Wednesday 4 April 2012

#210: Cake vs Compost

Practically every one of my New Zealand friends has a beautiful garden, and coincidentally, they all have some sort of scheme for composting.  While we were there, I admired home-built composters and heard how they were layered (like lasagna) with horse poo, the secret ingredient.  I also checked out a couple of heavy duty,  plastic compost systems including a very intriguing worm composter that reduced organic waste to compost and potent "worm juice".  (At least that is what my gardening friend called it as she checked on her hundred-or-so red wigglers and their outputs.)

Tonight, as my husband and I went for a walk,  I broached the possibility of  replacing our bottom-of-the-yard rubbish heap with a proper compost bin.  I enthused about the ones I had seen in New Zealand--especially the worm composter.

I should not have been surprised by his response.  We both made that trip, but I was the one who admired various gardens, peering into compost bins.

"Worms would not survive a Canadian winter", he pointed out.

"But we can take them inside", I offered. 

That did it.  He abruptly stopped walking and even in the dark, I could tell he looked appalled. 

"You can look after the compost", he said, "and I'll bake".

I like a man who accepts his share of  household responsibility.  So now I have a new retirement project: set up a compost system in the back yard .  And it should not involve worms -- not if I want a piece of cake.


3 comments:

  1. Oh Nancy,
    I laughed until I was sore, then I got Jim to read it and we both laughed together.
    It's a perfect 'Nancy and Bruce' story.

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  2. worms would survive a Canadian winter. at least i think they will. they survive in the ground just fine, so i think you could have worms outside. couldn't you? you can put your reference librarian skills to work and research it.

    the worms can be new pets!

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  3. I am going to purchase some sort of composter for the garden, so i will ask about worms in winter. But I think they will not survive-- they won't have any loamy insulation the way they would in the ground. My NZ friend was sure her worms had died during the unseasonal cold but by Canadian standards it was hardly cold at all. Not even below zero. Of course, it was 'summer". I asked what happened to dead worms. They turn into worm juice.

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