Tag Archives: composting

Composting Tip

We picked up our free compost today.  It looks nice and woody - exactly what I was looking for to lower the pH.   

Here’s the tip: When picking up compost in an open-air vehicle, bring some sort of cover.  This is what the front seat looked like when we got home.

We looked far worse.  I couldn’t turn my head to either side or compost would fly in my eyes! 

Finally, a reason NOT to weed!

With all the recent reports of tomato blight, I’m feeling pretty lucky.  A disastrous attempt at composting combined with complete neglect miraculously turned into a healthy tomato plant!  I planted Mexican sunflowers for the first time and didn’t know what to expect.  I hate thinking something’s a weed and then realizing it isn’t after it’s been ripped out of the ground, although I have been known to take this to the extreme.  I once nurtured a weed until it grew to 6 ft. tall!  My neighbor finally said, “Hey, what’s with that big weed out front?”  John just shook his head.  He’d been telling me it was a weed for weeks, probably even months, but those wiry green leaves had convinced me it was a giant Cosmo.  When I eventually gave in to the public scrutiny and mocking, the weed was so rooted that I had to hack it down like a tree and then dig up the roots!  I never fully learned my lesson, and it’s a good thing because this somewhat lazy philosophy is about to pay off big time!  The sunflowers came in beautifully, so I decided to spruce up their space.  I started yanking at the weeds and quickly recognized the yellow flowers of a tomato plant.  After a few moments of sheer confusion, it slowly registered that we had buried a mound of compost just before planting the sunflowers.  We had a hideous pile of compost that was doing absolutely nothing, which I believe technically qualifies it as a complicated pile of garbage, so we made life easier and buried it.  Those months of occasional flies, frustration, and strange smells are about to pay off in tomatoes – maybe even heirlooms!  Who knows what was in that heap?