Some people call it Black Gold. I like to think of it as Dirt Salad.
It's COMPOST, and it's a frugal gardener's dream.
All year long I feed my backyard compost heap, little by little, with vegetable and fruit peels, eggshells, coffee grounds (lots of coffee grounds!) tea bags, floor sweepings, dryer lint.*
I throw in a shovelful of soil, and a handful of dead leaves once in a while, and let it get rained on. In the spring, I turn it over and dig into the center, where the earthworms live, and shovel out just enough rich, black, organic composted potting soil to fill my flower boxes- for free!
Just planted a few minutes ago. They'll perk up when they dig their roots into that Dirt Salad!
*To me, it's like recycling, only with "garbage." I'm already recycling paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, etc., so this is one more category of stuff I can keep out of the trashcan.
