So, this may not be too exciting to many of you, but last week I realized we had a huge pile of compost that was finally ready for the vegetable garden. We have two piles going at once, and really could have three or four if I weren’t lazy about it. But I like to wait and wait and wait on compost until it’s good and ready. You’ll know it’s ready when nothing you added to it will be visible. In place of all the kitchen scraps, ground up leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds (and whatever else you have decided to add) will be rich, black compost. The only thing you should see are maybe some small crushed up bits of eggshell (which is especially appreciated by your tomatoes, as the added calcium helps prevent cracks and lesions on the fruit). Also, it will not smell like decay. Just earthy… dirt.
We were lucky to have FOUR huge buckets full of compost for our garden! If you have a limited amount of compost for your plants, just make sure to start by spreading the compost around the base of each plant and then work your way out to the rest of the garden as you add more. The idea is that you want the nutrients from the compost to reach the plants’ roots, so of course you start there. And really, that’s it! Now go start a new compost pile for next month!
Baby buttercup squash (p.s.- you can sauté the squash blossoms in some butter and they are delish!)
Baby zucchini
Climbing cukes
Our chard AFTER I harvested a ridiculous amount to devour with garlic and parmesan cheese… I swear, it’s like The Giving Tree over here with our chard: all we do is take take take and all it does is give give give.
Kale and broccoli harvest for Sunday’s dinner (Milo loves broccoli, I love kale)
Oh, and I owe our broccoli plants a very sincere apology. I vaguely remember stating how anticlimactic growing broccoli was- how you only get one head of broccoli per plant and how it takes up so much space and energy and time…
… well, after eating the heads of three broccoli plants a few weeks ago, we have come to find that those plants have produced new heads of broccoli for us! So… sorry. We are not worthy.
But we will eat you anyway.
Your garden is so beautiful!! I’m especially impressed with your chard. I love it!! Thanks for always sharing pictures. I live vicariously through your garden while mine just kind of put puts along. 🙂
Compost is very exciting to me 🙂 You guys are ahead of us, so I get excited for where my garden will be in a few weeks looking at your gorgeous one. I’m also so impressed with your lack of weeds. I finally made a good dent in the weeding last week but it gets out of hand so fast. Squash blossoms are so yummy- I can’t wait!
Okay, Mother Earth. You and your garden are beautiful! What a wonderful gift you are giving your boys. This is exactly what Alice Waters has always wanted to instill in our children – a labor of love growing and eating the freshest of veggies, and to have fun doing it. It’s so neat that eating from the garden is just a way of life for them. Wonderful!
So Neel is on the hunt for a composter…we really need one. Do you have one you use? Any recommendations for me since his Father’s Day present (partly) didn’t work out? 😉
Lauren, we had this one and loved it, but a certain little boy broke part of the ceramic handle piece, so now we just use a plastic baggie inside our juicer container. It works great because when we twist the top of the baggie, it seals in the odor and when we’re ready to empty it, we just pull the whole bag out, dump it in the compost, and then use the bag again for picking up dog poop! But you could use the nice ceramic compost container with a plastic bag for the same effect. Also, it’s really pretty sitting on your counter top!
We had a metal one similar to that but it somehow hermetically sealed itself shut (?) and we were never able to open it after the first couple of weeks. Do you just have a compost pile in the garden then? Thanks for the info! xo
I love our compost pile! It makes the frugal part of me so happy to be getting something extra (for free) from leftovers or scraps. I also love that between our composting and our recycling we only have one bag of trash for the garbage man every week.
But we will eat you anyway.
Hahahahaha! Love it.
I am very impressed with your garden! Who knew that chard was such a hearty plant? And broccoli! You’ve given me great ideas for next spring.