Productivity Slightly Up

I was finally able to get outside for a couple of hours today. I got a few things accomplished but I still have plenty left to do and last I heard we are in danger of a light frost tonight. I don't really know what that means for my garden but I know all you gardening bloggers are obsessed about it so it must be important.

Here's the composter in it's new home. I put it by the door for easy access. I started a batch today using wood chips and plants from the kitchen garden that I needed to git rid of (broccoli, tomato, oregano). That I was able to recycle the plants made it so much less painful to cut them back.

Here it is about half full before mixing.

And after mixing. Carolyn - you were right! It was much harder to turn with stuff in it. The package insert says finished compost takes 6-8 weeks but I'm sure that's probably in the summer. It's getting colder so I'd be surprised if it was ready that soon. I plan to add leaves and coffee grounds if I can get more from Starbucks.

I also built the second raised bed. YAY!

I put the cardboard box the composter was delivered in in the bottom of the beds (it was the perfect size for these 2 beds) and then put newspaper on top of that and wet it. You may notice in the picture that the papers are all the same. Here's a little known fact that will probably change your opinion of me in some way. Mr. W and I use to have a weekly reading of Savage Love, a very inappropriate sex column published in the Chicago Reader that would embarrass the even the un-embarrassable. I will spare you the details of the column but for some sick reason we find it entertaining that this guy mixes sex and politics in an ever so disgusting way. Anyway, we fell behind in our reading but my dear Mr. W has been keeping every issue in date order for years, in case we ever got a hankering to pick up where we left off. So, I was granted approval to use them in the new raised lasagna bed - Savage Love lives on! Funny comment by non-gardening bf "is there any chance that somebody will find all those papers later and think we are crazy".

Remember the homemade composter I made earlier this summer? Well, I dumped the contents into the new raised beds too. Holy crap you should have seen the 2 big ass worms that were in there!!!! It was so gross but I guess my little contraption was working. Can somebody tell me how those worms get in there? They were much too fat to have fit through the small holes I drilled in the bottom.

Here is what the the beds looked like after I dumped all the crap in that I've been piling up here and there. As I suspected, it didn't even make a dent in it. I plan to add the rest of the plant material from the kitchen garden along with as many leaves as I can get in there, then cover it for the winter.

I still need to plant bulbs and I still need an assistant!