mike's web log/comments

I'm not much of a gardener -- my interest in gardening mostly centers around power tools, I suppose, such as the lawnmower. But I do keep a compost heap. I don't really use it to make compost for the garden (see previous sentence), but it has come in handy when, for example, Erica does some work in my flower beds. It also just seems a shame to throw away garbage that has some potential for reuse. Even if I won't necessarily use the compost, I know that there are a bunch of happy worms toward the bottom of the heap.

Given all this, I don't disturb my pile much. Serious composters turn their piles frequently and aerate them and water them and such. I subscribe instead to the theory that eventually the stuff will turn into compost. It just might take a couple years. Or more.

Today I went to throw some more table scraps on top of the heap and noticed again that there were plants growing out of the pile.




It's not unusual to see weeds growing out of the super-rich soil. This plant did not look weedy, though. I thought it might be a tomato, but a closer look made it clear that I had a pepper plant growing. Every weekend we make tacos and some salsa cruda to go with them, and the remnants of the chopped-up jalapeños have apparently taken root, literally. In fact, the plant has been growing so long and so vigorously that it even has fruit:




It seems a shame to rip out a plant that has done so much better than my other attempts to ever grow edibles. Perhaps I'll see about transplanting it to a container. I doubt the plant would be much happier than where it is now, though.