Shredded bark, left in a pile will eventually breakdown and become great compost. The potting soil that I use is about 80% rotted bark. I make potting soil by purchasing fine textured, and dark hardwood bark mulch, and I just put it in a pile and let it rot. The secret is to keep pile low and flat, so that it does not shed rain water away, you want mulch to stay as wet as possible, this will cause it to breakdown fairly quick.

So I keep a pile of rotted bark mulch near my compost bins. When both bins are completely full, I empty bin containing oldest material by piling it on top of my rotted bark mulch. I make sure pile of rotted mulch is wide and flat on top so that when I put material from compost bin on top of pile, compost material is only 5 to 10 inches thick. My mulch pile might be 12’ wide, but it may only be 24 to 30 inches high. Once I have all compost on top of pile, then I go around edge of pile with a shovel, and take some of material from edges of pile and toss it up on top of pile, covering compost with at least 6” of rotted bark. This will cause compost material to decompose rest of way.

Once you get this system started, you never want to use all of material in pile. Always keep at least 2 to 3 cubic yards on hand so you’ve got something to mix with your compost. If you use a lot of compost material like I do, then you should buy more material and add to your pile in late summer or fall, once you are done using it for season. Around here many of supply companies sell a compost material that is already broken down quite well. This is what I buy to add to my stock pile. But I try to make sure that I have at least 3 yards of old material on hand, then I’ll add another 3 yards of fresh material to that. Then in spring I’ll empty one of compost bins and add compost to top of pile.

The pile of usable compost will be layers of material, some more composted than others. Kind of like a sandwich. So what I do is chip off a section of pile from edge, spread it out on ground so it’s only about 8” deep, then run over it with my small rototiller. This mixes it together perfectly, and I shovel it onto potting bench.

Having a pile of rotted compost near your compost bins is great because if you have a lot of leaves or grass clippings, you can throw some rotted compost in bin in order to maintain that layered effect that is necessary in order for composting process to work well.

Sure this process is a little work, but it sure is nice to have a place to get rid of organic waste anytime I like. Then down road when I have beautiful compost to add to my potting soil, I am grateful to have done right thing earlier, and I know that I have wasted nothing.

Michael J. McGroarty is author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter, and grab a FREE copy of his E-book, "Easy Plant Propagation"

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**HOT TIPS**

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GARDEN TOOL NOOK

Install a rural style mailbox on a post near your garden. You can paint flowers on it for a great-looking waterproof nook to keep small hand tools, garden gloves, kneeling pads or even a notebook for writing down garden records. This is one way to make sure you don't put off writing down planting times, fertilizing schedules, etc.

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BE A WEED EATER

Many of "weeds" you try so hard to get rid of can actually be eaten and contain two or three times nutritional value than spinach or swisschard. Use young leaves from dandelion, chicory, lamb's quarters, shepard's purse or watercress for a wild greens salad. Serve with a vinegar and oil dressing. You can also steam or sauté any of these "weeds." Sauté in olive oil and garlic and/or drizzle with lemon juice.

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Gardener's Supply Fall Outlet Sale - Save and additional 10% on orders of $50 or more

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READER'S QUESTIONS

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Have a question? Ask BNT. Send your questions to askbnt@sendfree.com

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FROM OUR READERS

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Have a gardening idea, country recipe, or picture you'd like to share? Please send your input to readertips@sendfree.com

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Copyright 2003 BNT's Country Paradise

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****************************************************************************************** Bill and Terry Regling www.bntscountryparadise.com bnt@bntscountryparadise.com 1430 Marshall Road Lyndonville, New York 585-765-9421

Right around time I was ready to tell world about this “cure,” another product came on market called Hormonize. It is a liquid and costs around $45 per liter and lasts two weeks for your average size horse. That’s $90 per month to treat horse. The developers of this product found it to be effective not only on mares in heat, but it also did some impressive things for Cushings horses, too. It is sold for this purpose as well. It is an all natural herbal remedy. A bit pricey, though.

I checked out ingredients. It is a tincture of chasteberry! I think they call it vitex or monks pepper on back. I’m not sure. It greatly saddens me that treatment for such a devastating disease sells for so much.

Horses don’t need herbal tinctures. They can and do digest some pretty coarse stuff (have you ever tried to eat dry timothy hay?). They can not only digest herb, but utilize it in that form beautifully.

Bess, unfortunately, died at age 28 when she decided her mission was accomplished, so we never got a third blood test from her. We have two other Cushings horses, and all of our older mares are on chasteberry as well. Junebug, who is 8 years old, was tested last year and we’ll test her again soon to see where her numbers are. Snowdrop was never tested, but all her symptoms have disappeared and she is doing well at 24 years old.

If any of you out there would like to try chasteberry, here’s what to do. Go to your local health food store and special order one pound bulk bag whole chastetree berry from Frontier herb company (please mention Eye of Storm Equine Rescue when you do). You might want to order more than one bag so that when you’re down to one you can reorder. One bag will cost you less than $20 and will last a couple of months per horse.

Run berries through your coffee grinder and feed one teaspoon twice a day with feed. We give same amount to horses and ponies. It works on both mares and geldings. Give it to them three weeks on and one week off all year round. It will even keep mares from being quite so crabby in spring.

We also give them all vitamin E in evening, vitamin C in morning, and MSM. No sugars or carbohydrates (not even a carrot). There are feeds out there that are low in both, such as Blue Seal Racer and some of senior feeds (do some research). All in all, chasteberry is answer. Even our two 30-year old mares don’t have Cushings, only Bess, Junebug, and Snowdrop, who came to us with disease and it appears to be reversed. I never had horses of my own get Cushings. I have every horse in town that has Cushings on chasteberry and they’re all doing great! This is a cheap, easy, healthy remedy for Cushings disease.