Today I attacked the god forsaken rubbish tip and dog toilet that is the side of our house. It is a narrow passage, half dirt, half concrete, that houses the bins and collects many, many pine needles. The rubbish tip aspect is the little odds and sods that miss the bins or get blown out, and since nobody ever goes there (we access the bins from the verandah and a very well defined track to the front yard) the dog poo seems to compost away very quickly in the pine needles and dirt.
In short, it was pretty disgusting and I have been avoiding it on the basis of it being overwhelming for a long, long time. This morning, however, I was moved to action and went out in dirty clothes and gloves, removed the bins, grabbed a rake and got to work. It took all of about half an hour to clean it up completely, including trimming back the tree so that you no longer risk decapitation if you dare to venture past the bins.
Buoyed by my incredible efficiency, I went to the hardware store to buy the world's most expensive compost bin. It was chosen to hold all our vegetable waste and require no maintenance from me. I am prepared to pay a lot of money to not have to turn compost or keep worms alive. After a ridiculous hour long debacle in which anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, I got it home without getting even slightly irritated. Well, alright, when I finally got to the point of putting the thing in the car and I couldn't drive to where I needed to be because a black ute had parked slap bang in the middle of the driveway, I may have uttered something about "bloody ute drivers", but that was all!
Crash then got inspired and cut the bit of fence being used as an impromptu gate (for the last 6 years) down to a size to make a more sensible impromptu gate further down the side of the house, thus increasing the run for the kids and the dog. The whole area is still primarily a bin storage place, but I am now happy to walk down there, happy for the kids to play in the area and I have a *huge* compost bin which I half filled today. This is as close to gardening as I get.
Anybody like to take bets on how long it lasts?
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That's totally what I need to start composting -- a no maintenance bin. If you end up liking yours, can you tell me the brand?
ReplyDeleteI will let you know how it goes. It is an Aerobin, in case you want to check availability in the US.
ReplyDeleteWe bought a compost bin when we moved in 7.5 years ago. It lives down in the back corner of the backyard and I think I've put vegetable scraps in it exactly once. I believe the gardeners fill it with grass clippings.
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