garden98011's Blog

Black Gold
Mar 8, 2010 | 7:51 PM PST

We have talked about this in the past; GG members love rich, beautiful, black compost. Every year I add between 4-6 yards of this gold to my gardens (down from the previous 10!). Unbeknownst to me it turns out my husband dreaded the yearly delivery of black gold. You see, it takes us a couple of weekends and hundreds of wheelbarrow trips to move it around the yard. Now that all the children are all adults they are either away at college or seem to have some other excuse-regardless, they undoubtedly disappear when the gold is delivered.

Last year my husband said he resigned from hauling my gold. He wanted to have the compost blown in, but I knew he wouldn’t do that considering the huge expense. Plus, the added $ would buy a ton of plants and I would rather do sweat labor any day……

Well, last Friday I started planning my March calendar. My dad is taking me on an adventure to China on April 9th. We will be gone for 10 days so I realized we had to get the compost down asap. When I told my husband I needed to have it delivered by Monday (today), he repeated he was not going to haul it and to have the blower service come out! Soooooo, today I woke up extra early-all excited for the delivery.  Two nice men arrived bright and early with 10 yards (their minimum) of compost. They had it blown in place in an hour!!! They even moved the truck for no charge (usually $25 extra) to my neighbors and off loaded the last 2 yards on a tarp for her. Absolutely amazing to have the whole project done in basically 3 hours-after moving it away from the siding/fence/delicate plants already coming up and rinsing the remaining plants, etc.. I am in awe.

I am now a total convert and feel the extra expense was sooooo worth the time involved in my old approach. Considering I had to occasionally bribe the kids to help it was probably a wash. They do offer a service for less where you blow the compost yourself and I will absolutely do that next year. The nice man did blow it a bit deep in places and decimated a few tender plants…(hoping they will rebound). Hard work is important for children, but I am certain mine would have paid me to have it blown in years ago…lesson learned!

The oddest thing happened while I was watering after they left. The weather was very pleasant and sunny then it started to snow!!! Really just a sputtering, a hummingbird flew by and then the sun came out-goofy weather in the PNW!

I feel like I am so ahead of the gardening game now, I can hardly believe it! The time savings will allow me to focus on my moss filled lawn in the backyard. Plus my youngest daughter is transferring colleges so she will be home for a few months attending a local college before she moves. She needs to earn $$ so she said she would do whatever I want-even in the garden! I made her list today. If all goes as planned (does it ever?), we will have a lovely summer entertaining family & friends in the garden because it will be ready early!!!! I am going to hold on to that pleasant thought for a bit!

Hope you’re all gearing up for a tremendous spring! ~Andrea