Winter compost

As much as I snickered earlier this week about the thought of gardening in Newfoundland in April, I have no problem with doing garden chores ... especially with most of the snow in the yard now only a memory. (Where do all these coffee cups and chip bags come from, though?)

The big task: hauling out much of the compost I've been stockpiling over the winter, or at least since snowdrifts were large enough to deter me from putting on a coat and trudging through the back yard.

I've been using the same system more than 15 years: keeping an empty (and washed, of course) two-litre milk carton by the sink, ready for peels, grinds and all that rot. In summer, it's a slice to trot out and dump into the two composters I have running; when it's cold, I wimp out, and keep them piled in the thankfully freezing garage. More recently, I've been stacking them around the corner of the house, waiting for a fine enough day.

So, today it was. The compost heaps left over from last fall are still mostly frozen, but I've now added enough of a kicker to make this year's zucchini, herbs and flowers zing. Nearby, I have 10 oversized bags of leaves, donated by a neighbour; they'll be my main carbon source when things heat up.

Gardening is still theoretical, but getting ready does make you think. As I dumped out one container after another, I made mental notes of what can change, what could get planted ... and, yes, how much there will be to mow.