The back forty (foot square area) - wanna compost?

Today Matt and I planted lots of Agave pups in the area Steve and I weeded yesterday, along with many Achillea plants and two big bags of Nasturtium seeds that Jes gave us. It's like an Agave farm now. Matt also set up the new composter Leah gave us and added "good" compostable items to it.

If you live in the area and want to add to the compost piles, here's the deal. We have two composting areas:

First is the "bad" pile, a huge load of weeds and pine cones up against a corner of the chainlink fence - we'll continue to add biodegradable items to this that will break down very slowly, or that we don't want to spread around the garden. What can be added:

Pinecones
Weeds
Twigs
Branches
Ivy runners, fennel clumps and other seriously naughty weeds.
Biodegradable plastic bags that our coffee grounds come in

Then we have the "good" compost pile, in the black plastic composter, that will make quality compost quickly. What can be added:

Household food scraps
Coffee grounds (that I get in bulk)
Leaves and plant material without seeds on it
Lawn clippings
Horse manure

Things that cannot go in either compost pile are non-biodegradable items, or things that can be recycled elsewhere - plastic, paper, cans, batteries, electronics etc.

What about dog poop? Inevitably non-biodegradable poop bags would end up in the compost heap, and since I don't want to fish 'em out I don't think it's a good idea to start adding dog poop to either pile. Dog poop is also full of pathogens and I don't want to have to work with that.

So neighbors, if you have a compost bucket in your house and want to put it to use in the garden, walk down the storm drain (not the path next to it) and turn right at the end and you'll see the compost heaps.

Other stuff we did today included chatting with Ron about our forthcoming archway, planting four gorgeous Aloe arborescens branches from Joan, as well as her huge clump of Agapanthus, and using her rebar stakes to make hose guides. Matt filled and positioned his wine barrel planters at the front, and dug in another Agave there, and I planted three Euphorbia cacti in the front... phew!