30-Minute Compost Bin (and More)

This past weekend was somewhat productive in garden-land. I finished up my 30-minute compost pile. Why “30-minute?” Because I tossed most of it together in about 30 minutes last Thursday evening after work, that’s why. In the immortal words of Han Solo, “She may not look like much, kid, but she’s got it where it counts.”

See what I mean? Ghetto. (As is my photography). But it will do the job. And for those of you following along at home, that’s two wooden shipping palettes ganked from work with a liner of metal window screen I had left over from a failed window-rescreening job. All of it is lovingly and skillfully nailed to the side of my existing compost bins. (Snort!)

In other doings, I got myself to the Natural Gardener for seed potatoes (Kennebec and Red Pontiac), three bare-root Brazos raspberry bushes, and dirt… a few dig-yer-own bags of Hill Country mix. The dirt went in my third raised bed, and the raspberries went behind the bed along our fence. Should be a good place, as they’ll get some run-off water from the sprinkler system, as well as a decent amount of sun. Might also, however, be a little too close to the squirrel highway (the fence.)

The potatoes will go in the ground. I cut them and dusted them with sulphur as suggested by the Natural Gardener potato fact sheet, and they are presently curing in the garage. Hopefully I’ll get to plant them this weekend, but I think I need to work in some compost first. Probably an entire pickup load from Natural Gardener (yet to be procured.)

Also yanked some miscellaneous plants, mainly helianthus maximilliani and pavonia braziliensis that, together, had taken over a very large portion of the back. They, in turn, shielded from destruction a great amount of bermuda grass, St. Augustine and the other major scourge of my yard, straggler daisy (Calyptocarpus vialis – should be called strangler daisy). I did a LOT of digging and composting, but I did consign the bermuda grass rhizomes and stolons to the fire pit. I’m not letting that stuff near anything resembling soil if I can help it.