I had big plans for my compost bins this summer.
I had planned to keep adding weeds and plant debris from the garden to try to make a good amount of compost to supplement the cow manure and hay that I had hauled out of the pasture last winter. What was left of all of that had been consolidated into bay #3 to finish.
Bay #1 was to be my working compost, where I would add the new materials. Bay #2 was to be my "turning" bay, where I would transfer the contents of bay #1 as it started to fill up.
I had two Mortgage Lifter tomato plants that didn't have a home...I wanted them separated from the other tomatoes in the garden because I hope I can save some seeds from them this year and I don't want to take a chance that they might cross pollinate with some of the other tomatoes.
So since compost bay #4 was empty and I didn't have any immediate plans for it, I decided to just plant them there and let them take advantage of the nice rich dirt in the bottom of the bin.
And while things were starting to grow in the garden, I didn't have much to add to the other compost bays, so when a few volunteer plants sprouted up in bays #2 and #4, I just thought I would leave them and let them grow for a while.
Boy did they grow.
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| The compost jungle. |
So now there are some big pumpkin vines sprawling out of bay #2, sprouted from the Sugar Baby pumpkins I grew last year but never did anything with. I had just dumped them in the compost when they started to go bad. So that bay isn't open anymore and the vine is now blocking access to bay #3!
And while I intentionally planted the two tomato plants in bay #4, some watermelons came up in there and now they're filling in the rest of the open area of that bay.
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| Tomatoes and watermelons are taking up bay #4. |
And finally, the three puny little sunflowers that sprouted up in front of bay #1 aren't puny and little anymore. They're about 8' or 9' tall, with stems about 2" in diameter at the base. And they're very much in the way of the opening to bay #1, making it really hard to get in there to add new materials or turn what's already there!
But on the bright side, the pumpkin vine actually looks really good and I think it has set at least two little pumpkins so maybe my mistake in leaving them there won't be a total bust.