Kenner is a unique city that does not get very cold in the winter and always has tons of rain. Getting your spring landscape installation started early is always something that can be done. March is the perfect month to start your landscape and garden beds. There will always be some years that this wont be as easy, but i think that this year is going to be a nice and warm month of March.
When it is this warm you are fine installing your landscape directly into the ground as soon as it is ready. Getting your plants in the garage or greenhouse for two to three weeks might be necessary if you are trying to get a jump on the season when it is colder. Getting a jump start on the neighbors landscape can be fulfilling when it comes down to looking good earlier in the year. Make sure you get your garden beds or landscape area prepped accordingly prior to installing anything new.
Getting your area prepped for your landscape installation is key. Remove any weeds growing out of your beds trim all trees and bushes that look in need. Make sure when your taking up mulch to get your landscape cloth down before you put the new mulch back in. This will make your mulch last weed free longer. When your mulch decays that is the end of the life of the mulch. But if your garden is overgrown with weeds then your mulch is also finished at this point. Keeping the weeds from growing throughout your mulch layer for a longer time frame is as easy as installing the weed cloth barrier first. Then it is as simple as just putting your mulch down like regular. If any of the edges of the landscape cloth are showing around the border or plants, then you can trim it with a sharp knife or scissors after the mulch is down.
When your in the mulch choosing phase remember that recycled rubber mulch last up to 10 years with minimal color fade and break down. Rubber mulch is also another way to reuse a product that is a major pollutant on this earth. Reusing a waste product for the purpose of your garden bed is just a natural instinct when it comes to home landscapers. We can also look at garden compost and fertilizer for free in almost every city in America.
When you are sourcing free material, or any material for that matter, for your compost pile keep this in mind. You are looking for the most variety in your compost as possible. Making your compost composed of a diverse group of material will make your compost amazing. Also keep in mind that you should keep your percentages of green and brown material correct. If you you do not know what i’m talking about their is tons of material to reference but basically wet nutrient rich material is green and dry nutrient low material will be the brown material. Generally speaking you should be about 2:1 ratio of green:brown material for your compost pile. For further reference check out this website for your compost material mixing percentages Compost 101. This is the basic compost pile that will require flipping or “turning” a few times before it is done. With different designs and materials used in your compost pile the frequency and quantity of “turnings” will change. I could literally write an entire book on just compost, but we will leave it at that for now.
Getting free materials will be from a few different places that could be sourced nationally. Getting your coffee in the morning? Ask for a trash bag of spent coffee grounds and they will be happy to oblige you. Many coffee places all have no problem and some have composting plans that involve giving customers their spent coffee grinds. When you are getting 5 or 50 lbs of coffee remember that this stuff goes a long way so if they do not have as much as you would hope that is fine. Get it in the pile and you can always go back for more when you get coffee tomorrow.
Next is going to be a little more involved, but all grocers and farmers markets all have the potential to have literally tons of rotten fruit and or veggies. Call before you go to a grocery and that should help weed out the ones that might not be willing to comply with your request. Remember to be nice to these people because they could just as easily throw it in the dumpster. Getting a nice connection at these locations is good because you can always show up in the spring and fall to collect enough to fill a few compost piles.
Getting the bulk of the compost you can easily stop at almost any stables in the city and talk to someone about getting the manure and straw from the stall cleanings. Getting this in the city is easier than you think. The stables are always around the corner if you look hard enough. Get online and check out some stables and call them in advance if it is your first time going there. Also large lawn companies will be happy to give you the clippings from that days cut. The problem with this is the amount of fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides and all the chemicals that people put on their lawn more often that not.
Another great resource in the fall is a short drive around the block. Getting the leaves that people bag up in the fall and pile at the curb all at once is always easy and the bags are light! With Halloween and thanksgiving you can always procure a ton of pumpkins that will be out at the curb and most of them will have already started rotting… perfect. I have made giant piles of compost with pumpkins and leaves. More the better. Getting a pile going that big will require a correct brown to green ratio and possible a special additive. Getting it to start composting as fast as possible you could add a few things that will speed up the microbial activity. Hulls of some grains and other things are called ‘Bran’ this stuff is a byproduct that is used for animal feed/fodder and for composting and worm feeding. When you add a 25lb bag of rice bran on your giant pile of leaves and pumpkins that will get things moving fast. Just watch for wildlife trying to eat your bran…
