Contestants, Start Your Engines...

I have been composting kitchen and yard materials for a few years now.  Some may remember that I had an outdoor open bin constructed at my parent's house to enable me to take my big kitchen scraps to a large container.

While I love to garden, I am afraid of earthworms and other wormlike creatures.  This list includes:
redworms, grubs, tomato hornworms, caterpillars, milipedes...you get the idea.  In preparing this post, I couldn't even look at the wikipedia photos without getting the willies. 

So, I put on my big girl panties and got out into the bins to begin sorting materials. I didn't have time to cover the pile before the winter snow so there was less decomp over the winter than I would have liked.

Fall 2010 leaves still in the bin.

After the first sort, here is the accumulation of "black gold". It's hard to see with the photo, but this is more than 3' of compost.  After a second shirt to remove the remaining large items, it will be ready to be spread into the garden and lawn...so exciting.

Black Gold

Now, I just need to put together the plating schematic, clean and scour the pots, prep the soil, I'm getting tired listing it all.

So far, we are looking at our usual heirloom tomatoes (Mortgage Lifters and Granny Smith among them), string beans and peppers.  This year, mesclin mix, lettuce, and spinich will be added along with organic fingerling potatoes.  Bring on the planting weather!! ~ksp

I love spring, like Cubs fans, I am eternally hopeful.