Where'd that big pile of compost come from?

Well before our intrepid heroes return, I figured I better explain the big pile of compost in their garden and how it got there. What pile?

All that grass that was cut before we arrived. but near the house it was already growing back. Its good to gather it in one spot if the mower is not a mulching mower, but since that wasn't the case, all the better for some raking exercise.

We raked quite a bit of it, dry stuff and freshly cut material, but there's still lots more out there, and that stuff, as we all know, grows FAST!

To the newly mown grass we added newly weeded weeds from the surrounding area.
(Matt getting ready to waste the weeds)
Then the fun part; alternate layers of nitrogen rich and dead, brown carbon material, and we soon had a healthy looking pile.

No thermometer to prove it, but I can confirm it was getting hot enough for some steamy microbe orgy action by the next day.
As for the path, I laid down card and paper to stop weeds growing back, and piled up with the excess dry grass we gathered which we didn't add to the compost pile. Eh viola!

Hopefully the card and paper has stopped the weeds from coming back, and you can walk down beside the veggie patch to the compost pile and onward to the tomatoes and other treats growing there. A little work was done inside that veggie patch too for soil preparation, but that's another story!

beginning at the backdoor

A morning of weeding. I have ignored this area for a couple of days, since its a short trek around it to get to the rest of the utility areas and the acreage beyond. While pulling up grass I remember being told their might be snakes around the property. So suspecting all the while one will leap out at me, I make as much noise as I can, talking to the bugs and spiders as I go.

What a marvelous diguise, hidden behind all this grass and weeds...

I found some steps :)


Before and after, looking the other way, towards the house. This area is shaded quite a bit, from the house one way, and trees the other. It also picks up lovely cool easterly breezes in the afternoon. Altogether it looks like a great spot for afternoon tea :)

The steps will need some rebuilding, but they are fine for now. The tougher grass removed, the shorter finer grass can be left for now, its roots are holding the steep sides of this bank together. Some native ground cover, scurvy weed (Commelina_cyanea) which I ripped out but left in place should easily take again and populate the bank with lush leaves and tiny blue flowers.

Time for a glass of water I think!