The Lazy Composter

It’s a sunny Sunday morning, and I went out into the garden early to make sure everything was getting enough water.  I had just read Backyard Composting, and was reminded again of the idea of how some people move their compost pile frequently, and then plant where the pile has been.  (similar to the permaculture “chicken tractor”) This approach may solve a big problem in my garden. 

I’ve got an abundance of plant material, with the sages, cardoons, Echium and other big plants gone haywire after a wet spring.  I also have a big garden box (9’x3′ or so) that was constructed to plant food, but hadn’t been getting enough use, partially because of laziness, and partially because nothing I planted in it seemed to do well.

This morning, I started tackling some of the craziness in the garden.  My Dwarf Meyer Lemon tree, which has been planted for more than a few years had a crazy thorny runner that was much taller than the rest of the bush, much taller than I am.  I noticed that it didn’t have any flowers, while the rest did, so I got out the loppers and clipped it.  We’ll find out if it was the right thing to do.

Then I clipped some of the red sage that was growing so tall it was blocking much of the sun in the garden, especially to the lemon tree.  I uncovered a healthy Vitex bush that I had forgotten about after bushwacking.

I decided to create a compost with much of this humungous plant material in the box.  I need to remove the watering tubing and a couple of small fences, and get some tarps to place over it.  This is exciting, because it may be the biggest compost bin I’ve ever had, and if all goes well, I’ll be able to plant in it next spring.