Monday, November 12, 2012

Don't throw that away, 2.1

So in our house, as I've mentioned, we throw nothing away; one of the ways we accomplish this is through composting. Our town actually has municipal composting available - if we wanted to, we could throw all our organic garbage, as well as things like boxboard, into a big green bin, and have it collected with the regular garbage. But oh no, not chez Casa Karen and Fred: here, we compost our own stuff, for our own garden.

Our bin out back is a miracle of decomposition - full of worms, wood lice, ants and other bugs, insulated all around with styrofoam; that sucker keeps cooking throughout our Nova Scotia winter, even unto minus 20 degrees Celsius. Every spring, we (and by we, I mean Fred, bless his heart) dig up the garden, and fill it with glorious, rich, crumbly compost. We struggle with excess shade, and a pretty short growing season, but by damn, our soil is second to none. The potatoes and tomatoes this year were pretty amazing, and I even grew some window boxes of flowers in pure compost - non-stop blooms all season.

The garden in Davayé



Not a garden; the view towards Vergisson, after a storm


In Vitry, it's even better - the giant compost heap gives birth to bags and bags of soil, which are transported to Davayé, where there IS lots of sun, AND a looong growing season. The tomatoes there were epic; this year, alas, I did not go, but next year I will be there,, and I will eat my fill.

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