Compost Wuhoo!

I never thought I would be so excited about garbage, until the day I put up my new compost bin. Hubby and I got it at the free local Master Gardener workshop about compost for a discounted price of $25. Its called the "Earth Machine". We keep the little bucket it came with to hold kitchen waste in our freezer, so it doesn't get smelly, flies or mold if we don't dump it every day. This has been working out very well. The Master Gardeners said the compost heap shouldn't smell bad, although I did notice a little bit of odd smell coming off it so far. But nothing unbearable. We've been stirring it with a big stick at least once a week, (which you can see in the picture, up against the fence) so hopefully it will turn into rich compost faster. So far so good- I already see some dark crumbly stuff at the bottom of the bin.

The picture also shows the raspberry growing along beautifully. It was taken just a few weeks after planting. My mother's friend is a Master Gardener (not the one who did the compost workshop!) and he came over to check out my new house with her. Lucky he did, since he said I had planted the raspberry too low. He dug a bit around the roots and showed me how they were still green, and said that if I left it that way it would eventually rot. But this was only a week or so after I planted it, so he said it was fine to just carefully dig it up, put some more soil in the hole and raise it up. So that's exactly what I did, and the raspberry didn't seem to mind. It is really growing! My brother also came to visit a week or two later, and said he thinks I may even get berries this year at this rate! I hope so!! Come on, little flowers!!