compost!

These are my compost bins. It was a beautiful day for garden work, so today I opened up the bins and brought fresh compost to my squash bed. I used a pitch fork to shovel the uncomposted material from the top of one bin into the other bin. Then I shoveled the rich compost into a wheel barrow and brought 2 full barrows to my vegetable garden. I then moved all of the uncomposted material from the full bin into the newly emptied bin. At the bottom of this second bin is probably 3 barrows full of beautiful compost that I will use in a couple of weeks on my new tomato area.

My soil test results last year said I did not need any more compost in most of my garden. But it seems to me that squashes and pumpkins always prefer richer soil. Also, I will be starting a new tomato area next to the house where I have never amended the soil. I'm sure it will benefit from the rich compost.

My compost is mostly made from garden waste and leaves. I collect a very small amount of household vegetable waste occasionally that I add to the bins. Of course, there's the annual Halloween pumpkins that end up in the bins. Even with all this beautiful compost (all that my garden needs), still more than half of my garden waste goes to the local waste pick up.

topic: soil
my bins and systems for composting compost

compost tumbler assembly

A couple weeks ago I received a wonderful delivery in the mail - a compost tumbler. I'm reviewing this product for World's Best Organic Tumbler.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the assembly was a family project. Skippy supervised and then took a nap. I took the photos. And hubby and son did all the work. (A good deal for me!)

This project took "us" 1 hour. (I noticed Carol at May Dreams Gardens assembled her's in 30 min - maybe all the extra supervision and photos wasn't all that helpful...) We read and re-read instructions. And some serious muscle power was required. But after it was done, we felt very accomplished (Skippy was well rested).

I now need to read the instructions on how to use the tumbler. In the meantime, I'm just throwing my kitchen scraps into it. I figure I'll use it to make compost from my kitchen scraps and use my open bins (which are falling apart) for my yard waste.

My opinion so far: I think it looks FANTASTIC in my back yard! Very sturdy. I like the way it keeps the squirrels out of my kitchen waste. And its very easy to use. I like the way it opens and closes and tumbles.

I did read that you should fill it up all at once for best results. I'm not doing this because I don't have all my kitchen scraps available all at once. But so far, so good. Once its full, I'll let it sit and its only supposed to take a few weeks to make compost.




my bins and systems for composting compost

ups delivery - two big boxes!

The other day I got an email from Chris at Organic Compost Tumbler. "You may have seen our tumbler reviewed on other blogs, .... so, do you want one?" Wow! Do I ever! How fun to review a garden product.

The boxes arrived. Two big ones. Last weekend we assembled it. I'll post the photos soon.

In the meantime, here's Carol's review of this compost tumbler at May Dreams Gardens.

And here's a quote from the tumbler seller's site "...in Winter you can move it and put it by your back door so you do not have a long trek to recycle your kitchen scraps in your composter, and lets face, it, the easier it is to get the scraps to the composter, the higher likelihood that you'll do it, even on those really cold days." Well, I have this problem even in the summer. And the site says it makes "finished compost in as little as 2 weeks". Wow! I'm looking forward to trying out this tumbler.

My thought is I'll put my kitchen waste in this new tumbler for quick high quality compost and continue to use my big old bins (which are falling apart now) for composting leaves and large garden waste.

my bins and systems for composting compost

Compost bins

These are my compost bins. The resident carpenter built them for me many years ago. Two side-by-side units with removable fronts. Each year I empty one two-year aged bin-full of compost into the garden. I turn the one-year-old contents of the other bin over into the empty bin so the half-done compost gets mixed and turned over. They work great. This year some potatoes I threw into the front bin are growing a garden of their own. I wonder if I will get new potatoes from them?

Solanum tuberosum
my bins and systems for composting compost

compost surprise

I found these in the compost bins this week. Maybe halloween pumpkins? Thanksgiving butternut squash? Gourds? I'll try to find a sunny spot for these volunteers and transplant them soon.


Pumpkin -- Cucurbitaceae spp.
my bins and systems for composting compost

not much green is left

Its a dark, wet November day. Yesterday I moved all my lettuce plants together into one little patch. The patch has several types of lettuce, endive, a bit of dill and some chard. Now I have less to cover up on cold nights. Yesterday I also cleaned out my remaining tender garden plants. The compost bin is quite full with memories of the summer season.

Lactuca sativa
my bins and systems for composting compost