My beautiful garbage

I garden by the moon.  Not that I know that it really helps, but it helps me stay organized.  I know which days I am planting green leafy veggies, which days are designated for root veggies, and which days are not set for planting.  Notice I didn't designate any day for "rest."  There are plenty of other garden chores that need to be done.  On the days that aren't on my calendar for planting, I dig new beds, plan for upcoming garden chores, and ready the ingredients for nourishing my new plants.
This weekend was on the calendar for enlarging my backyard garden (110 more square feet to be exact).  I spent most of my time digging out the sod, hauling the compost up the hill, and digging it into the earth.  Luckily, I had at least one nice sunny, but relatively cool day to work with.  Just as I dug in the last square of rich compost, and wiped my brow, my neighbor leaned over the fence to offer up his tiller...if I ever needed it.  Uh, geez...I just spent about 10 hours digging by hand, but thanks!
So, today, one of my least favorite, but  also quite fascinating chores.  I turned my compost.  I have a big black plastic compost bin in the backyard that we toss in all sorts of goodies that would have otherwise ended up in a trash heap.  My compost style is toss it and forget it.  At least until one of the 3 times a year come up that I turn it.  Most of the time, I literally toss in our food scraps, eggshells, and plant clippings.  I add in a scoop of shredded leaves to cover the food and make sure it gets water and air.  Otherwise, I wait until the bin is near full and then I get to work.  It only takes about an hour.  I lift the bottomless bin off the whole mess and move it to a new spot.  Then, I move all the non-rotted materials back into the moved bin.  About halfway down, things change from well recognized pieces of vegetables and bread to a mushy mass of half-broken down sludge (not my favorite part!).  Then, miraculously, I get to a rich, dark brown layer that is crumbly and earthy.  Black gold.  All those mashed up scraps that would have otherwise just added to our family's trash have been turned into something wonderful for my garden.  I am always amazed at just how much black gold I find at the bottom.  As I stir it and crumble it between my fingers, I add it into a trash bin set aside for carrying finished compost.  Today, I filled the bin almost all the way full again and still had a whole trash bin full of the good finished stuff.  Enough to cover the old half of my veggie garden!  I let it sit for another week or two until the last of the bits are consumed by the worms that I leave in the bin and then it goes right into the earth again.

And if my beautiful trash isn't enough to interest you, here is what else is happening in my garden.  Almost all my salad blends are now out and growing, along with several frost hardy romaines.  By next week, tough love will have me out there thinning and leaving my lots of yummy micro greens to add to my salad.  I had radishes, carrots, beets, and salad turnips sprouting this morning that weren't there last night.  My onion plants appear to have transplanted well...although I may be moving them to a more side location of the garden next week.  No more sprouts in the basement have dampened off...a light layer of cornmeal sprinkled over the seed mix to protect it.  All my broccoli and cauliflower have sprouted, along with a few more eggplants I had almost given up on.

Next up...getting potato grow bags ready and planting a few more root veggies.  I have a couple of tomatoes to "restart" after the damping off disappointment of last week, and a bit of the rows of salad blends that a pesky digger disturbed.  Then, it's planning where all the vines and bush veggies of summer will go to allow for sunlight to reach all of them equally.  Never a dull moment when the season starts!