Earlier this week we had quite a bit of rainy and cool weather. When it turned out to be a nice morning yesterday I decided to take advantage of it while I could and took my daughter out with me for a bit of fall clean up.

For whatever reason, my daughter loves to “help” out with the compost. She likes to throw things into it and act like she is turning it with a stick. Yesterday I needed to harvest the last of our third pile before the winter rains come and the finished compost gets washed away.

I have three piles going at once: one that is finished, one that is almost finished, and one that I am adding material to. This makes for a nice rotation and it also means I almost always have some compost ready to be used. Plus the worms just migrate from pile to pile. This is an added bonus as I have found that ever since they moved in and completely populated my piles the compost is ready to be used a lot faster. Worms: a gardener’s best friend!

I knew my daughter would be happy to help me in this department and we both ended up having a lot of fun. As I scooped out the finished compost from the pile I placed it in a wheelbarrow and she “sifted” it for me as you can see in the picture below.

She even found a worm and had fun examining it.

Awhile back I wrote about the invasive Scotch Broom that lined the back of my yard. My 14 year old took care of removing them several weeks back and now we are left with a gaping hole that looks out onto some bare lots. It is not very pretty to look out at. I am going to replace the Scotch Broom with various shrubs that will attract birds and butterflies. I already have two that are waiting to be put in their permanent hole up where the Scotch Broom once resided. In the below picture you can see the gaping hole where the Scotch Broom was removed. I think one of the plants will look really nice next to the large boulders you can see in the picture. (We did not place them there. They came with all the other millions of rocks this soil is full of!)

The compost my daughter and I gathered up yesterday is being set aside to amend the planting holes for the two new residents. I can not wait to get these two into the ground and hope to do so this week. One is a Buddleia davidii ‘Pink Delight’ and the other, which I am very excited about, is an Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) called Black Beauty. This beautiful plant sports really pretty, dark purple foliage. The flowers are pink and lemon scented. Following the blooms are the purple elderberries that are not only edible but also a favorite of our feathered friends. The berries can be used to make a medicinal syrup that is amazing at helping with colds and flu. Every bit of this plant makes me excited to have it!

Sambucus nigra ‘Black Beauty’

above photo courtsey of Proven Winners

I have a few more plants on my wish list to go next to these two and I am sure I will be writing more about this area of the yard in the near future.