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Dirt.
I feel the need to talk about my dirt.
Not the regular dust that settles on any flat surface in this apartment, no, that goes without saying it'll happen since I shed so damn much. No, I'm gonna talk about my compost heap.
As you probably already read, I bought a clear plastic storage bin from Walmart one fine April day and brought it home to use as a mini-compost heap. I couldn't find a damned handspade (and I still can't because the dollar store is stupid) and I'm using a toy plastic shovel a friend gave to me. With it I dug up some dirt from underneath and behind the house next to my apartment building which I'm sure won't be missed. The plastic shovel feels like it's breaking half the time I use it though, so I better get a handspade of my own fast.
I started off with the tulips I had bought two weeks prior and were wilting and some white paper from my little quote calendar. And some sandpaper too, since I'd made my wand the day after. Some of the sandpaper and some bits of the white paper are still there since they take longer to break down. I'm contemplating getting a glass bowl to soak the paper in before throwing it in, just to see if it'll help. If it doesn't... well, then I'll just get fish.
Let me discuss the history of my fascination with dirt in this manner.
When I was a child, we had rabbits, and we got a huge cage for them. The rabbits died, the cage was left.
Now, my dad's a bit of a tree-hugger, so he lopped off the top of the cage, threw in dead leaves and branches he had raked up in the backyard, threw in some soil, and said to my brother and me, "that's a compost heap. Eventually the leaves will break down into dirt, and that'll be very good for plants." He encouraged us to go into the compost heap and stir things up a little. That meant a free pass to climb in and stomp the leaves to our hearts' content, and get dirty. What kid wouldn't want to get dirty?
As time went on, we renovated our backyard and there's just a trough now, with a small little plot of land where we grow kaduk plants (for curry) and a palm tree thing. When we have compost, we just throw it all out back and let it decay there themselves without stirring. My dad still stirs up the trough though. But he doesn't get to it quickly enough whenever I have grapes and the like in there - the squirrels come by.
So there's why I still have a fascination with compost heaps and most things earth-related - my dad's big on gardening and we have a wooly jungle outside our house my mom despises because it looks terrifically cluttered, but does Dad care? No. He's the one out there every Sunday weeding our immaculate grass, so no one else has cause to complain.
I'm not find of dirt getting under my fingernails, nor do I like creepy-crawlies (except earthworms, earthworms are cool in my book), but I like working with earth. I live on the 14th floor, so I figure, this will be a good start to having anything close to a garden.
I watch my compost heap every day, or at least, every other day. Sometimes the bin is outside, usually when the weather is fairly warm, or at least wet. Sometimes the bin is inside, next to the heater because I hear heat helps the decomposting.
Now. I know there was an ant, a bug with many legs and a worm in there somewhere. Somehow, though, I haven't been able to find them. I probably accidentally killed them, I dig up my compost heap a lot. I can't help but stir it every evening when I contemplate it. When it gets too dry and dusty, I just pour water into it to "wet the eath". Of course, I kinda end up making it all kinda mushy and gross-looking, but look at me, look, does it look like I care? Of course not! That's half the fun! When the dirt is dry, it's brown, but right now, it's all wet since I stirred in a whole bottle of water, so it's black. I can't wait for it to get brown and dusty again - I'll do it all over again!
The tulips are gone now, which surprised me since I hadn't been keeping exact track of the decaying process, but I think it's cool. I had daffodils too, and I threw those in. The flowers are almost gone, but the stems are still there. I guess now that I'm beginning to add vegetables to my diet, I better have a place to throw the stems I don't want. I love buying flowers to decorate my home with, but I hate the idea of throwing them into the trash. Where're they going to go?? They came from dirt, so they might as well go back to dirt, and strange as it may sound, I feel better that the flowers aren't going to some incinerator somewhere or buried in a garbage pit wrapped in plastic.
I think we don't give dirt enough credit. I do know the meaning of dirt cheap now - 40kg of dirt is just three dollars at Superstore now, ya'll - but you know... dirt helps the flowers grow, and that's beautiful.
Sometimes I think the dirt's alive. Like, I'll dig and there'll be a little lump of soil stuck together. I'll break it up only to find that it's been wrapping something in it - piece of paper, a piece of stem (I try to make everything I throw in there in as small pieces as possible) or a flower. How does one figure that?
There are definite conveniences for having a compost heap. My table's next to the balcony door, so I brought in the bin, ate lychees and dumped the lychee skins into the bin while sitting down in the comfort of my chair.
I don't really know what to do with the dirt once the bin gets to full capacity. Maybe I'll start growing stuff.
Bulbs. Yes.
Not the regular dust that settles on any flat surface in this apartment, no, that goes without saying it'll happen since I shed so damn much. No, I'm gonna talk about my compost heap.
As you probably already read, I bought a clear plastic storage bin from Walmart one fine April day and brought it home to use as a mini-compost heap. I couldn't find a damned handspade (and I still can't because the dollar store is stupid) and I'm using a toy plastic shovel a friend gave to me. With it I dug up some dirt from underneath and behind the house next to my apartment building which I'm sure won't be missed. The plastic shovel feels like it's breaking half the time I use it though, so I better get a handspade of my own fast.
I started off with the tulips I had bought two weeks prior and were wilting and some white paper from my little quote calendar. And some sandpaper too, since I'd made my wand the day after. Some of the sandpaper and some bits of the white paper are still there since they take longer to break down. I'm contemplating getting a glass bowl to soak the paper in before throwing it in, just to see if it'll help. If it doesn't... well, then I'll just get fish.
Let me discuss the history of my fascination with dirt in this manner.
When I was a child, we had rabbits, and we got a huge cage for them. The rabbits died, the cage was left.
Now, my dad's a bit of a tree-hugger, so he lopped off the top of the cage, threw in dead leaves and branches he had raked up in the backyard, threw in some soil, and said to my brother and me, "that's a compost heap. Eventually the leaves will break down into dirt, and that'll be very good for plants." He encouraged us to go into the compost heap and stir things up a little. That meant a free pass to climb in and stomp the leaves to our hearts' content, and get dirty. What kid wouldn't want to get dirty?
As time went on, we renovated our backyard and there's just a trough now, with a small little plot of land where we grow kaduk plants (for curry) and a palm tree thing. When we have compost, we just throw it all out back and let it decay there themselves without stirring. My dad still stirs up the trough though. But he doesn't get to it quickly enough whenever I have grapes and the like in there - the squirrels come by.
So there's why I still have a fascination with compost heaps and most things earth-related - my dad's big on gardening and we have a wooly jungle outside our house my mom despises because it looks terrifically cluttered, but does Dad care? No. He's the one out there every Sunday weeding our immaculate grass, so no one else has cause to complain.
I'm not find of dirt getting under my fingernails, nor do I like creepy-crawlies (except earthworms, earthworms are cool in my book), but I like working with earth. I live on the 14th floor, so I figure, this will be a good start to having anything close to a garden.
I watch my compost heap every day, or at least, every other day. Sometimes the bin is outside, usually when the weather is fairly warm, or at least wet. Sometimes the bin is inside, next to the heater because I hear heat helps the decomposting.
Now. I know there was an ant, a bug with many legs and a worm in there somewhere. Somehow, though, I haven't been able to find them. I probably accidentally killed them, I dig up my compost heap a lot. I can't help but stir it every evening when I contemplate it. When it gets too dry and dusty, I just pour water into it to "wet the eath". Of course, I kinda end up making it all kinda mushy and gross-looking, but look at me, look, does it look like I care? Of course not! That's half the fun! When the dirt is dry, it's brown, but right now, it's all wet since I stirred in a whole bottle of water, so it's black. I can't wait for it to get brown and dusty again - I'll do it all over again!
The tulips are gone now, which surprised me since I hadn't been keeping exact track of the decaying process, but I think it's cool. I had daffodils too, and I threw those in. The flowers are almost gone, but the stems are still there. I guess now that I'm beginning to add vegetables to my diet, I better have a place to throw the stems I don't want. I love buying flowers to decorate my home with, but I hate the idea of throwing them into the trash. Where're they going to go?? They came from dirt, so they might as well go back to dirt, and strange as it may sound, I feel better that the flowers aren't going to some incinerator somewhere or buried in a garbage pit wrapped in plastic.
I think we don't give dirt enough credit. I do know the meaning of dirt cheap now - 40kg of dirt is just three dollars at Superstore now, ya'll - but you know... dirt helps the flowers grow, and that's beautiful.
Sometimes I think the dirt's alive. Like, I'll dig and there'll be a little lump of soil stuck together. I'll break it up only to find that it's been wrapping something in it - piece of paper, a piece of stem (I try to make everything I throw in there in as small pieces as possible) or a flower. How does one figure that?
There are definite conveniences for having a compost heap. My table's next to the balcony door, so I brought in the bin, ate lychees and dumped the lychee skins into the bin while sitting down in the comfort of my chair.
I don't really know what to do with the dirt once the bin gets to full capacity. Maybe I'll start growing stuff.
Bulbs. Yes.