YES!

Washingtonians (coastal Washingtonians, at least) have plenty of passive-aggressive and more-PC-than-Thou tendencies, but usually it seems more like an expression of "I am MOST Holy!" and less like the East-Coast-obnoxious: "I can make you do things, naah-naah-nee-naah-naah".

Edited to say: More like "passive-sanctimonious" than "passive-aggressive". After all, you can't be "aggressive" and "MOST PC".

Funny: it became non-PC for Fundamentalists to thrust their values on everyone else, but it was always considered PC to thrust PC values on everyone else. Seems like that ought to be a double-standard by SOMEONE'S standards.

Shadegardener said:Dogs - are you allowed to have berms in your yard? You could "innocently" be creating a landscape feature that will ultimately be topped with compost or good soil for planting a bed.
Rick -

I don't know. I'll have to look into it. Fortunately, so far our HOA had been fairly lenient with its homeowners, so even if there are rules against things like that (which I don't remember there being), they may still allow it.

My long-term plan includes bribing other park residents with free seedlings and maybe flowering plants in soda-bottle-pots.

Be very popular before asking permission.

Mental note: Grow extra plants for bribes. Great idea.

They (HOAs) have the power.

But we have plants!

Rick - you are full of the one-liners!

And sneaky ways to get around dumb rules.

Thank you both!

Now I can go home proud as Punch!

Sorry to change the subject (because I am enjoying the road we've headed down) -
Was having a discussion about the benefits of banana peels on another site and it looks like they have more nutrient value than I was lead to believe. Since my soil is deficient in potassium and manganese, would it make sense to add the peels to the soil (instead of giving all of the peels to my appreciative worms), doing like a spot composting thing?

Since potassium and manganese are minerals, not organics that could decompose, wouldn't they go through your worms like grass through a goose, or be incorporated into the worms?

Either way, if you add your vermicompost and worms to your beds, wouldnt the minerals get there eventually anyway?

Ir are you worried that they are soluble enough to leach out of the vermicompost and get lost? Some potassium compounds are very soluble, but I forget how easily it moves out of soil. Phosphate or some other ion might immobilize it.

P.S. My spell-checker corrects "vermicompost" to "overoptimistic".

"vermicompost" to "overoptimitic" -
DH goes through about 6 bananas per week. I do try to spread around the vermicompost to other garden beds. The extra banana peels could go into my veggie bed - the one that I did have tested.

Its amazing how spell checkers dont know how to spell! I remember a story years ago about an elderly couple who would eat a banana every day for its health benefits, and then ritualistic go out and bury the banana peel next to their favorite rose in the garden.

(They should have just eaten the banana peel, and water the roses with epsom salts.)

Golly - has anyone ever eaten a banana peel? Sure would get the daily requirement for fiber.

Maybe if you ran them through the dehydrator and made crackers out of them?

Come to think of it, I dont think even gorillas eat the peels.



Photo. courtesy of San Diego Zoo. Albert.

RickCorey said:P.S. My spell-checker corrects "vermicompost" to "overoptimistic".

That's great! My spellchecker is always changing my words...and it changes "our" to "or" and "or" to "our" pretty much without fail. It *never* knows which one I mean to use.


I liked your inquisitive question/information about potassium and manganese going through the soil. I wish I had an answer to it...I'm sure some of the minerals are used by the worms, but I'll bet that some of them stay in the soil (or are added back to it with the 'black gold' we love our wormies for)!

Heard a tip from another fellow ATP gardener - pureeing banana peels with water and adding to soil. Hmmmm...

Cindy, that sounds like a great way to add potassium back to the soil.

I think I'll pass on the banana peel crackers. :)
I wonder how quickly potassium is used up. Hmmm - may have to look that up. I am planning on applying some potassium sulfate as part of my soil remineralization in a couple more months. But I do have lots of other garden beds that I can use pureed banana peels on.

>> I wonder how quickly potassium is used up

Doesn't that depend on what you're growing? As in "heavy feeders" vs "light feeders" and how closely you space your plants?