Rotten veggies

On my long summer list of projects was a rebuilding of our compost area. It's very rickety and has expanded in width so that I can't get the wheelbarrow in the tight space anymore.

Actually, I can. I have to open the gate and lift the wheel barrow over the compost bins. But then I'm stuck. I can lift the empty plastic barrow, but when I fill it, there's no way to get it out. I've taken to filling buckets with compost and carting it out to the garden as needed.

It's a problem, but not one that I fixed yesterday.

I've been reading an Australian blog and coincidentally she wrote about compost yesterday. She makes me want chickens even more than I already do. Her chickens scratch around in the compost and break it down in 4-6 weeks. I'd love that. It takes mine about a year to decompose, but I know that I don't do it properly.

That's the real reason I worked in the heap on rotten veggies yesterday. Our kitchen scraps far outweigh any leaves or grass clippings we have because I keep whittling away at the grass in favour of productive growing space. And I have no excess dirt to cover the smelly veggies. Our new neighbours were unfortunately having to smell my compost bins and it couldn't have been nice. I should make them some some sweet-smelling bread to compensate for other shortcomings they will have to tolerate.

To make a long story short, I emptied the finished side of our bin into the wheelbarrow using another neighbours screen.

One year he made these as Christmas presents for family and friends and just asked me if I wanted one. "No thanks, I'll just use yours once a year" thinking that not everyone needs to own a table with wire mesh. How do you wrap that and put it under a tree anyway?

Now that I've used it, yes I do want one of these for myself. It worked like a charm.

I now have a full barrow of great, moist, lovely compost. Trapped in the tight space between our houses and the bins. Hmm. That maybe wasn't the best idea.

I see big, fat, juicy raspberries for next year, and heathier beans and peas, maybe even a cabbage or two. In the past I would have helped out my flowerbeds, but now my mind is totally focussed on the vegetables.

Screening the good compost didn't actually solve my smelly problem. Then I scooped the fresh scraps into the now-empty bin, reversing the order of the bin in use. I'm happy to say that the smelly stuff is now covered up by almost-done compost from the bottom. Yay! Now they should have no reason to complain or think badly of me.

Now I still want to fix the rickety sidewalls of the bins and add a third bin, but that's a project for another day. I have to find out the best way to do this before launching in. I'm now dealing with my allergic reaction from the molds I stirred up. It's a good day to hang out in the library with a pile of soft hankies, reading clean books about dirty subjects.