Although the very small patches that I own front and back are not really grand or big enough to be given the title 'garden', but nevertheless I still enjoy planting things and watching them grow.
I don't enjoy the weeding tho.
With the annoying weeds that seem to grow everywhere in mind, I decided to get my flower beds covered with stones to keep the weeds down. So before the gardener came to sort out my unruly beds, I thought I should put some compost down to feed the ground. And where better to get that from then my compost bin.
The compost bin is always a bit of a mystery to me. No matter how much 'stuff' you put into it, it never seems to be full. The worms in my garden must be very hungry, and/or very efficient! Anyway, my compost bin hasn't been emptied since 2010, so I was a bit wary about opening the little hatch at the bottom and seeing what was behind it.
When I opened it first all I could see were egg shells! I was a bit bemused by this and had to Google it to see why after six years they were still relatively intact when everything else is mush. Apparently, they take hundreds of years to decompose, so in future I have to crush them before I put them into the compost. But either way, they are brilliant for the ground. So happy days, I'll have well fertilized soil.
Eventually, after much digging and scrapping, I got a big bucket of very healthy looking compost out of the bin.
But that wasn't all I got out of the bin. Also hidden among the lovely fresh fertilizer, I found several items of interest.
A vegetable peeler, a wristband from a Bon Jovi concert and a bracket from a garden light.
I can understand how the vegetable peeler got in, no mystery there, as no doubt it got thrown in with the peelings. But I have no idea how the Bon Jovi wristband got in to the bin. Kevin thought it was very funny when he saw it, and he said it was from a concert we went to in 2006. 2006? Well how come it wasn't discovered when the bin was opened in 2010. Unless of course it went in after that, but it's still a mystery as to why it's in there. And as for the bracket from the garden light? It's a hundred years since those lights were on the wall in the garden, and even more worrying, how did it get into the bin? Those worms must be more efficient than I originally thought. They must also be good with a screwdriver, as I'm sure the last time I saw that bracket it was screwed to a wall.
I also found, at the very bottom of the bin, this:
A perfectly formed (but rather dirty) grape!
Seriously, what on earth? How long has that been in there? And why is it not wine at this stage?? I put grapes into the fridge and after two days they go off, so how come this one lasted six years at the bottom of the compost?? And, why was an obviously good and not rotten grape put into the bin in the first place?
So many unanswered questions....
Anyway, I couldn't spend too much time pondering these mysteries as I had to get the compost spread on the flower beds before the gardener could get to work. And what a nice job he did too. I'm very pleased with the results.
But I've learned a lesson, I'll have to be more careful in future what goes into my compost bin. But for now I'll just have to wait and see what lovely flowers grows from this batch of compost. I'm also secretly hoping that I'll come out some morning and find a grape vine, or maybe even Jon Bon Jovi, has grown in my garden.
Although, knowing my luck, there will probably be several chickens...
