And now for something completely different: Compost

OK, I realize that not everyone can compost, for various reasons. But it is so rewarding, and you might be able to do it in a small way. For example, coffee grounds. They don't attract rodents or bugs, so if you have even a little bit of land, you can at least compost coffee grounds. Keeps them out of the landfill and they become a real treat for your plants.

Many years ago, when I was still renting my house, I bought one of those black plastic compost bins, and mostly what I put into it was coffee grounds, with the occasional mushroom end and turning-brownish lettuce leaf. I was very worried about varmints, so I didn't put much else in there. I had it fairly close to my back door, because the yard where I was renting was literally a jungle. (Later, when I pulled up a lot of ivy, I discovered a patio!)

Every couple of years, I moved the compost bin back a couple of feet, further from the house. I eventually bought the house.

So it has been years, and the compost bin is now in what I call the wayback. But I still take out the coffee grounds and mushroom ends, add some shredded leaves and my shredded financial documents. I dare identity thieves to tackle that pile!

I can grow ANYTHING in the side of the garden where the compost bin used to be, well, anything that doesn't need tons of direct sunlight. You must understand, most of my yard is heavy clay soil. Not there. There, it is easy to dig, the soil is full of worms, and it's obviously still fairly rich in nutrients. Plants just thrive there. And when I harvest compost, I put a lot of it on areas that didn't get the same treatment, and honestly, I have roses blooming where I have no right to have them.

Over the winter, I noticed that things weren't really decomposing in the bin. Well, it was cold, and dry. Micro-organisms are apparently smarter in some ways than we are. They hibernated. But the other day, I took my coffee grounds out, and for fun, grabbed a stick and gave things a stir.

Compost. We had had a couple of warm days, a couple of showers, and, voila, I have a cubic yard of brown gold. My roses can't wait. I just have to wait for those shredded documents, that I just put in, to rot a little more.