Loyal Yard Dude Alex shovels compost with the assistance of The Noble Bayard
The heart of every organic English Cottage Garden is compost, and lots of it! You are looking at three cubic yards of specially blended compost which is equal to 45 bags. It isn’t going to be enough.
I add at least 4 inches of compost to my beds every year. My gardens would do better if I added twice that much. Southern Ohio soil is mostly clay, and it needs a lot of work by earthworms and microorganisms to make it friable. The only way to achieve that is to add organic material.
I make my own compost, but it’s not nearly enough to cover my beds. This year I was lucky to find a supplier who will blend compost to my specifications and deliver it for a reasonable fee. I’m using 1/3 aged manure, 1/3 leaf mold and 1/3 mushroom compost.
I’m also lucky to have the assistance of Loyal Yard Dude Alex Lang. For a reasonable fee, he will shovel compost for hours and doesn’t complain except when it comes to composting the border running down my back yard aka Mount Everest. He also doesn’t mind the bees, which is very important!
I help too, and am writing this post during our lunch break. Time to go shovel some more poop!
Loyal Yard Dude Alex spreading compost over the hosta bed.
The Noble Bayard makes sure the work is up to spec!
Related articles
- How To Make Your Own Homemade Compost? (cindyhelens.wordpress.com)
- The Fastest Way to Compost…Ever (simplystated.realsimple.com)
- Compost Days coming to Ballard (ballardnewstribune.com)
- Composting 101 (urbancountrygal.wordpress.com)
Romancing the Bee 
you’re in SF, not S. OH, so whose article is this? i was interviewed on compost issues several months ago, but whoever the reporter was didn’t send me a copy of the article. the St. Louis paper is the Post-Dispatch, but the Gateway Green Alliance used to have a newsletter called the Compost-Dispatch. i’ve always made my own compost.eggshells, teabags, hair from my hairbrush for nitrogen, you name it. it’s so easy to do!
I really am in Southern Ohio! Why did you think I was in SF??
Very nice and encouraging. We have a small compost container and slowly but surely spread it around where it needs to go. Good job, Novel Bayard. What a good looking fury pal. 🙂 Paulette
The southwestern Ohio soil I remember in Dayton was heavenly compared to the clay or sand of northern New England — both of which demand tons of compost. Still, as that advertiser’s song on “WKRP in Cincinnati” used to proclaim, Red Wigglers really are the Cadillac of worms. As you will no doubt attest, their appearance in a compost pile is a sure sign of progress and of good things soon to follow.
I love me some worms!
Yes, I should be grateful for clay. Nothing is worse than sand, except maybe rocks. 🙂
There is never enough, but four inches a year is of value and an admirable effort.
I have been told that “mushroom compost” is just spent mushroom potting soil treated with sterilizing chemicals, though. Not as upscale as it sounds, if so.
Thanks for the encouragement!! 🙂
The Noble Bayard makes a wonderful supervisor. Mine would be eating or rolling in the compost…or worse…both.
He does enjoy being in charge!! 🙂
[…] Composting Day! (romancingthebee.com) […]
I’m curious. Has the dog ever been stung? My little dog snapped at a bee once and swallowed it. The vet bill was $400. Made her so so sick. Funny the things I wonder and worry about.
He gets stung pretty regularly, but single stings don’t bother him. Red haired animals (including people!) have such high pain thresholds that it’s sometimes unsafe.
He used to drink out of a bird bath that the bees also like until he got a mouthful of bees. No vet trip was necessary but he doesn’t drink out of there anymore.
Good to know. Thanks.:)))
I saw it on National Geographic… 🙂