My adventure with compost

Firstly look at my happy tree! :) My tree survived the winter! I think it needs a name... any ideas?

I woke up this morning and decided to go on an adventure. This morning I had no idea it was going to be an adventure, this morning it was all planned. I left the house around 11 am to go to the Bordeaux Mulch Facility to get another truck load of compost. So, I find directions and set out on my adventure. When I arrive to the area where this mulching facility is, I could not find it! I drove through the ghetto where all the houses and food markets have metal bars over their windows and doors and the drivers are really aggressively bad. I found a safe public place and parked the truck. I was a little freaked out because I was lost and did not want to venture any further, especially alone. So, I called my sleepy brother and he told me I had gone too far and to turn where the hospital was. Easy enough, I thought, I checked my maps again and what my brother said and what the maps said matched. I arrive at the hospital and like 3 of the roads around the hospital were for walkers. I ended up going the wrong way down a one way street on the back side of the hospital. Then like a glowing treasure were the big mounds of mulch! The only road I found leading to the mulch facility was a gravely half covered in grass bumpy road. I was a little scared. So I had to leave the hospital and turn down a different road. I was ssoooo confused! I did finally find the Bordeaux mulch facility and I got the truck load of compost! It was soo cool! A big yellow tractor with a huge bucket on the front dumped a load onto my truck bed. I was really excited!

Driving home was a little tricky because I didn't want to drive on the interstate and all my compost fly out. So, I drove back roads.

When I got home and started unloading the compost it was only leaves!!! Once again, I freaked out a little. I thought, "Oh no?! What am I going to do! This won't work, will it?!" So, to the corn bed I added a layer of spent coffee grounds, thanks Nick! Then I started piling on the mulched leaves. After finishing that I thought, "crap this won't work... what should I do?! OH YEAH I HAVE MANURE!" :) I think it's going to be awesome... Nick and Amanda helped me add the mulched leaves to the remaining straw bale bed. We mixed the manure and leaves all together and filled the bed to the top. :) Finally, Nick and I propped up the headboard trellis for the beans. The construction is finally complete... Time for planting!!

After finishing all of that ridiculousness that took 3 hours, ugh. Nick and I planted corn seeds together. Then, I planted the bush beans between one of the corn rows and cucumbers between the other corn row. I planted the sunflowers and pumpkins on the eastern border of the bed aka the right side. Later I moved onto planting the watermelons and pole beans in the remaining straw bale bed. Then just to make sure that possibly some of the cauliflower and collard greens might grow I sprinkled some more seeds around in their bed as well. I covered everything with a nice layer of mulched leaves including the round flower bed to help retain water.

Now that the garden is mostly complete, Paul and I love our backyard... I am so excited! I can't wait to see everything growing! Sweet delicious fresh corn with raw tomatoes.... aaaahhhhhh!!! Paradise!

So, I have a question... is it bad that I did not really keep track of how many seeds I planted?! I mean... I followed the spacing rules I'll thin the plants out later. I have no idea how many beans/corn/cauliflower/collard green/okra/carrot/etc seeds are in my garden. Whatever, it's going to be cool.

I hope Amanda will post soon about the many transformations of the brick encased flower bed and the cutey things we found in the bed! :) :)