This couple met here on this forum, formerly Garden Web, and were later married in the Interbay P-Patch. Several of us here sent gifts of compost---per their request. I sent a box of seaweed. Julia Child sent banana peels.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/08/13/will-you-mulch-me

https://doriegreenspan.com/old_site/of-compost-and-weddings-trash-beautiful-trash/

I always thought it was pea patch as well :-) But they are named for Picardo Farms, the original owner of the property in my first photo. They donated the use of their land in 1970 at the time of the first Boeing Bust (remember the famous billboard - "will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?") and then sold it to the city in 1973.

There is currently a 2+ year wait for p-patch spaces.

Thanks for your Washington compliments, annpat. We think it is pretty special too :-) But we don't like to brag about it too much as we are being inundated with new arrivals from just about everywhere! A good 90% of my garden design clients are those who have just recently moved here from somewhere else.

And I'll stake our seaweed against Maine's any day !! 😁

You folks have made my back sore from just reading the extent of your composting efforts. I thought sure I'd found a lazy comrade in lazy_dirt then she suggested making liquid fertilizer from fish. NO THANK YOU,I'll resort to store bought before going that route. As a kid on the farm,I trapped furbearers and an old trapper told me about his "secret"lure. I filled a gallon jar with Bluegill and sealed it with a piece of tire innertube. The gallon of fish reduced to about 1/2 pint liquid and rubber

swelled. The smell of road killed Armadillos and Skunks under Tx sun is Lilacs by compairson. While transfering it to a smaller container to fit in my gear bag,the odor got the best of me and I obandoned the project. I wish that could have been the end of it but the worst was still to come. Water from our spring fed well stayed cold year around and it was mid-winter at the time. Mom didn't alow me in the house until I scrubbed that mess off my body and clothes outdoors in the yard.

There are 78 allotments on my site. They measure 20’ x 50’. I’ve had mine for around thirty years.There are 28 sites in town and mine’s one of the smaller ones.

July

Compost corner. I’ve since got a new barrow and given away one of the green bins.

.

That's much larger than I imagined, floral---20 x 50. 28 sites with about 78 plots each? That's astonishing to me. After years of seeing Gardengal on here, I began to suspect that she and my childhood friend from Maine might travel in the same Washington state circles. And they do! That same friend did a six-week walking tour of English gardens by herself once. She's quite adventuresome. I was jealous.

Klem! old_dirt! Not lazy_dirt!!! And don't you think old_dirt is a man? How many women do you know who make Bluegill slurry and who put skunks and raccoons---I presume dead---in their compost pile? Trust me, only men think putting rotting fish into a container with water is a grand plan.

Your poor Mom.

gawdin! I forgot about Starbucks. I used to go regularly---to the extent they told me just to go get the grounds myself out of the dumpster. I was just wondering today, what nitrogen source I could get in late November to refuel the bins if I flip them. The leaf dump gets leaf heavy and low on grass clippings by that time. I'm glad I just reread your post. Starbucks. That's the ticket.

I also have a local donut shop/coffee shop that I worked at for 19 years and can get them to save grounds for me. I prefer Starbucks only because they throw banana peels in theirs! lol Bonus!

klem; I'm with you on buying the fish fertilizer. Now I don't mind burying items in/under the pile or such, but I'm NOT doing all that extra....Yuck!

gardengal: I love those plots!

I was so mad last night on drive home from work. When I left for work I saw that some folks in my neighborhood had put out bags of leaves. I planned on picking them up on way home for the night. I think the trash people got them! I thought that was a separate p/u. Now would be a good time, because all of my leaves are Oak leaves. Which is OK. They break down by Spring, even without shredding, contrary to what most say. But I wanted some 'diversity' for my compost. Oak leaves here don't drop until between January and February.

We're still forecast for relatively warm weather the next week, so I'll keep watching for them. I plan on leaving for work earlier now just to see. I just didn't really want the bags in my car longer than necessary, since I may wind up with bugs in my car. Oh, well. I'm not afraid of bugs and my compost is more important to me. I can always shop vac the bugs out, if any.

Soul sister, don't forget a dropcloth. You should go put it in the car now.

What about leaving notes on your neighbours’ doors, gawdin, with your phone number and you can pick up their leaves when they’ve raked them? (or is that too wierd…👀). what about offering to pick up their bagged leaves for money? lol

annpat, thx for defending my gender -lol- I often wonder about many others here and various other forums. Maybe it should be on our profile, but maybe it is? I guess i'm to 'lazy' to look. Which brings me to another point, should I change my handle to 'lazy_old_dirt'?

I have never actually thrown a dead skunk in the compost but once a small raccoon and many moles, mice, voles and a few squirrels. After a few yearsl, ike an old C&W songs says, "I'm digging up bones". If i dig to early, it's "doing things that's better left alone"...

When I used that home made fish slurry, I did get lots of critter scratching and activity but nothing detrimental. The neighbors weren't to pleased but made the loads of hog manure seemed pleasant.

I couldn’t resist. These were in one spot at the curb…just too easy.

Soon after…

Poster TJ took an ax

and gave each pumpkin 40 whacks.

When he saw what he had done

he thought, ”ya know, this is fun!”

tj

I sure didn't get to admire that yellow pumpkin too long.

Even the crazed, axe-wielding Lizzie,

Would agree that you’ve been busy.

I think that Andy Borden’s daughter

Might have spared the yellow’s slaughter.

Old yeller’s fate was to decay

and soon it would just melt away.

So since no beauty ever again,

it now joins the carbon as nitrogen.

tj

lol

So, you're saying:

Even the prettiest pumpkin knows the score,

When it’s nitrogen to carbon, the odds are poor

When the leaves in your bin need heat in a hurry

That bright yellow pumpkin is less art, more slurry.

This has by far, become my favorite thread! lol

Gargamel: I thought of that! I even thought of putting up flyers. I have that thought every single year, but don't do it. (shakes head at myself).

Now read below and you'll know what 'weird' is.

Ok. You all started it, even though mine is not creative on my part or made up.

I just fudged a little.

But it surely fits me!

Well I'm shameless when it comes to loving you
I'll (add) anything you want me to
And I'll do anything at all

And I'm snatching leaves for all the world to see
Oh baby that's (a part of me)
Oh, glorious Compost, I'll do anything at all

You know now I'm not a (wo)man who's ever been
Insecure about the world I've been livin' in
I don't break easy I have my pride
But if you need to be satisfied

I'm shameless, oh Compost I don't have a prayer
Every time I see you (steamin') there
I go down upon my knees

And I'm changin' swore I'd never compromise
Oh but you convinced me otherwise
I'll do anything you please

You see in all my life I've never found
What I couldn't resist what I couldn't (break) down
I could walk away from any(thing) I ever knew
But I can't walk away from you

I have never let anything have this much control over me
I work too hard to call my life my own
And I've made myself a world and it's worked so perfectly
But it's your world now I can't refuse
I've never had so much to lose
Oh I'm shameless

You know it should be easy for a (wo)man who's strong
To say (s)he's sorry or admit when (s)he's wrong
I've never lost anything I've ever missed
But I've never been in love like this

It's out of my hands
I'm shameless, I don't have the power now
I don't want it anyhow
So I got(ta add some leaves and mo')

Oh I'm shameless, shameless as a (wo)man can be
You make a total fool of me
I just wanted to you to know

Oh I'm shameless
I just wanted you to know
Oh I'm shameless
Oh I'm down on my knees...shameless

As theatre fall's into darkness the teary eyed audidence stands uprorously applauding the single cast member of a well written tragedy.

Oh, no! I'm going to get blamed for this one. People are going to say that gawdin was normal when we first met her, then there was that thread...

I know; over the top. Was in a tired, slaphappy, silly mood after a stressful week.

But I definitely not 'normal' when it comes to my compost.

I enjoyed it. It's the others who expressed concern about you.

And Klem made us laugh, so that was fun.

lol

I was only trying to make everyone laugh at my composting 'compulsion'.

Klem made me laugh out loud. My son asked me what I was laughing at....

It's all good. Thank you for being thoughtful, annpat!

I get bored, gawdin, and then I lead people down the gawdin path. Thanks for being a good sport, dear.

Family counselors claim problem children are usually only acting out of boredom. I would consider it a win if they went from neighborhood pest to compulsive composter when mature. Just saying of course. ^_^

HAH! HAH! Oh. Wait. Are you talking to gawdin or me? I wasn't a problem child; I was...okay, I was a problem child...but fun. I was wicked fun.

Anybody else have a compost toilet? We drop in sawdust, wood shavings, or crumbled autumn leaves after every use. There are two chambers, so this one was used until Oct 2020, then closed and not used. Emptied in Oct 2021, it was well decomposed and nothing recognizable, except the wood shavings, which are only half done. Anyway, the idea is turn it out in autumn and cover the pile for winter for more decomposition.

An old thread was recently revived where a lady and her dog each make deposits to their compost every morning. If we start down that road here I yield to those with experience in such practice.

High Cold Desert, OMG. What a set-up! A friend of mine built her own composting toilet when she and her husband built their house, but I believe it had a single chute. And, for some reason, their toilet was literally a throne, with two or three steps up to it, which I always thought might be a problem for elderly users. They had a huge brass bucket next to the toilet, on the throne, filled with a potpourri of leaves, wood shavings, straw, pine cones, cloves---very decorative and the whole situation very pleasant smelling. Does yours use electricity at all?

Ah, "problem child"? I won't even go there, that would be 'doing things that's better left alone'.

I do make my personal deposit to the pile whenever I'm out there, which is quite often. I have actually tried diluting it and sprayed it on ornamentals as a foliar fertilizer, not sure if it did anything or not.

As for the composting toilet, I would love to but the DW says "no way"! This past summer we were backpacking in a wilderness area and used one. It was also built up fairly high, I believe to faciliate the removal of the contents by just dragging it out. They had a 55 gallon barrel of wood shavings to add after each use. The odor was actually quite pleasant as they used pine or cedar wood chips, no bad odor what so ever. I might add that it was in need of emptying, as the contents were almost to the top.

Oh, I think you should veto her veto, old_dirt. Tell her about the pretty brass bucket part.

HCD, do you add kitchen scraps?

My favorite time of year. I get around 130 truck loads from the village every fall.

Delta, I am so envious!!

That's unbelievable! (And the landscape is pretty, too.)

A lot of you probably have some place like that, where the leaves go to reside, nearby.

deltaohioz5, That's a LOT of leaves. I'm guessing you have a commercial operatiion? Years ago a nearby city used to dump all the leaves behind the cemetery and we used to get all our fishing worms back there. Not sure if we were allowed to take the leaves. Now I get enough from my own yard and a few bags along the roads to me. I just did my fall garden clean up and got the makings for another pile.

No not a commercial operation. All of the compost gets used some where on my six acres.

Frank

You have a beautiful 6 acres, Frank!!!

Yes, we do add kitchen scraps in our compost toilet. So aside from wood shavings, actually some bones and eggshell chips are still recognizable, but the bones are going.

Today I got 10 big sacks of leaves from a neighbor

I worked hard today, raking, mixing, and piling, spraying. Still nowhere near as sweet a pile as Franks! I still have more to come though. Some on my oak trees are still green! Luckily I get a lot of shredded paper from work too. I'm going to Starbucks tomorrow for some coffee grounds and banana peels! It's the simple things in life that make us happy.

The simple things indeed and I will never look at compost after this without smiling. When newbies ask "is it ok if I ____ my compost" I may just link them here.

lol

I hear ya!

I just finished building three additional wire compost bines. 1 extra one so I can turn my older compost bin easier. 2 more bins for leaves. Here are the 2 leaf bins as I was filling them.

I did not have enough leaves collected to make two full bins 3x3x3. So I combined them into one bin after adding a 1 foot extension and filling a 32 gallon Brute garbage can with the extra leaves. Here is the completed watered leaf bin which now measures 4x3x3.

Wow that looks great! Good idea to use zip ties

That's nice looking work. What's your plan for the leaves? Leaf mould? Or storage?

Gargamel - I used the zip ties because I ran out of electric wire. I don't think the zip ties will last too long. So when I turn the piles I plan on replacing them with electric wire. Maybe keep the zip ties for the door to the bin.

Annpat - My plan for the leaves in the bin is to use them for leaf mold. If I need them for browns then I will use them in the compost pile. I do have a 32 gallon trash can full of finely shredded leaves for storage that I can use for compost making before I get into the leaf pile. The leaves are mostly Live Oak Leaves which are super hard to break down. Therefore I may waste a little time keeping them moist and also turning just to keep the pile from compacting too much.

That's exactly what I would do. I think you'll be surprised how long zip ties last.

Your yard looks neat as a pin.

Those are nice bins and your yard looks way neater than mine!

Had to bump this thread up. This time of year, I add lots to the compost pile. In the past few weeks I've added over 150 remains of filleted bluegills, crappie and perch, 25 at a time. I cover them with leaves, hoping the critters don't get to them. Of course they freeze solid until spring but will really cook up then.