Finally, this year we are able to use the soil from our compost bin.
Last year we used just a little of it because it wasn’t ready and we didn’t grow much of our food. This year it looks like we are going to have plenty of different kinds of tomatoes, yellow squash, and herbs. Growing herbs is always my job. The rest of it I leave to my husband including taking care of worms and the compost bin.
Over the past few years he experimented with different compost bins a lot and we actually didn’t have anything from it for a long time. The hard part is to have a compost bin in an apartment. Luckily we have a small outdoor patio where he keeps those creatures (worms).
Since we moved here his worms are in one place and in the same bin what, I think, had a big influence on how good they are doing.
This is how our soil looks like. You can see a few pieces of egg shell and paper:
We started out seeds about two weeks ago in a toilet paper rolls. So far they are doing great.
This is my basil and cilantro… but cilantro is not growing. I need to start another batch and more kinds of herbs, as well. Dreaming about dill, parsley and oregano in my herb collection this year.
It’s still a little bit too cold at night so we keep our growing greens at the house at night but my husband transferred a few of them to bigger containers. We’ve got plenty of sunflowers growing from that soil because last year the compost bin was standing under a bird feeder and many of those seeds ended up inside.
Meet my husband’s cute and friendly looking friends:
and his bigger version:
So, hopefully this year we are going to have many jars of homemade pasta sauce and salsa made from tomatoes grown on our own organic soil. Looking for good recipes already 🙂
Related articles
- Green Resolutions: Doing More with Less Waste (1800recycling.com)
- Zero Waste (theforagingsquirrel.wordpress.com)
- What can worms do for you? (campjack.wordpress.com)
- 5 months in a compost bin = soil! (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
- Worm composting (mnn.com)
Yippie! Looking good! I’m looking forward to homemade marinara sauce too made with my very own tomatoes! Tah-duh! We’ll have to compare notes. This is so much fun!!
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Jenn, I do not have as much planted as you! I saw what you have the other day, and WOW! that is called a garden 🙂
We have our veggies in pots so we are beru limited to how many plants we can have but at least I hope to have a lot of tomatoes and basil 🙂
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Tomato and basil–just enough for marinara sauce.
I planted even more after that. Went a little crazy. Tilled up some of the back yard just to put it all down! We’ll see how this goes…
Your plants are just beautiful! Thanks for the idea about the toilet paper rolls! Genius!
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I wish we had some yard space to have just a tiny garden. We signed for a spot in a nearby community garden but they said we are 72nd on the waiting list!!!
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Number 72? Those morons need to start ANOTHER garden! The demand is there!
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it really sucks what they are doing over there. we know a guy who has a spot in this garden and he told us that since last fall there is 3 spots not used at all. Jay called them and wrote an email asking if they are doing something with those spots or if they have anybody on this list willing to garden. They wrote back they are still waiting for people to asnwer to theirs mails about those spots. We walked by that place a few days ago and we saw a few empty spots… Still!? We asked them about those spots about a month ago! What the heck?! We are willing to start right away and they don’t care. That really sucks.
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Don’t give up! They should have a cut-off date. Ask about that. If someone doesn’t respond to an email by a certain date, they lose the plot. It’s only fair. Keep pestering them. And why couldn’t they till up a couple extra plots anyway? If the demand is so high, another one should be started. 72 people are enough for two more gardens!
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It looks great! I love the idea of starting seeds in the toilet paper rolls.
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that you. we did some more gardening last Sunday. Oh… can’t wait for those fresh tomatoes. Starting seeds in toilet paper rolls is my mom’s idea 🙂
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Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
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