The Deal (edited)

Weather is nice today, unseasonably warm here. Feel badly for the folks in the NE states.

Made a deal the other night with the owner of the air dance studio behind my house. If I rake out his leaves, I can keep them for composting. Seems like we both underestimated just how much there was.

So far I have raked out maybe 1/4 of the leaves at most. That has resulted in over 220 packed gallons of leaves. The compost pit is full again. Once it was filled with leaves I added kitchen waste and diluted ammonia.

By the way, I emptied the pit this morning, also. That gave me about 600 lbs (8-10 cu ft) of compost. Along the way I chopped up still large pieces. Of course, the stuff at the bottom was best composted but that material is now on top of the pile, which helps the rest break down faster.

Going to finish the raking of the dance studio parking lot over a few days. Once done, between my own leaves and those, I'll have enough raw material for several tons of compost. Neither one of us use harsh chemicals, so I know what will be going into the compost. I don't even use that much ammonia. No more than 8 oz at a time, generally and often less.

Which reminds me that I should fertilize the whole yard for the winter.

Update- Did the fertilizing. At least the back yard and bare garden soil. Something I had forgotten to do up to this point. I made the usual ammonia and vinegar mixture, however went really heavy on the vinegar this time! I've mentioned numerous times how notoriously alkaline desert soil is. Now, in early winter, is the time to amend that. With several applications of vinegar in the next few weeks, I can increase the acidity of the soil and it should mellow out enough by spring to not be damaging to the plants. I sprayed the winter weeds heavily. Hoping that results in some control. If not, I will chemically treat the non-garden areas.

If possible, I'd like to get more plastic and cover the rest of the bare areas of soil soon. If not, it's okay. Most of the still bare soil is the sandy part, which needs lots more amending before it will be good for gardening. May have to go with open compost heaps, all leaves, soil, ammonia and vinegar. No kitchen scraps in this case. It will still break down to add organics to the soil. May pile the leaves and run the mulching mower over them while still dry.

Gotta take a nap. Scheduled for work tonight.