The compost update
It’s been cold and rainy here lately, so I haven’t been spending much time out in the garden. I haven’t even had a chance to go outside and take a picture of my new compost bin that Kevin (finally) built for me. Not only do I now have one compost bin — I have two!
We had a dismal yard sale last Saturday (which also cut into my gardening time). We made all of $20. But we got rid of a bunch of stuff (most of it at Goodwill on Sunday morning). And we gave away some slate tiles we had on the turtle tank to a guy who stopped by. As he was picking them up, Kevin was working on the compost bin. And he offered us one. 
It’s one of those big round black plastic jobbies. I can’t remember the name right now. But it makes me so happy to see it next to my homemade one (2×4s and hardware cloth) behind the garage. I love it back there. I can’t explain why the smell of old leaves and decomposing vegetable matter makes me so happy and peaceful. But it does. Maybe because it’s the only private, quite, kid-free space in my little universe at the moment.
I also have a compost sifter to show off. It was my Mother’s Day present — the Compost Sifter 6000 is what Kevin calls it. I do have a picture of that. Somewhere. (I’m blogging from Kevin’s computer at the moment, I wonder if it’s on here?)
Here we go:
It is an awesome compost screen. I’ve been missing having one since I left mine in North Carolina (in 1999).
So now I’m set up with 2 compost bins (one to turn, one to add to), with the possibility of 3 bins in the future (the one Kevin made is expandable) an a compost screen. Lovely.
The garden looks like it’s doing well. The spinach and beets are growing. Everything I planted from transplants (from the nursery) look good, even through the cool weather lately. Somehow it’s more satisfying to see plants grow that I started from seed myself. Which has inspired me to take my Square Foot Gardening book and figure out the planting dates for everything I want to grow this fall and next spring based on the first and last frost dates.
Am I a gardening geek yet? I love this stuff. It makes me happy. And with 2 little kids and not a whole lot of time to myself, I need something to absorb myself in.
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