Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Jan, Keter, and other happy things

Above, you see the new happy compost mixer (both human and plastic)! Below, you see the previous compost bin situation. Economical? Well, yes. Raided by racoons? Unfortunately. Neglected? Embarassed to confirm. As you can tell, I really needed some help!

You know, I'm in love with two men - my husband of course, but also the UPS man. Who wouldn't love this strong and wonderful man in uniform? He's capable of lifting 150 pounds of unwieldy cardboard and drops by with smiling face bearing gifts on a fairly regular basis. Well, technically they're not gifts if you had to pay for them in advance, but in THIS case, the compost mixer I received was TRULY a gift from both the Keter company and Jan from Thanks for Today, following my post on the Satanic Boy Scouts (and the follow up) linked to Jan's Gardener's Sustainable Living Project, an annual Earth Day event.

Now that I have my new compost mixer, here's what I'm looking forward to:
  • deterring the raccoons and neighborhood cats
  • having finished compost in a contained space that I access and use easily
  • turning my compost more frequently (with the mixer's handle, it enters "toy" catagory and I might even get a regular helper out of this)
I'm really partial to the 3-bin compost system (an unflattened version of what you see above). I like the idea of filling a bin to the top, closing it off, and then starting to fill another bin while the first bin cooks down, and so forth. I think what I'll do is use the new Keter to collect my browns and greens, and once full, I'll close it off and begin to collect my compost materials in one of the round bins. Once the Keter compost is finished, I'll empty it in the garden, and then move the more recently collected scraps into the Keter, repeating the process of saving more in the round bins.

I envision a much healthier garden with the addition of good compost that's more speedily made. I have high hopes for this tumbler - I have wanted some sort of tumbler for ages! Looking forward to the beautiful blooms and fat veggies that I'll surely have now! Thanks so much Jan and Keter for this generous prize! In other happy things...

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Below, the happy "bouquet" I received from my almost 13 year old this past Sunday.

And another happy thing, in a prelude to the bumper crop I think we'll have this year, strawberries are ripening one by one. In the photo below, you see that the first stop after kindergarten every day is the garden, "Hey mom, let's go check on the strawbs!"

One more happy thing for today, May blossoms!


9 comments:

  1. Sweet...So much happiness in you garden now.

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  2. Hey Wendy, I'm so glad you guys like the composter! Mine is filled up already and most of it has already turned into some pretty good looking compost. I'm ready to dump it someplace so I can start again. I need a container of some sort to keep it in, or, I just might dump it in a pile in the back and start more. The tumbling method works really well. So far, the piece has held up and I have no complaints with it. I hope you will have the same experience. If the handle breaks or anything, you know you can contact Keter and they should work w/you. Or, get a hold of me and I can hook you up with the guy who I worked with for this project. His name is Jason. Thank you for joining in on my project, and, Happy Composting;-)

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  3. Congrats on your new "toy". Looks like you have a very adorable garden helper to help turn the drum. Sounds like there's lots of great stuff growing in your garden!

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  4. Thanks everyone for your comments - even though I have no idea where they went! Technology. :(

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  5. All looks/sounds spring garden grand.

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  6. I lost comments too. It is really annoying actually.
    Congrats!
    We made those tissue paper flowers for my daughters birthday and surprised her by decorating her apartment. She still has them up , two months later.

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  7. Was that bouquet a Mother's Day gift? Hope you had a lovely celebration with your children.

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  8. I am actually looking into that exact same composter....wondering how it is working for you?

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  9. Jenifer - I really like this compost tumbler. It's neat, clean, and I can quickly turn it without having to go through the shed to find the pitch fork and have a bunch of insects fly out at my face. I've never found any larger rodents in my old compost system (like snakes or raccoons), but I'm always prepared to. The bin itself is great. It's near full and too heavy to turn with just the crank (I'm afraid it would break). At this point, I put my foot on the stand, turn the crank and "help" it along with the other hand. I love this bin!

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