Au Compost !

A few days ago I mentioned that I was working in the compost pile; composting yard waste and kitchen scraps is yet another aspect of our country life. And what good is mucking around in the muck without photographic evidence of same? Well, there are no photos of me in there, but I do have some of the actual composting bin.

The compost bin in 2004.

I built this "bin" back in 2004 with a bunch of cinder blocks that were lying around not earning their keep. It's out behind the garden shed and not visible from elsewhere in the yard. I was so happy with it that I built another right next to it so we could have two. Now, four years later, those cinder blocks have a nice patina of green moss on them.

The compost bin in 2008.

I didn't empty the compost pile last year because we had made the mistake of putting some stuff in that was too big to compost quickly. This year, I dug the compost out of the left-side bin by removing the top layer of stuff that wasn't ready, then digging down into the good stuff. It was a little over a foot deep, and full of roots that I had to break through. I put about eight wheelbarrows full into the vegetable garden. It'll sit over winter and next spring it'll get tilled in.

I then put in a good layer of fallen apples into the empty bin and covered them with some of the the top layer that I had removed earlier. I didn't work on the right-side bin yet. That stuff is very big and will likely be burned over the next few weeks. The good compost in the bottom will then go onto the garden as well.