Monday 20 April 2009

Compost

Am I the only person to get really excited when the compost you've spent months making is actually ready and you can lift up the compost bin and dig out rich, dark, crumbly compost onto your veg beds? (OK, call me sad but this post is a hymn to compost, so please feel free to skip it if this seems unbearably dull.)
This is what we've been doing this afternoon and I was unfeasibly excited about it as it's the first time we've been able to do this. The bin is quite large and it's been rotting away in there for over a year since we first filled it after moving here (we've got 2 bins - one to add to and one to leave alone). And at our old house we didn't have any beds to spread it on, so we just had to keep adding to the one bin and never actually use the fruits of our labours.
The children were also qute excited and we spent some happy time digging it all out and spreading it. My son particularly enjoyed bashing up any intact pieces of egg shell very enthusiastically. And I just thought 'wow, all this would have gone into land-fill if we hadn't collected it and composted it, and now it's actually useful to add nutrients to the soil, to deter slugs due to all the sharp bits of egg shell (thanks, son!), and to mulch and help prevent weeds!' It seems particularly fitting since it is almost Beltaine, in fact it seemed like a sacred task. You can't get much more earthy and fertile than compost.
Hurrah for compost!

4 comments:

Liz said...

Not the only one, I love using my home made compost :) Egg shells and tea bags haven't really broken down but it all adds a bit of texture!

bethnoir said...

I love the idea of compost, but after the 'getting-stinky-partly-rotted-vegetable-matter-all-over-myself-to-the-point-where-I-had-to-throw-away-everything-I-had-been-wearing' incident at our old house I've been scared to open my compost bin up. You have inspired me though, I shall don wellies, a coat I don't like and do the deed!

Carolyn said...

I am sooo glad that I am not the only one o be so proud of my home made compost!!! I love it....We have 3 bins...2 plastic for processing and one wooden structure for maturing!!!! Now who's obsessed eh?!!

Miss Bliss said...

Oooh clever you! I think we must have done something wrong with the composition of our compost as it's still completely unchanged one year on! Hmmmm. Might have to do a dig-out and turn it. Or get hubby to do it... x