It was getting past noon and I still hadn’t taken a shower. And, as everyone knows, the only way to justify going into the afternoon without a shower is to get really, really dirty.
We have a fenced in area out behind the garden shed where we dump leaves every year. We call it our compost pile, but we know that to make compost you have to turn it over, add a little dirt and let some air get into the works. We don’t do any of those things. Once a year we dump a whole bunch of leaves on top of last years’ leaves.
Well, it turns out that if you are patient you don’t have to do any of that other stuff. If you’re willing to wait about a decade the leaves will turn into dirt all on their own.
When we moved into our house (about a decade ago, go figure) we had a home inspector come and look things over and tell us what needed to be done. The previous owners fixed some things and we’ve done a few since then. One of the things he said we should do is add some dirt to the south side of the house so that water would drain away from the house more effectively.
Now I happen to be an expert on water (I’m over 70% water by volume) and I knew that our water was draining fine. But twice a year Lauren brings up the fact that we haven’t added any dirt to the south side of the house. Eventually it’s enough to get to a guy, so, as I needed an excuse not to have showered I put my new dirt on the south side of the house.
Oh, only the bottom of the pile was actually dirty, so I had to tunnel under.
And now you have aerated the bottom of the pile! Voila!
Yes, with any luck we’ll have more dirt in less than a decade. Actually, for the last few years I’ve been borrowing The Pester’s leaf vacuum, so the leaves are already in little bits. Oh, and there’s the whole other half of the compost pile to mine too. There were 8 or 9 wheelbarrows full in the first half.
Nice work, and well worth an afternoon of not showering.
Decomposed leaves are garden GOLD! Now I want to plant something there. Except it’s always so dry there. Maybe I’ll just plant some plastic flowers. Or a bunny.
I’ve always wanted one of those big tall cacti.
A saguaro. Pronounced “swaro.” Very cool things, but I dare say it’s a bit wet & cold in NE for one of those things.
Maybe on the NORTH side of the house.
I had to read it twice--LOL!
I’ll admit that I am not nearly as quick as you and Sam on some things, so please be patient. What’s with the caption on the second picture about trucks and low gear?
It’s a mountain thing
A loam? I think it looks more like a Shire.
(stop using words I don’t know)
Very clever use of a beer bottle, but I don’t think it will grow…or turn to dirt.
It would grow if it was in Narnian dirt.
I want Narnia!!! Talk about a beer garden…
I think Brad’s stash of dead bunnies will fit nicely in that cave…and perhaps speed up the decomposition by adding some fauna to the mix.