Compost from SOCRRA

SOCRRA offers compost for pick up at 1741 School Road in Rochester Hills (Mon thru Fri 8am -- 4pm and Saturdays in May and June 8am – noon). 
Residents of SOCRRA communities (and Rochester Hills) can shovel their own compost at the compost site for FREE.  $5 charge for residents of all other communities.
For larger quantities loaded by SOCRRA bucket loader, a charge of $5 per cubic yard with a $15 minimum applies.
From the SOCRRA website, "Compost is a natural organic soil amendment and fertilizer made from a variety of yard waste and food scraps.  Compost improves soil structure, retains water, encourages root growth, aerates soil, releases nutrients slowly, supports beneficial organisms and earthworms, and suppresses some soil-borne diseases. Compost also helps protect water quality because it absorbs rainwater and filters out many pollutants. It is useful as a soil amendment throughout the landscape – including lawns, trees, shrubs, vegetable gardens and flower beds."

How is SOCRRA compost made?
Leaves, grass clippings, woodchips, other yard waste and food scraps are collected from SOCRRA communities.

Some communities have compost available for residents at their Department of Public Works yard.  Call your city’s DPW for availability and hours.  What does it cost?
Characteristics of SOCRRA compost (as analyzed by Midwest Laboratories): Compost Analysis March 2012
 pH: 8.1 (alkaline, like many soils in Southeast Michigan)
Total nitrogen :0.82%
Phosphorus (P) :0.11%
Potassium (K) :0.51%

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Picjoke for Profile Photo

The rise of social networking has changed our way of life. In the past, photo is just a photo to memorize what we did in the past. Today, photo has more roles in our life along with the development of social networking. We need photo that represent ourselves in profile page on the social networking.

Ordinary photo will be bored for us. We need something difference. What I mean is customizing the photo into a funny picture will be a great idea. Visit pl.picjoke.net to try customizing your photo. The result of editing must be a great choice to be uploaded to your social networking profile.  Picjoke can attract somebody else to visit your profile again and again.

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Plants that deer don't eat, as much

If hungry enough, deer will eat nearly anything growing in your yard. The plants that have the best chance of surviving raids by deer are flowers and plants with a pungent scent, fuzzy or woody leaves and unpleasant taste.
 Renee's Garden has a list of deer resistant varieties, Also check with Michigan State County Extension office

Flowers that are usually left alone by deer
Lavender
Alyssum
Amaranth
Calendula
Carnation
Columbine
Cosmos
Echinacea
Forget-Me-Knot
Four O' Clock
Heliotrope
Marigold
Morning Glory
Nasturtium
Poppy
Statice
Zinnia

Deer resistant herbs
 Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Spearmint and Thyme

Vegetables
I have found that deer will eat jalapenos when hungry enough. They don't usually eat onion, potato, squash and tomato plants or parsley or other herbs.
Their favorites that I know about from personal experience are: green beans, Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, carrots, peas and broccoli.

Deer love hostas.

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As the worm turns on your worm farm

1. To start a worm farm, get a wooden container that has holes. Small holes can be drilled into the container, not big enough for escapees. Plastic containers aren't a good choice because they keep the farm too wet. You also need a lid to keep the rain out.

2. Add bedding material like dead plants, leaves and/or newspaper clippings and some soil.

3. Add green material like household fruit and vegetable scraps and egg shells.

4. Just add worms. You can dig them up in your yard. (A great place to find worms is under dead wood in moist areas. Don't dig them up from the garden though, leave those there and don't name them. You can also buy them at various places. I saw Gurney's is selling them in their garden catalog.

5. Periodically, add more bedding material and scraps.

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Waterfall project that didn't flow

 We had the good fortune, if you can call it that, to come into some rocks. While rocks are pretty and make great landscape material, they are really really heavy. I wasn't much help on this project. The weeds are hard to get to, so it's a constant battle keeping the weeds out from between the rocks. We ran out of money before we could get the pump and apparatus to create a waterfall. We laid weed barrier cloth down before placing the rocks and there's still weeds. The pool is fed from an Artesian spring. This flows into our pond.

This is our waterfall project. It turned out to be a lot more work and expense than anticipated.

Eddie thought it was a pee on me, not peonie.

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