Comments on: Now it can be told

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:09:27 +0000

Happy July, Sara and Matt! Plus everybody.

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:05:47 +0000

Worked, and works, splendidly. I did have a problem that the contents didn't dry quickly enough to use in my Square Foot Garden. Which is why I had to impose upon the kindness of Larry for that component despite all all the damn time and effort I've put into composting. (Grumble, grumble, grump, grump.) I'm looking at either the 55-gallon plastic drum or the chicken-wire cylinder modes for a new composter currently. Undecided which, as yet. Frying outer, higher-priority, fish right now.

By: Sara M. Harvey

Sara M. Harvey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:40:12 +0000

By: Harvey Morrell

Harvey Morrell — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:01:47 +0000

Way cool! And well done! By the by, how did your garbage can composter do? (See, I really was paying attention.)

By: Victor

Victor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:50:23 +0000

Yeah, it is relatively light. Still, eight cubic feet of anything more substantial than air gets pretty hefty, it turns out.

Thanks again for the compost, big guy!

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:22:40 +0000

You can hit 3/4″ with a pilot hole and screw if you practice. My raised beds are 1″ thick deck boards, and those are totally screwable. But I put corner blocks in anyway (actually, corner stakes). You also need stakes along the length, because they’re bendy. Unless you’re ok with a “circular foot garden”. But 2X6′s would be nice too, and much, much stiffer… With all that peat moss and vermiculite in it, Mel’s mix is probably pretty light, but still.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:42:33 +0000

Plus you have GRASS! Wow. Wait, is that YOUR fence???? What? Read the post??? Nevermind.

Larry-Rosanna-Danna

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:12:23 +0000

Thanks, Meowlin! As for the 1 x 6s, I savvy pilot holes. I just have a hard time seeing that even drilling them would help much, given a board that's really 3/4ths of an inch thick, and that you want pretty robust screws to hold the puppy together. If they were all I had available I'd find a way; they're not likely to be my preference. You'd think vermiculite would be worm castings, wouldn't you? Yet as Answer.com tells us, it's really "Any of a group of micaceous hydrated silicate minerals related to the chlorites and used in heat-expanded form as insulation and as a planting medium." And there you have it. If the Fates are kind, I might have a picture of my actual square foot garden, as opposed to some random stranger's, by this afternoon. Okay, by later this afternoon. And thanks for the wishes. We'll see how my garden grows. I am pleased I did it. I admit it.

By: Meowlin

Meowlin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:51:13 +0000

“the Seekrit Projekt … a huge anticlimax; I know.”

Given the level of secrecy, I guess so (though I understand not wanting to “jinx” something by announcing it prematurely). But REALLY cool! Well done, sir!

“(allegedly you can use 1 x 6s, but I can’t see how you’d screw ‘em together without splitting them)”

By drilling holes first, of a diameter maybe 1/32″ smaller than the screws.

“something called vermiculite.”

I’ve seen the name before, but never really thought about it – would this be, basically, worm castings?

Good job, Vic. May your harvest be bountiful.

- M. \”/