Cultivating is the act of breaking up the surface of the soil so there is no tension between the soil and water. If you leave the surface undisturbed it will become a smooth, hard surface that the water will run right off. What a waste of effort and water. By cultivating you will rough up the surface and allow the water to penetrate the soil to the roots where it will do the most good, not in the paths encouraging weeds to grow. Now that the rains have arrived, be sure it goes where it will do the most good.

While you are cultivating, you can be checking out what needs to be deadheaded (the removal of spent flowers) or making plans on just what needs to be staked next year. If you are in your vegetable plot you can note what is being eaten by the slugs and what needs to be harvested and what will be absolutely perfect for tonight's dinner.

Or, you can be thinking about how to fund your kids college education. Make the most of your time. Many puzzling thoughts can be worked out in the garden.

The compost pile is so successful this year that I am amazed and astounded. I just talked to one gardener who has followed the directions for composting from the Cooperative Extension (1-800-478-5824). The flier is titled "The Compost Heap in Alaska," HGA-01022, and is free. If you ever get up to Soldotna you will be fascinated by the racks of information on all things Alaskan that is available to us. We do not take advantage of this service (could be because it is in Soldotna, hmmm). Please call them for directions, it is sort of weird to find. My only concern with their compost composition is the addition of commercial fertilizer. Why? The point (for me) of compost is the organic-ness of it. I say skip the commercial fertilizer.

I have written about my compost bins before in this column. I will continue to write about it because each and every one of you should have an active compost at this very moment.

Mine is a three part structure, each part a three-foot square made from rough-cut lumber. Once a week I start with a layer of grass clippings that have no commercial fertilizer or weed-and-feed or whatever it is that those who are into grass for looks put on it to make it grow so they can mow (any questions on how I feel about that?). Then I put in the contents of the bucket from under the kitchen sink with all the non-meat scraps from the week. Then I add a wheelbarrow of aged or fresh manure then a few shovelfulls of garden soil. Then I make another layer but the bucket of scraps is all gone so I'll put in the carcasses of up to three salmon instead. I'll repeat this until the grass is all gone. The pile will be about three feet deep. If the grass clippings are very dry I will water the layers as I build them. Then I cover the whole thing with a piece of black plastic. The Extension suggests clear plastic which makes more sense. Then, in about three days, I take a regular shovel (a spade is too small) and turn the whole thing over into the next bin. The pile will already have reduced itself to almost half so don't be daunted. It will be steamy hot and smell really quite good. Two or three days later I will turn it again. Back and forth until the pile hasn't any identifiable pieces. Then I shovel all the "finished" compost into a big pile and it seems to decompose even more and looks like what you see in pictures of "black gold." You can have finished compost in two weeks here in the Far North. So there.

An excellent use of grass clippings is to let them lay on your lawn. Cut often and they will not look brown. They will return nutrients to the lawn and will, in effect, be feeding it, thus eliminating the need for commercial lawn fertilizers. To get enough clippings for your compost just rake (or bag) what you need from one section at a time, rotating sections so your lawn will continue to be nourished as well as your compost pile.

In all of my years with various composting configurations, I have yet to have a bear bother anything. But when I just bury a salmon carcass in the beds of the garden whatever the current dog is will, without fail, dig it up. A salmon carcass in the compost pile is completely gone in five days. Completely.

This is the first year at this location that I have been able to compost all the really big garden refuse. We have established a composting area that is about four feet wide and fifteen feet long. This is not as organized as the bins. I just throw the garden refuse in there, add manure and more grass clippings and run the rototiller through it all. I would really like a shredder for the big pieces such as the stalks of cauliflower and broccoli. As it is I chop it up with a hatchet.

Burn any weeds that are loaded with seeds or flower stalks that are laden with aphids (for me that would be the delphiniums). You cannot count on the pile getting hot enough to kill the seeds and pests.

I really like the idea of finished compost in two weeks but it takes a good deal of physical labor. If you would rather do anything else with your time just keep adding to the pile and eventually, like next year, you will have finished compost. What an excellent way to dispose of your garden waste.