compost ramblings

while many other maples have finished dropping their leaves, down at the pub is one lone tree which has only just begun .. consequently, as mentioned earlier, joe and i have our work cut out for us .. have had for the past few weeks, actually .. if nothing else goes into the wheelbarrow to take to the garden, a rake and broom are essential at this time of year .. 5' tall, 5' across circular wire bins are set up in each of the gardens i look after, all stuffed to the gills primarily with maple leaves .. many attempting to escape through the holes in the bins .. ah, well, in a year or two there will be lovely, workable material to spread among the perennials and shrubs ..


that's the thing i love about composting .. in just a matter of time kitchen scraps, leaves, garden debris, all work together and turn into beautiful, dark, crumbly compost .. magic .. living on a small island, it can be a bit of a chore to get bags or yards of manure or sea soil barged over to satisfy the gardener's lust for mulch .. however, the longer one lives and gardens here, the more apt one is to create one's own "manure," or compost .. easier, by far, than lugging 20kg bags ..

and, for every composter, there is a reason .. as you might well imagine, a large volume of compostable waste comes from a pub kitchen .. on a busy summer's day that kitchen can pump out four five-gallon buckets to be carried up the ramp to the composters .. maybe more .. so, in order to put that waste to use the owners of the pub have recently invested in five rolling composters .. my mission, as gardener, is to have beautiful, usable compost in "just four to six weeks," as the brochure implies, simply by filling and rolling .. well, fortunately, at least i have the winter to work out the kinks .. i'm already counting week 10 (or is it 11), and still no ready, usable compost .. obviously, the key is to get the right proportions of wet and dry .. so far, we're heavy on the wet side of things .. to compensate, i can see swinging way over to being heavy on the dry .. however, i have faith, and know that experience and practice will eventually win out and we will be rolling those composters across the lawn and mulching all trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and annuals to within an inch of their lives .. every four to six weeks ..