Bitter Mellon, Bitter Gourd or Karella (Karela) Seeds?

One of the reader wanted to know where to buy the bitter gourd seeds.  Jawahar Bitter Gourd seed packet are available on internet and these are Indian variety. As per web site, these are Long, green variety, quite bitter and with anti diabetic properties.  Bitter gourd are hard to sprout specially in colder climates.  I was lucky one vine was successful out of 10 seeds.   I bought it from local Korean store.  I grew the seedling inside.  There is another kind of variety of bitter gourd Solok Bitter Gourd.


Try to grow Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd (Momordica Charanti, Bitter Melon, Karela.

Used tea bags and tea leaves in compost along with egg shells. Tea party in compost.

We are tea lovers and most of the time drink tea instead of coffee.  I collect the used tea bags and tea leaves in a brown lunch bag.  I put some paper napkin on the bottom of the brown bag so that it soaks the liquid.  I did add some egg shells.  No white or yolk.  When ever the weather is nice and I go out for a walk in the yard, I take the brown bag with me and stick the bag in the compost bin.  It should be buried in leaves.  This will keep critters away.  Do not put meat or fish.  In this way you have no odor coming out of compost and you will have clean compost.  To make compost hot add some greens like grass clippings and turn the compost.

Home Grown Vegetables. It is total bliss.

Sharing another picture of sample of home grown vegetables.  This is part of last harvest.  Winter is setting in.  There are still few vegtables on plants.  They may end up in compost.  There is full tray of hot peppers sitting behind.

Home grown vegetables.

Compost Oak Leaves. Shred, add greens and moisture.

We have lot of oak leaves. Oak leaves are tough and they slowly break down.  Best way is to shred them as much as possible.  I ran my lawn mower in mulching mode.  Then ran my Garden Tractor and bagged them.  This job is easier when leaves are dry.  Then emptied the bags of shredded leaves in to my home made compost bins.

Leaves and leaves every where.

Oak leaves are hard, so shred them as much you can.  Add greens to it.  Next time I mow the lawn I wll add the grass clipping to it.  As vegetable season is almost done, I will take the vegetable plants and shred them and add to the compost.  Composting is not hard. 

1.  It should be good mix of brown and greens.  Brown provides the carbon and green provides the nitrogen.

2.  Keep the objetcs smaller for faster decomposing.  So shred the leaves and greens.

3.  Keep it moist but not soggy.  Do not let it dry.

4.  Keep it airy.

Added shreded oak leaves to home made compost bin.

More leaves yet to fall.

Radiant Heating and Ceramic Tiles

Joe posted following comment on Nov 5

This is a cool idea. I can imagine the feeling one have having warm floors in winter. This blog inspires me to have radiant heating. How are the ceramic tiles doing? Does the heat crack them?

Joe

November 5, 2009 5:54 AM

These tiles were installed in 2006 and so far no cracks.  Grout has come out of one place which is normal.  I have to fix it . 

Needs little bit of grouting.

Heat is turned back on as temperature in our area have started to come down.  It is setup to 82F (27.7C) for morning and evening when kitchen is being used.  I reduced it to 78F (25.5C) manually before taking the picture.  This thermostat needs no batteries.  It was off for whole summer and still retained the settings when switched on.  That is cool.  You have to press a button to turn on the green backlight but it turns off automatically after couple of seconds.

Suntouch Programmable Floor Stat Model 50600-120R

Home grown vegetables.

Sample of home grown vegetables.  Growing your own vegetables is total bliss.

Try to grow Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd (Momordica Charanti)

This year we tried to grow bitter gourd ( also known as bitter melon, karela or karella in India, goya in Japan).  It is hard to grow in cold climates.  We tried to grow bitter gourd from couple of seeds and only one vine survived.  We got couple of bitter gourds.  We are still keeping one on the vine for seeds.   As the weather has turned cold the vine is almost dying.

One bitter gourd left to make seeds

Bitter Melon is sort of a bitter vegetable as the name implies.  It is acquired taste.  You can find lot of recipes for Bitter Melon on the internet.

Bitter Melon are easy to grow.  Before you attempt to grow there are few points to be considered.  It needs warm temperature and lot of sunlight.  Although recommended USA hardy zone is 10-11 but it can be grown in cooler zones during summer.  Our hardy zone is 7 and we grow them from June to September.

Check out posting: Where to buy Bitter Mellon, Bitter Gourd or Karella (Karela) Seeds?

Sow them in late spring when the chance of frosting is over.  As seeds are hard it is better to soak them in warm water for about 48 hours before sowing.  It needs well drained soil.  

Other resources : Suggested Cultural Practices for Bitter Gourd by AVRDC

How to mulch leaves and make compost in your own backyard and Various Leaf Shredders

Shredding of the compost ingredients is very important in order to have success with compost.   Mulching with mulching lawn mower is one option specially for leaves.  We mulch oak leaves with mower.  Run the mower on leaves couple of times. 

I use my The Yard Machines 21" 3-in-1 deck push mower to mulch leaves and any small twigs.   I use the bagger when mowing the grass so that I can catch glass clippings.  I add those clippings to the leaves.  The grass clipping provides the necessary nitrogen to the leaves (carbon) and the compost gets hot.  This is nature at work. 

For shredding and mulching the leaves, I will put the mower in discharge mode and go clockwise and collect all the leaves in the middle of the yard.  They are already broken in to pieces at this time.  Then I change the settings to mulching and run the mower over the leaves twice.  This reduces the volume of the leaves drastically.  Then I run the mower with bag attachment and collect the mulched and shredded leaves.  It seems to be lot work but I tell you it is much easier then raking and bagging the leaves. 

There are some shredders available specially for this purpose.

Flowtron LE-900 The Ultimate Mulcher 8 Amp Electric Leaf Shredder
Flowtron’s LE-900 Leaf-Eater Mulcher/Shredder quickly recycles yard and garden waste into nutrient-rich mulch that's ready to be disposed of or reprocessed into compost. Powered by regular household current and featuring special positions for leaves (coarse to fine), grass, thatch, and pine needles, this handy tool reduces 11 bags of leaves to just one bag, saving money on expensive trash bags and trash pickup.

WORX WG430 13 Amp Electric Leaf Mulcher/Shredder  The new Worx leaf mulcher makes collecting leaves easier, quicker and leaves your yard tidier. By simply dropping your leaves into the large feed hole they are mulched to 1/11th their size and drop right into a bag you fit under the unit. Its unique design accepts both plastic and paper bags and delivers an exceptional high mulch efficiency rate of 53 gallons/minute. This is achieved with the safe flex-a-line bladeless mulching system, offering the added benefit of tool-less cutting line replacement. Assembly is also tool-less and coupled with its compact design allows for convenient, easy off-season storage in your garage or shed. The design incorporates a dust reducing clean air motor cooling system and an oversized on/off switch for ease of use. The 13 amp motor delivers 8500 rpm and accommodates a 13-Inch cut diameter all in a package that weighs only 20 lbs. The WG430 comes with 24 replacement lines and 1 universal bag holder.

Eco-Shredder ES1600 14-Amp Electric Chipper / Shredder / Mulcher  The Eco-Shredder is the easy way to help clean up the yard after trimming the bushes and raking the leaves. No gasoline engines to try to start. The Eco-Shredder is the environmentally friendly way to help clean up your yard. The top hopper accepts twigs, small branches and other leaves and debris. The side chute accepts branches up to 1-3/8" in diameter. It can even save time and money by allowing you to make your own mulch.

Browse and shop for leaf shredders

Compost Leaves. Composting really works. Make your own compost bins.

We used to collect all the leaves and put them in bags and leave it on the curb for pickup. We used to have some times 70 bags in one day. I know the leaves got recycled but do not know what happened to the bags. There are lot trees in our neighborhood and we get plenty of leaves.  Filling the bags with leaves was enormous task. 

We tried to mulch the leaves in the grass.  There were so many leaves that it will cover the whole grass with thick layer and kill the grass.  We started composting 2 years back and as We are learning and it is getting better.   We want to share the experience with others.  It is fun and gives you lot of satisfaction. First I looked at the composter on line and they were expensive.  One on Amazon was selling for $300.  If you can afford it go ahead and buy it.

Browse for compost bins.

I had some left over fence.  I made two bins out of it.  I put it next to a tree for support.  The one on the right was totally done last month and I spread the compost in the garden.  The left one is in progress.  We have been getting lot of rain recently so I covered up the bins.  Rain is also hampering my leaf collection venture as it is soggy and wet outside.

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

You want your compost to be moist but not soggy.  Compost also does not work if it is dry.  Then it just sits there.  Keep it moist till it is done.  I checked it yesterday it was warm and turned it.  This weekend plan to mulch leaves and put them  in the right had side bin.  It is always helpful to mulch the leaves.  I use my garden tractor with bags.  I have also used the lawn mower to mulch the leaves.  Collect all the leaves in one space and run your  mulching mower over them.  Mulching reduces volume of the leaves so that you can put more leaves in the compost bin.  It also helps the composting process.  Add some greens also.  I usually get grass clippings along with the leaves.  There are lot of things you can add to compost.  Do not add meat.

Home made compost bins.

You can try some sturdy plastic fence to make your bin.  Support your bin properly.

Gardening and Meditation- Dharma in Dirt

Found an nice article in New York Times about Wendy Johnson "Dharma in the Dirt".  Later on found out that she has also written a book.  (Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World.)

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~George Bernard Shaw,

Floor heating is in vacation mode.

We have entered in to November, still thermostat is set to vacation mode.  It has not been that cold yet.  At least I am saving some on electric bill.   I used Suntouch Programmable Floor Stat Model 50600-120R.  I think it is better than the non programmable (which was cheaper) as it saves lot of time and energy.  As floors are heated smoothly and slowly, I do not have to wait for the floors to get warm.  Floors are only heated when we really need them.  I do not have to replace batteries as there are no batteries used in this.  One less thing to worry about.

Vegetable garden needs lot of sun.

Sharing picture of last year vegetable garden. Most of the vegetables loves sunlight.  Make sure your vegetable garden gets enough sunlight.  That is the first thing for a successful garden.  Chose the spot which is brightest and gets maximum light.  In case you do not have that spot then try containers and pots.  Keep them in sunny spot on patio or deck.  If you have no sunny spot you can try some leafy vegetables but your choice is limited.  There are some herbs which can grow in shade.

Hot chilli plant doing very well in a container.  It did get lot of sunlight.

Tomato plant lbasking in the sun.

Some bell peppers with green beans in the back ground.