Building a simple compost sifter
By Barbara Damrosch, published Thursday, August 16, 2007 in The Washington Post
If compost is the holy grail of organic gardening, what's holier than thou? Sifted compost.
What you want in a perfect mature compost is, of course, organic matter so fully broken down that the original ingredients -- whether straw, weeds, kitchen scraps or goat droppings -- are no longer recognizable. Finished compost looks like very rich, dark, fine soil. But even the best soil contains stones, twigs and the like. Sifted compost doesn't. It is the 400-thread-count soil amendment.
Grade-A sifted compost has many uses. Let's say you want to renovate the lawn in the fall. Using a shovel, you scatter sifted compost over the worst patches, rake it into the iffy grass growing there (if any) then sow seeds and water it thoroughly. The fine-textured compost provides an excellent seed bed. In fact, it is a good seed bed for anything, especially small, hard-to-germinate seeds such as carrot and onion. One trick is to dig a planting furrow, then fill it with sifted compost. You can even use it to start seeds in flats -- although compost must be completely mature and mellow for this purpose -- too much high-test nitrogen can burn tender seedlings. It is also a wonderful top-dressing for a vegetable garden, a luxury mulch that provides a good nutritional multivitamin while making your garden's soil look as dark and lustrous as a mink coat.
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OregonWines.com: Pinot and Poultry - a Perfect Pairing
Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, and with it the time of year when Holiday meals abound. As the weather cools down, nothing can warm you up better than a fresh roasted turkey or chicken, right out of the oven. And, wouldn't you know, Oregon's wineries have just the thing to pair up against that bird: Pinot Noir.
With its lush, fruity aromas and complex structure, Pinot Noir complements most any holiday dish. And yet, paired up against turkey, chicken, or duck, it's like nothing else.
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