Compost Goodness

Years ago during summers my dad had a garden, I remember him adding food scraps to the compost heap in the backyard. In fact, he even meticulously cut up the scraps into smaller sizes so that they would break down quicker. At the time I rolled my eyes at his ridiculousness. Now I'm a compost nerd myself, adding, stirring, watching. And I love to see how many worms we have. Who would have thought? Here's a picture of my dad, "Papa" with Lily.

We do have a compost bin in the backyard which Greg made for me a few years ago out of some old pallets the previous owners left. It's a great size, plus I love that he made it using materials that were already there. However we're constantly adding scraps and debris to it, especially in the summer, so I never really give it enough time to turn into usable compost for the garden. Plus, this summer it became a potato patch and there was no way I was letting those go to waste.

I know they make some really handy composting machines that close and spin and turn the scraps to compost much quicker, but that would involve me spending lots of money which I'd rather spend on seeds and plants and, oh books, of course.

A few weeks ago we found some more discarded pallets and grabbed them so we could eventually make a second compost bin. That way one could be "cooking" and turning into that black gold while I add stuff to the other one. In the meantime I buy compost from Cedar Grove to top-dress my vegetables and flowers. Lily is fascinated with the bags of compost, so much so that she decided to taste some. Annette from www.sustainableeats.com said there is an old saying that says you need to eat a peck of dirt before you die to keep healthy. Well, Lily is definitley one healthy kid, then.

She also prefers to "help" put the compost on the plants by smothering it on the leaves. I'm not too sure how the zucchini feel about that, but Lily sure had fun with it.