My DH got a lawn business to drop off this load of grass clippings Saturday. It is already looking like a big ol' mess, but I have been hauling wheelbarrow loads full back to the compost pile. Last year's compost pile has finally been 'sifted' and moved, and now with this mountain of grass clippings, I can mix it in with the bags and bags of leaves I acquired last fall to make a perfect mixture of compostable fun!
I really do enjoy moving my compost, layering it, watering it, using it. I have been known to chortle and rub my hands as I look at my lovely pile of stuff. Why does this make me so happy? Most people look at grass clippings and leaves as something to send off to the dump - I see 'black gold' ! The fact that the materials are free and the end result is so valuable appeals to my thrifty side. It just takes some time, water, and tending and voila! Free compost, great for planting new plants, prepping a garden bed, enriching an existing perennial bed.. good for just about anything, really! Ok, maybe an exaggeration, but not much of one.
My compost pile is not in the ideal spot, it is under some tall Austrian pines at the back of our yard. I don't keep it watered as I could, and it is a slow, cool pile, but one thing about compost, it eventually happens whether you do everything perfectly or not. You can see in this picture the stuff on the right is last year's pile, turned from the left side, and the growing pile of grass clippings and leaves on the left.
Now if my back will just hold out while I get all this stuff layered in.........
2 comments:
As I threw out clippings from plants today, I told my husband for the umpteenth time that we need to be composting! We don't have a good place to have it right now, but that's one of my goals for this summer - to get going on this!!
I agree -- composting is one of the best things we should be doing with our waste. But, I am a lazy gardener so I compost like Margot Rochester says in her book "Earthly Delights." She says she just tucks kitchen debris under the mulch. She calls her compost pile -- compost pile-ettes and she has them all over her yard. I also do that and it is amazing how much better my soil has become. Of course, I don't have nearly enough compost. Wish I was as industrous as you and had loads of it!
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