Compost + Rain

My newly-established compost pile has been rained on since last night... a good soaking rain that has probably turned the vegetable peelings and fruit rinds and coffee grounds and tea bags into drippings that have seeped into the weeds that were pulled up out of the flowerbeds. Friend C tells me that the old weeds along with the newer fruit and veggie bits will be like 'gold for the garden' once that compost pile gets to breaking itself down into minerals and nutrients and all-things-good for the flowerbeds.

I will take her word for that, being that she's been gardening in these Hills for decades now, and I'm only a novice at all of this. I've seen C put her hands into that dirt without wearing gloves and I just cringe at that... she dug up a long earthworm and was so pleased with her discovery... you would have thought she had found the Hope Diamond in that dirt.  I saw that worm and closed my eyes, turned my back, and started walking backwards towards the porch.

"It's only a worm," she told me.
"One worm is all I need to get me back in the house," said I.

My husband was so shocked that I was out in the backyard wearing gardening gloves that he went into the house to get the camera and actually took a photo of C and I, both wearing gloves....... C was pulling out the weeds and I was putting them into a bucket and bringing them to the compost pile. C is definitely the gardener, I am the mere apprentice. She laughs at my weed-pulling skills, which are close to non-existent. C can work out in that yard for three or four hours straight.... I get bored with it after just half an hour. All that dirt... and the worms underneath... and the ants.... not exactly my cup of tea.

About three years ago, however, I cleaned up the flowerbeds and put down new mulch.... I planted some azaleas and a cute little green shrub, and a beautiful yellow tree.... and I was quite proud of my accomplishment. However... the azaleas died, the little green shrub bloomed with just two flowers, and the yellow tree shriveled up when the temperature got over 100 degrees that summer. When I saw all of my work get blasted and burnt by the summer heat, I threw in the shovel and quit.

C told me I had the azaleas in the wrong place.... the mulch might not have been the right mixture for the soil, the yellow tree probably needed some shade instead of full afternoon sun... but she did like my placement of the garden gnomes and the little ceramic ducks. She also told me that I didn't buy any of the correct plants and flowers.... "You need low-maintenance, drought-resistant plants that will come up year after year in those flowerbeds!"

So now... C is in charge of the gardening. She told me to get myself to Lowe's last weekend because they had good mulch on sale, so we got 5 bags of that... and would have bought more but that's all we could fit into the trunk.  I'm saving every fruit/veggie thing for the compost pile, and raking it all underneath the weeds so every raccoon in the Hills here doesn't feast out there after midnight. As I said, I'm just the apprentice out there in my garden. And with any luck, she may decide not to fire me.