signals that its time to get those compost piles and bins filled up with huge amounts of leaves - and turn them into valuable, plant loving compost!

For us – the falling leaves and resulting compost we make with them are a great way to obtain huge amounts of "black gold" - the affectionate name many gardeners give to compost for it's value to a successful garden. Compost makes all the difference in helping to grow healthy plants - we mix in generous amounts to the soil when we plant our vegetables, as well as anytime we plant trees, shrubs or perennials in the landscape.

Here are 4 simple steps to help you make great leaf compost:

1. The Gathering Process – How To Get The Right Kind Of Leaves - And A Lot Of Them!

Although leaves are plentiful this time of year – some are better than others. Maple, Birch, Ash, Beech and fruit tree leaves are fantastic to compost.Oak leaves on the other hand should be composted in moderation. The leaves of Oak trees tend to be more acidic - too many in the compost pile can result in compost that is less than ideal for most vegetable gardens. A good rule of thumb - if Oak leaves make up less than 10 to 20% of your total pile – you should be good to go.If you are not blessed with trees on your property – take a drive around and find neighborhoods that are - it usually doesn't take too long to find them.Many times, the hard work is done for you - with the homeowners already raking leaves to their curb or even bagging them up curbside for pickup. A simple asking of the homeowner can usually net you more than you can handle.For us – a simple evening drive through our heavily wooded neighborhood can fill the old farm truck up with 50 or so bags of ready to go leaves. What takes a few minutes to collect will result in healthy plants.Even better – when you see those landscape companies out collecting – ask what they are doing with their haul – many times they are just taking them somewhere to dump – and will gladly drop them off at your house. It's a win-win all the way around!2. Shred – Shred – Shred!Like anything you put into a compost pile – leaves benefit greatly from being shredded first. Whole leaves won't compost quickly if left alone on the ground – and especially in piles where they can bind together and become a soggy matted mess.If you don't own a shredder - no worries. A regular old push mower or riding mower will do a great job of shredding your leaves into a fine chopped mix. We gather so many that we just pile them up and take care of business with a riding mower. In about 15 minutes, we can reduce 25 garbage bags of leaves into a couple wheelbarrow loads of shredded bits. However you do it – shred those leaves – the finer the better!3. Add a Nitrogen Source to Your Leaf Compost PileA pile of leaves left on their own - even if shredded - can still take over a year to break down. So to speed up the decomposition process – you need to add a source of Nitrogen to get your pile cooking.One easy remedy - freshly cut green grass. Fresh cut green grass is a great source of nitrogen and mixes easily with shredded leaves. Chicken, rabbit or horse manure also are great sources to get that pile of leaves heated up and cooking. If you have no access to grass or manure - you can always purchase a ready-made off the shelf compost activator – but good old natural green grass or manure works perfect for us.As for how much of each to add - just use another good rule of thumb - the 5 to 1 ratio. For every 5 wheelbarrows, buckets or bags of shredded leaves you add to the pile – mix in 1 wheelbarrow, bucket or bag of cut grass clippings or manure.4. Keep It Together, Keep it Turned, And Keep It MoistIf you don't have compost bins or a large enough composting area – make a temporary one in the middle of your garden. It's important to keep your pile together to allow it to heat up and decompose. An inexpensive 3 foot wire fence section, made into a circle. can become a perfect temporary composting bin for the winter time. The best part is that your making your compost right where you are going to need it - in your garden! And while that pile is "cooking" – don't be afraid to add some of your normal compost pile trimmings to it. Coffee grounds, fruit peels and scraps and grass clipping can be added while your turning to make your finished compost even better.If you want that pile to get heated up and compost even quicker – go out a few times a week and take a shovel or pitchfork and turn your pile. It doesn't take great effort – especially with the light make-up of a leaf compost pile. However - turning that pile and mixing in oxygen gets it to heat up and break down quickly.Last, make sure to keep the pile moist. You want it to be like the consistency of a damp sponge - if you get too many consecutive dry days - add a little water to your pile to keep it cooking strong.So there you have it - some simple hints to composting all of those falling leaves. Now it's time to get out there and start collecting!-Jim and Mary Be sure to like us on Facebook to get all of our DIY and Gardening Tips Each and Every Tuesday http://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-World-...

pallets and little more. I kid you not! This is the easiest build in the world and you'll wonder why you didn't think of it first!

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the perfect time to plan next year's garden. Why now? Because everything is fresh in your mind. The successes...the failures, and the "I want to try that next year" are still at the top of your mind. Before you know it – Thanksgiving and Christmas are here, January and February fly by – and all of those great ideas you had back in the fall get lost in the rush to just get a garden planted.So here are 3 great tips to help you plan now for a beautiful 2013 garden!1) PUT IT ON PAPER – NOW!Hands down – if you do anything – do this! It's one thing to say that you would like to try this or that, grow more tomatoes or herbs, or a different variety of pepper. But when you sit down and put it all down on paper – it's amazing to find out how much better it all works next spring. Planning now lets you easily remember what performed well – what didn't – and what you need to try different. It definitely made all the difference in getting even more out of our own space this year! In addition – you end up with a great set of notes from year to year to help in your efforts.2) PLAN TO ROTATE YOUR CROPSIt's so important to practice crop rotation – even on a small-scale garden basis. If you keep planting tomatoes in the same spot – don't expect to keep getting the same results. Different plants require different nutrients -and the soil begins to lose those nutrients if you keep planting the same crops in the same place. In addition – planting the same plants in the space is an open invitation to passing on soil borne diseases that can wreak havoc on garden plants. So make sure you plan out different spaces in your garden plan – another great reason writing it all down now is so important!3) PLAN TO GIVE YOUR PLANTS THE BEST PLACE AND SPACE THEY NEEDAnother advantage of planning – You get to see now how your plants are going to be positioned. Tomatoes and peppers need the sun and lots of it. The more space you can leave between those plants – the more light and air and rain can get to them – keeping the plants healthy and allowing their fruits to ripen better. Cool weather crops – like cucumbers and lettuce – can benefit from being placed in the shadier parts of your garden – or in areas where fast and tall-growing plants and vegetables can provide some later shade. Putting it down on paper now gives you the advantage of having a plan in place to follow.And for those of you who container garden – plant rotation is just as important – make sure you change what you grow in each raised bed or container. As for that soil – it's so important in raised beds and containers to recharge that spent soil with fresh compost to keep plants growing strong.So get planning now and get off to a great 2013 garden!!! - Jim and Mary

are the chickens. "The Coop" as we call it – is usually the first place visitors to the farm go to see. Our coop has been home now for over the last year to our little flock (we started with nine). With a few minutes of care each day – they have provided us with a little over 4 dozen eggs each week – and maybe even more importantly – an incredible supply of organic matter for our compost bins.Our hens are not free loaders – they actually pay for themselves. In a short time – we have developed a steady supply of farm fresh egg buyers who purchase our excess eggs, which is more than enough to pay for their feed and straw. You can follow the link below to our post to see picture and bios on all nine of our chickens.

kind – the building potential is limitless. I thought for today's DIY post I would show how we go about taking a pallet from its current state to great usable wood in just a few minutes

Working with pallets – the first thing we realized early on is it is nearly impossible and too time consuming to worry yourselves with pulling out the nails. It is too easy to damage the wood with the claw and hammer or pry bar.

Instead, we opt for our sawzall method – which can disassemble a pallet in less than two minutes into 10 or more pieces of great usable wood. Besides – the left over embedded nail fragments actually add a ton of character to pieces when either stained or painted.

So – 1st Tip – Invest in a sawzall. They are the key to quickly destructing a pallet – and without damaging or splintering the wood. Yes, it's an expense – but the inexpensive ones will work just fine with pallets.

2nd Tip – forget about the little 5″ blade that comes with your sawzall. That will only frustrate you. Buy a couple of 12″ construction blades (trust me – the few bucks are worth it – and they last forever).

3rd Tip - How to disassemble. Set it on its side and simply slice through the nails on each end. Then – head down the middle row doing the same thing and in no time you have a lot of pallet wood great for all of your crafts! (we have a step by step pictorial on our blog post below to take you through it.)

Canning takes that fresh taste right on through the winter. We have even came up with and love our own Hot Pepper Mustard and Hot and Spicy Ketchup! It's been fun to see how much we can produce for our own consumption.

coming months can make a huge difference in the success of next year's garden. Here are four things you can do NOW to really jump-start your 2013 garden.

1. DON'T COMPOST YOUR TOMATO AND PEPPER PLANTS

Although contrary to what we normally do – which is compost everything we can – we don't compost our pepper and tomato plants from the garden. We actually throw them on our burn pile and burn them with fallen sticks, etc. Why? Just too much chance for any plant disease to get passed through to the soil for next year. In addition – the odd green or damaged fruit still on the plants, along with their thousand of seeds, are something we prefer to keep away from our compost pile.

2. CLEAN OUT THE WEEDS FROM THIS YEAR'S GARDEN

Don't let those weeds overwinter in your garden. Clean them out now and prevent weeds from going to seed, digging deeper roots – and doubling your weeding efforts next year.

3. ADD ORGANIC MATTER NOW

Chopped leaves and compost are the stars here. Dig in generous amounts of compost to your raised beds or garden. And start collecting those falling leaves now! If you don't have access to your own – make a trip around local neighborhoods and collect the bags or piles of leaves that accumulate at the curb. We use our push mower to shred the leaves. Then, we dig in generous amounts to our raised beds to decompose. Even better, use the leaves as a mulch on your beds over the winter – helping to keep valuable soil from eroding. Just dig into the bed's soil in the spring. For an even better mulch – try #4.

4. PLANT A COVER CROP

Just like the "big farmers" do – our gardens and raised beds benefit greatly from a cover crop. We have already begun to plant our cover crops in the rows we have cleaned out. We use annual rye – a great choice to help add lots of organic matter and nutrients to your soil – and also protect it over the winter months from leaching all of the nutrients out of your bare soil.

A good cover crop will dig deeply into your soil with their roots. This adds valuable organic material to your soil, along with adding plant loving nitrogen to the soil as the plants break down. Then you can turn under your cover crop in the spring before planting. We get a lot of questions on the cover crops – especially – "Won't they become weeds?" As long as you use an annual rye – and make sure to not let the grass go to seed, and turn over in the early spring – you should have no worries.

All four of these steps are great ways to ensure a healthy, productive garden next year, and without having to use harsh chemicals and fertilizers.

-Jim and Mary - Old World Garden Farm

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