Compost...Finally!

I started a compost pile as soon as I moved into this house in 2008. Unfortunately, it didn't produce any useable compost until this year. I opened up the little bottom door and saw some nice brown stuff, but it was covered with lots of unfinished scraps. So my partner and I pushed the whole thing over, keeping the unfinished stuff in the top part with a shovel.

Then we shoveled the finished compost from the bottom into a bucket, and sifted it through a screen my husband stapled to a rectangular wooden frame.

Below you can see a pic of my husband sifting it onto one of the raised beds. Unfortunately we only got enough to sprinkle maybe 1/4 - 1/2 inch on two beds.

Or maybe not so unfortunately! Now a month and a half later, I have more volunteered vegetables growing in the beds then I do ones I planted! The lettuce bed is filled with volunteer tomatoes, and many other unidentified plants. Some of them look like they could be either cucumbers, watermelon or squash but I really have no idea. Here in this picture you can see one tiny lettuce seedling that I purposely planted in the middle surrounded by volunteer tomatoes and the cuke/melon/squash thing:

I didn't realize so many viable seeds would come out of compost. I thought they were supposed to burn up in the heat. I guess maybe my home compost pile doesn't get hot enough? *shrug* I don't know.

I guess I could leave them to grow and find out what they are, but I really don't have enough room. So I think I will end up pulling everything out. (just one more thing to weed ugh) I might keep one of the tomatoes and put it in a large container I have unoccupied just to see what happens.

At least I finally found a source for semi-vegan compost. Well, ok, not really vegan. But it is made partially from recycled veggies and other foods, and only part of it is recycled animal wastes. It is so hard to find any compost in New Jersey at all, nevermind some that isn't entirely cheap quality, scary chicken poop (that will likely burn the plants), I am thrilled to have finally found this product. I searched and searched all last season and didn't find anything, so it is none too soon I'll be getting this. I can definitely tell the soil in my raised beds, which was only topsoil to begin with, is really hurting for some organic matter.

The crazy thing is I have to drive about 45 minutes away to get it. But the good news is it is not too far from the Rutherford Pancake House, which I've been dying to go to for the longest time. So at least we can make a nice trip of it and get a good stack of vegan pancakes! I called ahead to make sure the nursery listed on the website carries it, and even the employee I spoke to raved about what a great product it is. We're going to head there Saturday morning. Then Sunday I'll be able to mix it into the planting holes of all the tomatoes and peppers, then top dress the rest of the beds.

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!!