We were treated to a sunny and 65 degree February 16th here in Kentucky. That doesn't happen very often, so of course I just had to get out in the garden. I couldn't plant anything since next week will be back down in the 20's, but I could harvest.
I could harvest compost!
I like to call it harvesting because I consider compost as the most important "crop" that I raise. In the organic garden, composting is probably the single most important activity.
So yesterday afternoon I dug out an open compost pile that has been accumulating for two or three years!
It was down the hill at the bottom of the garden, next to the pallet compost bins.
I was able to fill my old wheelbarrow at least a dozen times, and I didn't even finish. I then dumped the compost in to my newly arranged raised beds.
Since this compost was in an open pile for a number of years, it is not quite as rich and black as the kind you make faster in a tumbler or bin, but it still looks pretty good.
I'm glad it is so aged and more resembles topsoil because I have a couple of new beds. The bed in the picture above received four full wheelbarrow loads to fill in for the lack of soil depth. I don't think I would put that much fresh compost on a single bed. Before planting, I'll run my Mantis Tiller/Cultivator through this bed to mix the new compost with the existing soil.
This particular bed was part of a whole re-design of my raised beds. I will explain what I did in another post real soon. This post is simply to celebrate the glimpse of a coming spring, good fortune with today's weather and a huge batch of compost!
Some of the compost on the top of the heap was still frozen, but once I got a couple feet down it was warm enough even for a couple earthworms. Here is the first worm sighting of the season!
It is amazing what kinds of things excite me. I'm such a garden geek. I hope there are others of you out there that also appreciate worms, good garden compost and dirty hands. If not, I'm sure all of you who are in winter right now appreciate a February day in short sleeves! Today may reach 70 degrees! Maybe I can finish digging out the compost.
If you would like to know more about compost, how to compost see my article on composting. If you want to see pictures of many available compost bins, see my post on compost bins.
Happy mini-spring in winter!
Is there a date on your blog entries besides the URL? Makes it hard to reference WHEN what goes in and such when you can't find a date.
Posted by: Casey | March 22, 2011 at 01:45 AM
Thanks for the heads up Casey. I found out why the dates weren't displaying and fixed it.
Posted by: Marc | April 06, 2011 at 01:36 PM