Our vermicompost bin, post-harvest. (Hence it only has 2 trays, instead of 5) |
All that's involved in harvesting the finished compost product from our current bin is taking out the bottom tray from the stack, emptying the contents into a potted plant or the dirt pile I keep in our driveway, and then replacing the now-empty bin on top of the stack.
But as with all things in life, (dishes, email, and emptying the trash...) the longer you wait to do it, the more difficult the task becomes. And in the winter, I tend to find any excuse not to harvest our compost bin. This time around, my six-month-long exercise in exquisite procrastination has led to having three bottom trays ready to be emptied instead of just one, plus a whole lotta life growing throughout the system.
Upon separating all the trays, I discovered that we were accidentally growing:
- 2 celery stocks from cut celery bottoms
- 5 avocado trees
- A date tree (!!)
- A purple sweet potato (!!!)
- A zombie houseplant that I had deemed dead five months ago, but which has been growing from the root system that I intended to compost.
- Finally, a whole lot of pepper sprouts, including some that were most adorably growing inside of egg shells.
Pepper Sprouts |
Of course, I didn't think to photograph any of this until after I was done planting everything into pots (thus covering them up with soil) so I don't have much photographic evidence of the awesome fruits of our compost bin's labor, but once things start sprouting reaching sunlight from their pots I'll report back.
Celery |