A Steaming Pile of . . . .

. . . well, compost.  Among the things that make me happiest about being a single-family home owner with a small plot of land underneath it is the prospect of organic gardening at home.

I know I haven't missed the whole growing season looking at the calendar, but my time schedule combined with not actually living at the house yet, tells me that we will garden next year for the first time.

But that doesn't mean we can't prepare.  And, I've done some preparing all ready.  I've got my lumber for a couple of square foot boxes.  I've bought most components for "Mel's Mix." I've started my garden and landscaping tool collection (lawn mowers (one gas and one reel).  Weed whacker.  Perhaps most importantly, I've started my compost pile.

I remember that my dad used to have one, but I was too young to know or care what was going on with it. There is probably a compost pile somewhere in this backyard garden that was probably the largest in the neighborhood (my folks were hippies by financial necessity, I think).

And, if no composting here, then defintely in my Great Grandfather Rock's garden:

I'd read about composting.  I'd even tried to compost when we lived "in the City" on our back porch, but without too much success -- or, at least nothing noticeable, because I don't think that I ever looked at it or used it after dumping stuff into it.

Recently, I took out a few bushes in the back yard against the fence, where I wanted to compost and set up a small garden.  I added a few things -- kitchen scraps and grass clippings as well as some shredded bushes and trees.  But I wasn't convinced.  Then, I visited a local produce store (visited the dumpster out back, actually) and picked up old bananas, greens, and such and added that. I still wasn't convinced.  I was watering it and turning it, but it wasn't yet "steaming" as they promised.  Maybe it was too small.

Today, while waiting for the asbestos removal guy to measure the basement to provide an estimate, I went out back and took the pitchfork (yes, I now own a pitch fork) to the pile to "turn" it.  And when I turned it, I saw steam!!  I think that we have hit critical mass and we are now, officially composting!

This shot shows the pile, but I was unable to capture the steam coming up from the middle.

That pile is nearly 3 feet high now.  The green balls that you can see are broccoli flowerets from my last dumpster dive.  Oddly, the local rabbits haven't eaten those or the baby carrots that I put in most recently.

Ultimately, I'll build a "bin" to contain the one or more compost piles to sit in that back corner of my lot.  The fence is my back neighbor and my lost ends on the other side at that orange flag at the end of the fence.

A year from now, if all goes well, I'll be telling y'all how I'm harvesting veggies and cooking them up in my renovated kitchen!!