The moral of the compost bin story...

Well some of my planning from last week paid off as we did set about emptying our compost bins.

However my plan to disappear didn't quite work out, although I did manage to persuade MOH to do most of the shovelling!  Well he was keen to... and I did throw in the occasional spade or two...

We have two compost bins -  both of the black "dalek" variety - they're not attractive, but hey it's a compost bin and most of the time we don't see them.

I had to smile when we removed the bin's dalek-like shell (that's the Royal "we" there) to reveal our compost with box clipping "hair!"

I'd seriously under-estimated how much compost one dalek bin could hold.  So much so, that now I have to work out when to empty the second compost bin.  The immediate answer is "not now" as there's nowhere to store it...  Soon maybe.

We filled an old green plastic dustbin, three trugs and two large plant pots.  I'll use some of this in my new patio pots and I'm sure I'll find plenty of other uses around the garden.  I'm not tempted to shovel it into plastic sacks though as that just sounds a faff too far.

I think the moral of the compost bin story is to empty it more regularly! 

We worked out that it was probably four years ago when we tried emptying this one through that silly little hole at the bottom.  It's a much better idea to just go for it and pull the top off! 

And I'm not sure we've emptied the second bin at all, so hopefully the compost in there will be at least just as good, if not better (or more composted).

We were very popular with the local Robins, this one was happy to pose for a few photos...

It's great to have the company of a Robin or two while you work.

So back to it...

In the greenhouse, the three cucumbers which appeared when we went away for the weekend continue to grow. This one's almost ready for picking, there's a second that's not too far behind it and the third appears to be growing in an L-shape, so it could literally have Youngest Niece's name all over it!

There's a few smaller cukes on the way too, so let's hope the tomatoes catch up so we can have that salad.  

The tomatoes growing in pots just outside the greenhouse - which is a good thing as they'd be swamped by my two triffid cucumbers! At the moment I have precisely three tomatoes that are doing anything remotely close to ripening. 

Hopefully the rest will get the idea and follow suit.  There's a while yet before I start digging out green tomato chutney and ketchup recipes!

What's growing in your garden?