Garden Geekery!

Proud garden moment of the week: My compost pile was steaming!
Ok... let me explain.
Before now, I have tried composing but since we didn't have a yard it was confined to a Rubermaid tote and was really slow. I never had enough garden "waste" to make a substantial pile. Since we have moved, that has all changed.
Composting needs "greens" (fresh grass, fruit/vegi scraps, etc.) and "browns" (dried leaves, paper, etc.)
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/compost/Home3.htm

Now thanks to Dear Husband (DH) and his fantastic lawn mowing, I had three full bags of fresh grass clippings. Perrrrrfect. Add that to the straw that had been covering my potted plants for the winter, water, mix well... and let it sit. Only two days later I went to mix it, and low and behold: Steam!
Steam is good because heat is a byproduct of the decomposition process, so it means it is working really well. I am so excited that my first (real) attempt at composting is going so well. I asked DH if it was silly to be proud of a compost pile. He said no, but I still feel a little ridiculous being proud of a steaming pile of... straw.





Other updates in the garden area:
Here are the hops just starting to pop out of the soil. Ok, so they are only a couple inches tall, but that is better than last year!







Here is Eva being a fabulous garden helper, and the garlic in the background is doing pretty well. The left container is great, but the right container is struggling. Weird, since I gave them the same conditions. I think the left one had too much water...










And here are my mutant tomato "seedlings." Yeah... some are nearly a foot tall. I really need to transplant them this weekend. Ooops.