Thursday, November 5, 2009

My Compost Plans

I want to put a compost pile in the back yard where the doghouse used to be. I'm planning to dismantle the concrete blocks on this raised bed and use them to enclose the compost pile.



That plant in front is a Shasta daisy. I might keep it, I'm not sure. When we first bought the house, this little bed was a mess, full of weeds and dotted haphazardly with Johnny jump-ups. I just think it looks rather odd sitting there, it seems to have no relation with anything else in the front yard. So my plans are to move the concrete blocks into the back yard and then extend this bed so that it joins the shrub/tree bed right next to it. I have a honeysuckle that I got at the spring swap that I want to plant here. I also recently ordered some native shrub seedlings from the Pierce County Conservation Commission and my plan is to put some of them in here as well.

Here's what I ordered:
Viburnum trilobum (American cranberry)
Ribes sanguineum (Red flowering currant, I've heard it is a hummingbird attractor)
Cornus stolonifera (Red Osier dogwood)
Physocarpus capitata (Ninebark)
Sambucus racemosa (Red Elderberry)
Vaccinium ovatum (Evergreen huckleberry)
Arctostaphyllus uva-ursi (Kinnikinnick, also called manzanita)
Lonicera involucrata (Twinberry)

They won't all go in there of course. I want to start a bird bed in the back yard.

Umm...you may have noticed a preference for red in this and previous posts. I think I may have been a hummingbird in a previous life. Too bad I don't also have the hummingbird's metabolism.