Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Wonders Of Composting

About five years ago my husband decided to start a compost bin.  It was real simple - he used some pallets from work and made a wooden door on top so he could turn it and add composting materials.  We weren't very diligent with it.  We would deposit the fruit and veggie scraps when we remembered and he would tend to the pile once in a while.  For an anniversary present I bought him some worms from The Worm Ladies of Charlestown when they were at the RI Sheep and Wool Festival (come on - what's more romantic than a bucket of worms?).  After that, the pile just took off.  We used it in the veggie garden and around the plants every year and wow is all I can say.  We have since graduated to a larger compost bin courtesy of Home Depot since the pallets started rotting and it works just as well.

A few weeks ago we transplanted some petunias into the flower boxes in front of the house.  A strange plant started growing in the box that we didn't plant.


Yes - that is a tomato plant.  We suspect the tomato seeds from the compost pile germinated and took off.  So we took it out of the window box and put it in a planter.  We brought it inside over the weekend when the first frost warning happened (no frost by us - mosquitoes still flying around my house are proof of that).  Hubby is hoping to keep them alive in time for them to ripen.  We will see if he is successful.

The moral of the story is - if you can compost, no matter how small, do it.  It doesn't take much effort and the wonders it does for the garden are immense.

3 comments:

Ida said...

How cool! And good for you and your husband.

Carole Knits said...

A compost pile is a great resource and a good way to recycle all those veggie scraps. You've got a nice volunteer tomato plant going there!

flyingjen said...

We had a volunteer zucchini several years ago. That's when I stopped putting big seeds in the compost. I love stirring the pile and seeing all those big fat worms doing their business!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails