By the name of
this blog, you can already smell how much I’m going to brag about my yard, how
totally organic it is, utilizing the most effective natural occurring fertilization
and feeding, termed the Forest Floor Model (Heckel, 1993). Perhaps it is this
methodology that has won me the honored and distinguished Certified Wildlife
Habitat, by The National Wildlife Federation, certificate # 105,706. It is my
belief that this certification number is the only certified on the planet,
which now clearly sets my yard up for this blog.
BTW, the process
to get this baby took at least 25 minutes answering some very tough questions
at the National Wildlife Federation website. And you can print them right out,
just make sure you have enough ink. Mine came in the mail, personally signed,
as you can see. Don’t know David, but he’s reviewed my survey answers and made
the call! Thanks, Davey! Feels great to be #105,706!!
Ok, so back to
my bragging. Actually, this is also going to include bragging about my lovely grand-daughter,
Bettie. So now that you have already established the solid fact that I
fricken KNOW this gig called gardening,
allow me to introduce you to one of my back yard’s most famous, and now BEST
improvements.
One
day Bettie and I were walking around the
yard, just taking in the day and, of course, checking out her tree, her mom and
dad’s , you know, we all have our own tree in yard. Well, Bettie was picking up
pine cones, which I was delighted as they are a nuisance. Don’t get me wrong, I
love my Confiner trees so much that I literally pray for them often. But the
cones got to be so many that I was rolling my ankles over them, which
especially isn’t good my ankle with the rod in it. Kinda hurts. Also, running
over the cones with the lawn mower was akin to messing with a
ground-level-meteor-launcher! Danger notwithstanding, it also wreaked havoc on
the mower blades (like I care, really).
So,
Bettie starts to pick up the cones and we put them in a bucket. She then walks
over to what then looked like a pathetic, messed up
wanna-be-but-ended-up-looking-like-crap flower garden where two clematis (we’re
talking plants mr. spell check!) plants grow each year. She thinks a bit, and
then starts putting the pine cones into the messy looking flower garden
floor. At first we were just playing
around throwing them in but then the more that got thrown in, the better it
continued to look! The once dingy looking clamtis garden was looking more like
a real garden than a dirt patch with some faded wood chips littered around.
Amazingly, Bettie had the
fore-sight that this bad-looking garden needed a touch—her special touch! Her
idea. Her brilliance.
As the weeks went by I continued
the Bettie Cone Project (aka ‘be cone one to another ‘) making daily rounds of
collecting cones until I realized that this cone discovery also yielded a more
beautiful, longer lasting and FREE solution to simply dumping in more wood
chips that blow away and then turn to dirt. Cones can last much longer than the
bark solution. A good pine cone runs around $20/pound, which is about 1200).
Mulch runs like $5/20lb bag and I needed at least 5 bags. Guess I owe my little
grand-daughter some money!
At any rate, enough of the words,
here are the facts:
This is still work in progress as you can still see some junk in the garden.
But the final product looks something like this. . .
The fundamentals of FFM are quite simple, you do pretty much nothing
and let nature take its course.
However, I did manage to cobble
together a few key pieces of organic advice for those of you that desire to
learn more about FFM:
1 1) If
you bag your grass, create a nice compost pile, else grind it with your mower
into an area that needs attention.
2) Never pollute the land-fills with branches, leaves,
clippings, etc. Yard wastes comprises a large percentage of all land-fills and,
while biodegradable, still waste energy of moving them from one place to
another; especially when the materials moved can be used where they originated.
So have a ‘beader mower’ and grind up as much as you can with your mower
directly over the ‘forest floor.’ Essentially, the concept behind this is the
same found in the forest; branches and trees die, creating natural compost for
more plant growth. By grinding the waste up, composting, we simply accelerate the decomposition process.
1
2 3) Now if you don’t like #2 because maybe you don’t
like the grinding idea (there are safety hazards associated with such, so
always wear protective equipment!), then the next best solution is to use as
much yard waste as you can around areas to control weed growth. This is
especially effective in gardens and along driveways, which can make a fine
looking border, done properly.
Bottom line is “live and let live.” I’m not one big on fancy
spray on lawns or zero-scaping. At least
I’ve found some sort of a balance between the over-killing work by using simple
and lazier methods to accomplish not just getting rid of yard wastes, but also
putting them into good organic use. And with newer minds on the scene, such as
Bettie’s Pine-Cone Project, I keep learning even more tricks of the trade. And
if you don’t believe me, drive by, stop and I’ll show you what a Certified
National Wildlife preserve/yard looks like. Number 105,706, to be exact!
And don’t even get me started with the scores of cool birds,
eagles, squirrels, foxes, elks, coons, coyotes, hares and other such amazing
creations that frequent this habitat for a respite! It’s all good—no, it’s all
GREAT! Thanks, Bettie!
