Why I Oughta...

Well...things are STARTING to happen in my 3rd, storage bin in our three-bin compost setup.  That third bin (which I put up last year) is a storage bin full of non-mixed material.  It is LOADED with last season's fall leaves as well as where I've been stashing our kitchen scraps.  Most recently, I topped it off with all of the cut-downs from our ornamental grasses. Three things have happened all in the past week or so that have managed to move things along in this bin. First, I applied a top-layer of municipal biosolids.  Both as material to balance the browns (I'm considering biosolids to be a green due to their high nitrogen content) as well as a WEIGHT due to their mass . Then...(on accident), some of the bin caught on fire . (eek). And, now, have a look at the bins.  In particular, look at the level of the storage bin on the left.  The top of it is now BELOW the top of the frame: Look back at this post from a week ago when the biosolids and grass clippi...

We had "false Spring" last week when the temperatures rose to the upper 40's and low 50's, so that (naturally) lead me to getting out in the garden to do a little bit of work.   I went with the whole "leave the leaves" thing last Fall.  Well...sort-of.  I cleaned up A LOT of leaves.  But, wasn't super picky about things and left some leaves whole.  And, blew some other leaves on the lawn, chopped them up with my mulching mower, and blew those chopped-up bits back onto the beds.   I also left ALL the standing material up all Winter.  That 'standing material' includes flower stalks and ornamental grasses.  Thanks to "Fall Dividing", we have ornamental grasses all over the place.  I've read a bunch of the posts/stories about the risks of doing a Spring Cleanup in the garden too soon; leading to some problems with nesting insects.  So, I opted - for now - to mostly leave the leaf litter in place.  But, I figured I should go at...

Two days ago, I posted a photo of a new "Desire Path" in our backyard that appeared during Winter and was a result of walking back-and-forth from our house to our compost bin with our kitchen compost material.   We kept up with composting (thus far) through the cold weather and have been stashing the kitchen scrap material in the new 3rd storage bin.  The one with the "feed me" compost bin sign on it .  I just brought out a load of material and dumped it and thought I should document the state of this bin - pre-mixing this material.  Here, below, is a photo showing the top of the bin.  The bottom 98% of this bin is filled with autumn leaves.  The top 2% that you see here is pretty colorful.  And comprised of vegetables and fruits, cut flowers, egg shells, avocado peels, onion skins, coffee grounds and some spent hydrangea blooms.   The temperatures have STOPPED any decomposition the past 30-or-so-days and kept the colors vibrant.  ...