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Soil, Compost & Mulch

What is that little boy doing to my compost pile... oh wait....

13 years ago

I figure there are few people in the world who will appreciate this story. Most of them are on this forum.

As I've said before, my yard is next to the town cemetery. The East fence of my yard (where my compost bins are) is the West fence of the cemetery. My garden beds are only about 15 feet from my bins.

Today I took my lunch break from work and drove home to water the cucumbers (I live less than a mile from where I work so that is nice). I must have been very quiet because I noticed a young family in the cemetery and they obviously didn't notice me. I'm used to visitors over there while I'm in my garden and usually I keep to myself and they keep to themselves. But today I noticed mom and her son (about 3 years old) walking over to the fence by my compost bin. I watched them and heard mom telling dad "It's okay, it is someone's back yard. Nobody is going to see him."

I didn't actually see anything because the bins were in the way but I'm pretty sure the little boy was having a bathroom emergency and needed to, well... um,... water my compost pile for me.

At first I thought "lady, what are you thinking" and then I had one of those lightbulb moments and thought "lady, make sure he gets it on the compost pile."

They never saw me standing there and I let them walk away without saying a word to them.

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Comments (5)

nutsaboutflowers
13 years ago
My mother-in-law used to let our nephew go outside to the front step and piddle overboard into her flower garden. I thought it was a bit weird, considering the proper bathroom was closer when you were already in the house.

I guess she was smarter than I thought.

BTW I'm surprised you were able to keep from laughing. Maybe you could post a little sign, LOL.
GawdinFever
13 years ago
LOL

The sign is a good idea!!
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Another variant: passion ennobles; addiction degrades. My gardening makes the world more beautiful and, I think, more healthy, as I garden organically and work by enriching the soil, and grow frugal varieties that don't consume a lot of precious water. I also think there's a difference between buying a plant that has a good chance of bringing me happiness for the rest of my life, and money paid for some pleasure that lasts an hour. And then there's the propagation, the diffusion of that rose and that happiness. I'm a confirmed tightwad, and all these considerations matter to me. Nice roses, Jerome! Melissa
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Thanks All! By this morning, I was feeling much better after receiving your sympathic shoulders & comments! Yep, they got rules about curtains (must be showing only white to the outside), and Yep, I do live in the Country - about 1 hr past the 'burbs - takes 45 min to get anywhere - but when we moved here 9 yrs ago from 40th St & 2nd Ave Manhattan, w/2 very very busy self-employeds (I worked 70 hrs/wk then), we figured new construction townhouse would be better than an older home w/roof & furnace probs - of course, the new constrx (& affordable px) came w/a HOA. Oh well, at least I feel better now thanks to y'all! All the Best, Tree
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You can add dirt, but not very much. The first short cut everyone new to composting does is try to add dirt instead of browns. There is plenty of it and it's free, but it will slow your bin way down if you goal is to heat up and speed up. I noticed there are a few parks in my area with pines that drop needles and there are piles of leaves in certain other parks. If you collect wood pieces they have to be small pieces or else it they won't break down. I also made each mistake. I put in wood clips I found from tree trimming that were too big. Then I discovered bagged browns, but now my new thing is I go to the grocery store and I get brown paper bags. I grind them up in a big paper shearer, and I get free browns. But, I would have gotten mad and quit composting if I had not found bagged browns 20 years ago.
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I also do cold pile composting. If we just leave a pile, it takes about a year to break down. When my husband turns the pile twice a year (spring & fall) the compost breaks down quite rapidly - in a matter of weeks sometimes. Either way, you'll end up with lovely compost. For the past 4 years, I've kept a large plastic garbage can, lined with a heavy duty plastic bag, in the basement. I add all my kitchen vegetable waste to it along with paper from our paper shredder and sawdust from my husband's workshop. In the spring we just wheel it out to the compost pile, dump it in and fork some compost over it. In no time at all it is completely composted. Since I only use fruit & vegetable waste and coffee grounds, there is never an odor from the can in the basement, and I don't have to hike through the snow to get to the compost pile. This year we added a couple shovel-fulls of earthworm-filled compost to the inside container - a sort of vermiculture experiment. I'll let you know how it turns out. So far the worms seem very happy when I give them their daily coffee ground & apple core meals!
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Lloyd
13 years ago
Sometimes life imitates art.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:283728}}
toxcrusadr
13 years ago
If you haven't seen it already, search this forum for "peeing on the compost" for a bemusing and amusing thread on this topic.

I can only say that in spring, after many long cold nights where it's dark from dinner till bedtime, the lawn around our deck is a very vigorous deep green.

Lloyd: Har!
toxcrusadr
13 years ago
Here it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: To Pee or Not To Pee

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