Using our OWN Compost

We began an experiment today. Since early summer, I've been using the other side of the compost bin, letting this side marinate. It looks like dirt now. It probably is dirt. 

I pulled the plants left over in the squash bed. I raked the dirt. And then I threw a shovel full - about an inch to two inches of our own Steepmeadow compost into the bed, mixed it in, and mulched it to protect the soil over the winter with a mix of leaves and grass clippings.

This first bed with this treatment will be home to snow peas and cucumbers next spring.

Ideally, the soil will have been recharged by the compost. 

We shall see. We're going to do a few different things in different beds. It looks like we have compost enough for a few of them, and I trust it enough to do that. I also want to try a sack of manure in at least one (we had good luck with that up by the house), and the beet/broccoli bed has a cover crop of wheat grass. We'll see what works best.

I'm rooting for the compost. It's free!