- Not today’s image!!!!
This is in my dreams for later on this spring and summer. Reality is much more grim!!
The garden is pretty bare right now – a few Brussel sprout plants made it through the freeze along with some of the sugar snap peas and an abundance of the beet varieties planted this past fall.
I have pretty well filled the compost bins with leaves and shredded leaves to be used for mulch in the near future.
I did transplant some lettuce plants yesterday but the labels have faded and I have no clue which variety will grace my table. The small half long carrot seeds planted last week have yet to show their tops. I will plant another round of carrots this week and continue some staggered plantings into early spring.
My friend John is allowing me to continue working the 4X4 plot I placed in his yard last year. He loved the abundant returns from the Juliet tomato plant. He had a good number of cucumbers as well as a handful of Texas A&M sungold tomatoes. We may even add another 4X4 adjacent to the first one. Making backyard gardening converts one by one. He has some beets poking up and I planted some chard for him last week.
Checking on my worms – the bottom bin looks done. Almost all of the little guys have moved up to the penthouse for the fresh food. Will probably sort the bottom bin this coming weekend and feed the plants. Speaking of plants – the strwberry plants are full of blossoms and I noticed a few berries that are a week or so away from taste testing. Can’t wait- but I must!!!!!!
TTFN
Bishop
From My Backyard 
Feb 01, 2011 @ 12:38:11
Dear Composting Bishop,
I have 2 crank style above ground compost bins and one on the ground leaf and lawn refuse caged pile. Our kitchen scraps and papers go into the tub-crank style bins. One is full from last year and still ‘cooking’ to be ready in the spring and the other one we are adding to this winter. It ‘s this latter one that I have questions about.
Since it has been so cold, should I expect that the worms that I put in there a couple months ago to still be alive? My compost seems soggy and not warm as they say it should be. My husband tells me that I put too much liquid in there, like leftover coffee and tea, so I had to quit that process and now just dump it down the drain. I’ve read through some composting books, but none address the issue of winter time worms.
Quite frankly, we have so much compost and so little ‘trash’ going to the dump that I could actually use another above ground bin since he tells me that the bin is full again. If it weren’t for the expense of buying a new one, I would have done that already. What do you know about winter composting in these bins and my need to monitor/or not and the worm/warmth issue? Any help?
Cindy
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