COMPOST AND LILIES

Some tips on compost from friends and readers.

Mulching the leaves with a mulching mower or a shredder makes the compost work better.

Place leaves in black plastic garbage bags and leave them for two years. When you open the bags, they are pretty well composted. Add to pile.

Put big sticks upright into the compost in the fall and it will not freeze as solidly.

Use a compost mixer to stir up the compost in the fall and it will not freeze.

General agreement that the black composters are not very good.

And thanks for this tip re: my frozen compost. Let the hose trickle for a couple of hours and that should help unfreeze the compost pile. I am going to try this today.

More tips welcome.

LILIES
Even though the spring has been cold and wet so far, I am tempting fate today because I'll start planting today. First the bulbs, then the perennials and finally, next weekend, the annuals. Lastly the vegetable plants.

I have three sorts of bulbs: lilies, acidanthera and crocosmia (also called montbretia). I started all these bulbs inside two weeks ago and all have put out a tiny tip. Six of the lilies will go in big pots and get replanted in the garden in late August. The crocosmia and the acidanthera will mainly go into pots. Left overs go directly into the garden. The acidanthera is a one-off. It will not over winter outside and I have no luck carrying it over inside. I grow it for its scent.

Lilies are a miracle of beauty. The best kind for Thunder Bay are the Asiatics. The oriental lilies do not winter well in the garden although some people dig them up and winter them inside. T&T Seeds offer a hardy trumpet lily which winters well. The martagons are marvelous too but very slow and expensive - maybe next year.

Lilies, like tulips, have to be planted deep, deep. You have to get them down eight inches at least. I'll put some MYKE bulb granules in the planting hole.

However, I have a new worry. Those big black squirrels which had invaded Thunder Bay have sometimes shown up in my yard. I have heard that in southern Ontario, they dig up tulip bulbs and so I worry about lilies. The problem with squirrels in the city is the lack of predators. No wolves, hawks, foxes or coyotes to keep down the numbers as in the wild. So they thrive. In the Toronto area, they are as numerous and pesky as black flies.

Last summer, a squirrel invaded my back shed. I bought a product at Canada Tire called Critter Ridder and sprinkled it everywhere and it worked! Great item to have on hand because it repels skunks too. But watch out Thunder Bay. One of these days, racoons will show up in numbers. They were seen in the city last summer.