Wonderpets, I am so glad you are finding such pleasure and satisfaction with gardening. Me too! I hope you will soon find the same satisfaction with composting. Don't make it complicated. You are ready to start now. You don't need to read another book, altho feel free to do so, of course. I read everything I can get my hands on about gardening. I love to go to the library and check out my limit of books and I have learned quite a bit along the way. I was the one who said something about wet/dry in another post, I think. That was just to give you an easy way to figure if something was likely a higher nitrogen-content material, or a higher carbon-content material. I still think my analogy stands. The wet coffee grounds and filter, the vegetable scarps, the old slimy lettuce leaves - these are all "wet" and would go towards nitrogen or greens. Shredded paper, twigs, fall leaves - these are all "dry" and would go towards carbon or browns. Just like someone said, plant material will have some of each but will be predominantly carbon or nitrogen as far as composting is concerned. You can just go ahead and start composting anything that you already have. The only time my compost really got slimy is when I used fresh and somewhat wet grass clippings that my neighbor had, and he gets his lawn treated and fertilized so it is very lush. I won't do that again. My grass clippings are not so lush, and not a problem. Also if I have watermelon rinds or melon rinds with some of the fruit still on it, I will see flies. I try to pour my shredded paper from the shredder over that, or my grass clippings, or some dirt if you have it. In addition to the very useful saying "IACBTC," here's another one: "Just Do It!" (I think I got that from NIKE shoes???). Anyway, go ahead and start. Nothing drastic should happen, and you can refine your system as you get more experience and read more. Have fun!

OK you smarty-pantsed bunch!! Pretty good, considering the lousy clues.... 1. The answer is�������� peppers! Compared to green peppers, red peppers have more vitamins and nutrients and contain the antioxidant lycopene. The level of carotene, like lycopene, is nine times higher in red peppers. Red peppers have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers. Also, one large red bell pepper contains 209 mg of vitamin C, which is three times the 70 mg of an average orange. The fruit of Capsicum plants have a variety of names depending on place and type. They are commonly called chili pepper, red or green pepper in North America, or sweet pepper in Britain, and typically just "capsicum" in Australia, New Zealand, and India. The large mild form is called bell pepper in the U.S. and Canada. They are called paprika in some other countries (although paprika can also refer to the powdered spice made from various capsicum fruit). 2. The answer is������ parsley! Sardinia featured parsley on its currency. Parsley had such strong status for the Greeks that they wore it to banquets. They believed that it sprang from the blood of Archemorus, the foreshadower of Death, whose nurse carelessly placed him in a bed of parsley, where he was devoured by serpents. Regarding it as the "herb of oblivion", they decorated tombs with parsley. Homer tells us that warriors fed their chariot horses parsley and mentions it as part of Circe's pleasant lawn in The Odyssey. Greek poet Theocritus writes; "At Sparta's palace, 20 beauteous maids/The pride of Greece, fresh garlands crown'd their heads/With hyacinths and twining parsley dress'd, Graced/joyful Menelaus' marriage feast." They also used it for medicinal purposes and fashioned it into a crown for the winners of the Isthmian and Nemean games. Parsley is more than just throwaway garnish. Chew on it for a fresher breath. Finely chopped parsley added to cous cous or rice pilaf adds color and texture. It's a bitter, aromatic, and diuretic herb that relaxes spasms, reduces inflammation and clears toxins. It is also said to inhibit tumor-cell growth and stimulates the digestion and uterus. It contains flavonoids (including apiin), traces of furanocoumarins (bergapten, oxypeucedanin, psoralen). The essential oil contains phenylpropanoids apiol, myristicin and allyltetramethoxybenzol. Whatever those are!! 3. The answer is����������. cauliflower! Try raw cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes with a lowfat blue cheese dip for a healthy snack. You can steam or microwave cauliflower until soft and then mash. Add some chicken broth, vegetable broth, or low fat milk along with a dab of butter and some sea salt for mock mashed potatoes. Some people never miss the potatoes. 4. The answer is����������pear! Who knew? Well, apparently most of you, not me!! I find this amazing. The Rosaceae family includes many edible fruits (such as apples, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears, raspberries, and strawberries), almonds, and ornamental trees and shrubs (such as roses, meadowsweets, photinias, firethorns, rowans, and hawthorns). So Cyn, you too were correct!! 5. The answer is���������almonds! Greek mythology tells of the beautiful princess Phyllis, who was left waiting at the altar on her wedding day by her intended, Demophon. Phyllis waited for years for him to return, but finally died of a broken heart. In sympathy, the gods transformed Phyllis into an almond tree, which became a symbol of hope. When the errant, remorseful Demonphon returned to find Phyllis as a leafless, flowerless tree, he embraced the tree. The tree suddenly burst into bloom, a demonstration of love not conquered by death. A similar legend is popular in Portugal. No word on why the Romans took up the story. A handful of almonds (15) are high protein and good for the heart. Going nuts in moderation is a good thing. While the fruit of the wild forms contains the glycoside amygdalin, "which becomes transformed into deadly prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) after crushing, chewing, or any other injury to the seed", domesticated almonds are not toxic. Glad to hear that, cause I have bought some bargain almonds that were quite bitter. Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as are found in olive oil, which have been associated with reduced risk of heart disease. The protein in almonds is more like the proteins in human breast milk of all the seeds and nuts, which is why it is the choice of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine as the base for its baby formula. So there you go. Some fun with vegetables - our Mothers would be proud!! So, correct me if I am wrong, but for Annette: For TM, Cyn and Bobbie: Thanks for playing, everyone. I'm not going back to my garden today - shoulders and neck are too sore, so next Sunday it is. Happy Victoria Day to Annette and I - happy Monday to everyone else. There is grass to be cut, and laundry to be finished - glad it's a holiday! Nancy.

We hope you can make it! We have some awesome raffle prizes as well! I'm the volunteer coordinator for the community center garden, and I've been growing a few flats of edibles -- strawberries, raspberries, various herbs, etc. -- just for this event. :)

I referenced a thread above, with this video about Nigari & tomato sweetness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmXu4dr.R1S8 Nigari has a lot of Magnesium ( & sea water trace minerals) so the role of mineral "salts" is what will discuss. Metal ions impact the genetic code signal in several ways. They can stabilize the genetic information coils or torque them out of position, influencing how that genetic program is read . This means that the precise "kick-starter" of a specific protein ( what the gene expresses to be made, in order to start things going) can be influenced by trace minerals. A deficiency of a vital trace mineral causes too little of the genetic signal "kick-starter". An excess of a trace mineral can destabilize the configuration of the master code strands & cause a different "kick-starter" protein to be expressed. As this pertains to Nigari (opposed to NaCl, sodium chloride salt, which increases conductivity to reduce water intake, makes tomato fruit smaller & thus concentrates % of sugar ) the likely sweetness factor to follow is Mg. Let's scale back up to enzymes. Tomato fruit uses sucrose, when young, to develop seeds. The sucrose form of sugar will eventually get acted on by sucrose specific enzymes & broken apart into other sugar molecules. As fruit develops the fructose form of sugar is a byproduct (mature fruits' sugar is in the form of lots of fructose). Here begins a factor of how sweet can things get & it is a dynamic influenced by trace minerals. On one hand, the fructose building up in the fruit tends to inhibit the very enzymes that specificly break apart sucrose & let the fructose "out" . It is a genetic program & why some tomatoes don't get sweeter than a certain degree. Yet, on another front, the enzymes that act specificly on fructose act to clear the cell structure (cytosol) where sucrose is made of all that built up fructose. This is a circumstance that, in effect, takes the "lock" off the sucrose enzymes & the result is that sucrose can again get acted on so sucrose's fructose is again let out (ie: fruit gets even sweeter). Which brings us back to the trace metal ions. There is evidence one of the key sucrose transformational enzymes is Mg++. It is not that this trace mineral is incorporated into the enzyme itself, but what it does. Previously it was explained how trace mineral "salts" influence a protein structure (peptide) formation to occur. This is the 3 dimensional key refinement that is shaping the event. In other words, the trace mineral ions rule the bridging that might occur between a protein's amino acid (components that define the type of protein) & this specific geneticly expressed protein's intended receptor site. If no docking is possible by that protein "sent" from the gene then no enzyme goes to work. Nigari's Mg++ possibly may make tomatoes sweeter through "over-driving" the interplay of the sugar (sucrose & fructose) regulating enzymes, by making both enzyme's bridging phase go quickly . It may be possible that Nigari's other ++ trace minerals can favorably orientate (twist) the genetic informational strands so that enzyme proteins are produced (expressed) that "hot-wire" some tomato varieties into sugar processing. In this last case, the unknown ++ trace mineral would work by causing more total production of the actual enzymes that act on sucrose & fructose sugars (as opposed to making these enzymes work faster). This would only be possible in geneticly pre-disposed tomato varieties. It would be interesting to hear anyone's suggestions on how much & when to use Nigari.