Compost, Glorious Compost

Evening Gardens Love Compost

I have a love hate relationship with compost. It all began when I was just an itty-bitty, probably two or three years old. There was something magical about the compost pile... old egg shells, rotten vegetables that were there one day and gone the next, worms, and even the occasional squash plant on steroids - or, well, compost. It drew me in for a closer look. One evening I was drawn in a little too far, wanted to experience it a little too closely, and my brother found me in the middle of the pile with a half-composted orange peel hanging from my mouth. Needless to say, I was sicker than worth remembering that night.

Fast forward a few years... the memories of after-dinner clean ups, pink skies, maybe a mosquito or two... then -horrors!- the command, "Anna, go dump the compost". I would approach that container of kitchen waste (usually an old Schwan's Ice Cream bucket), and be utterly nauseated by the smell. Subconscious memories of my days as a compost eater would return with a vengeance and threaten to take hold again. But chores must be done, no matter how challenging. There was no excuse, and I would venture way out back to the pile only to be greeted with more of that smell. I vowed never to compost when I was a grown up.

Fast forward to adulthood. Living in various locales where composting wasn't really an option made me realize how wasteful it was to not. I slowly began considering the merits of the pile, despite the smell, and a quiet longing to compost began to take hold. When we finally arrived at this point in life, where such a thing is an option, I find compost almost magical again. No worries - I don't intend to dive in, but in a sense I am eating it once more. That lovely black dirt is slowly substituting for the local rocky "soil", and my vegetables love it. We can mix it up with rotted manure and plant our trees there - to great success. I can sprinkle it in the "dog spots" in the grass, throw down some seed and there we go! It has a multitude of uses for feeding our plants, and ultimately our family... now I just wish I had more!

My son Jaegar and a new cherry tree to be planted in... you guessed it!