Saturday, March 8, 2008

Ah Compost - How do I love thee?

More magic in the garden. Isn't it fantastic that a big ole pile of this....can turn into this?How beautiful is that? W called to me that there was some "good dirt" in the bottom of the first bin. "Yes, it is compost", I said, wondering to myself how he could have forgotten how amazing compost is, and was about to launch into a speech about the wonder that is compost, when he said, "No, I mean it is really good, no big bits, all composted. Come and see." Well, you don't have to ask me twice to come see. He was right, it was our best compost yet. Fine, crumbly, dark, yet with no hint of odour de rotting stuff. :-) Two bins down, four more to go. I think we will actually have enough for all our veg. beds.
Yesterday was such a good day. I spent most of the day out in the garden, and the boys joined me for the afternoon, to empty two of the compost bins and help out. They've come up with a plan to get the bins organized again so that we have two empty and the rest in various stages of decomposition. One of the herb/blueberry borders is tidied, and they started to make some little wattle dividers between the sections of herbs in one of the borders. When we get more prunings off our walnut tree they can really go to it.

Later that night, when E was getting ready for bed, I complimented him on his hard work.

Me : Won't Dad be surprised by the amount of work you got done, emptying the
compost bins is quite a big job, but you were a really big help.

E: Surprised? He won't be surprised, he'll be stoundified!

Me: (confused look) Stoundified?

E: Yes, stoundified.

Me: Excellent word, is that a cross between astounded and stupified?

E: Oh, astounded, that is what I meant.

Me : I like stoundified better. I'm going to write it down. :-)

When I told S later he decided that he liked stoundified better too. I can see that becoming our new family word. How cool it would be to be stoundified on a regular basis.

And looky here! You know it is a good day when you get to get your knees dirty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You must be substantially "drier" up in your neck of the woods because we are still wallowing in mud.
I am SO glad I am not the only person who gets dirty doing yardwork. I have a neighbour who doesn't appear to sweat, does HARD work in white shorts & a halter top & the 40 lbs of hairspray in her hair actually does manage to keep her looking like a stepford wife despite ANYTHING and everything she does in the yard.
I, on the other hand, even find gloves too restricting (unless thorns are involved) so I am ALWAYS in need of a good scrub when I come back inside!
Rebecca :)

Heather said...

Some parts of the yard are drier, the side where your, I mean, my rhodos are is quite wet still. ;-)
I get seriously dirty when I garden at this time of year, not so bad once everything is organized and planted, and I am just doing upkeep. In another month when I start wearing shorts my knees will be sort of permanently embedded with dirt and I will have to scrub them each night.
I used to not like to wear garden gloves but now I have found a kind that I actually manage to keep on (usually) because they are fairly comfortable.

Samantha said...

Another compost lover here!

It's so magical - food becoming beautiful dirt! We all gather around the compost when it's time to spread it around the gardens.

Another amazing thing about compost is the huge worms it creates! What wonderful little creatures our friends, the worms, are :-)