There are several spring landmarks on the way to summer. One is the first lawn mowing. I bought this lawnmower when I bought my first house in 2002. Every year it turns right over, no problem.
The other is the turning of the compost pile.
I am a big believer in organic gardening. Especially for small, largely ornamental gardens like my own. I can't see spreading noxious chemicals all over the place just so I can have pretty flowers. And no commercial fertilizers either. I have an old pamphlet from Rodale Press called, "Make Compost in 2 Weeks" or something like that. There is a lot of useful information in it, but I pretty much ignored the "2 weeks" aspect. I can't be bothered worrying about sticking a special thermometer in the pile to make sure it's hot enough. I thow in kitchen scraps, grass and leaves in something of a parfait and let nature take its course. Nature's course takes about a year. I have 2 kinds of compost piles. One is this thing I purchased from the town when they were promoting composting to save money on trash removal. It was $40 and looks a bit like a space ship. The other is just a 3-foot dia x 3-foot high round of fencing. They both work pretty well. I dug out what finished compost there was to spread on the garden and turned the rest over, adding some new material. I will turn it again at some point during the summer, once again taking out whatever finished compost there is. And that's it.
