Garden bully

[George.com]

I am growing potatos in tyres and they are thriving. One stack is 5 tryes high and still going. I started running out of soil to throw in the tyres so last weekend I went round to a mates compost bin to dig some compost out. Its typical back yard compost, a large mound of material slowly rotting down with a humus of material on top, better stuff further down and a covering of weeds.

I scraped back the weeds and turfed the top humus to one side before extracting several sacks worth of the better stuff. I took it home and have started shoving it in my tyres.

Anyhow, on the sunday night my friend called asking if I had a pumpkin plant in my sacks. His lad had come home from a weekend with his mum & rushed up the garden to see how the pumpkin plant he had growing in the compost pile was doing. It was a giant pumpkin he was going to enter a competition with. He came back down the garden in tears, some how the pumpkin plant had 'dissappeared'.

During my dig I had assumed the pumpkin plant was another weed and likely turfed it to one side. The lad was distraught and I felt sorry for him, but at the same time I did have to laugh.

rob

[Ann]

"George.com" expounded:

Why laugh? The poor guy was letting the pumpkin grow - I think it's a shame. I've let all types of cucurbits grow in compost, they're easily recognizable and while they probably won't produce anything like the parent, it's always interesting what develops.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Why did you have to laugh? Are you normally permitted to access the neighbor's compost bin?

[Bill]

While searching for compost thief found this...

Bill who has a lid on his piles and is invited by his neighbors to take all that rotten stuff away. Even leaves in plastic bags! We live in a wooded area and we now have leaf pick up. Crazy.

..........................

My Rottin' Poem by Leigh T

I love my compost pile! It thrills me to the bone To think that yesterday's wilted slop Will enhance the crops I've grown! I garden with a passion, And I compost with a zeal. I collect the coffee grounds at work And treasure every peel. In my cellar I compost in winter To my son's dismay. Though sweet to me, the smell can chase Unwanted guests away. My pile in the summer Is a different sad, sad, story. The dog next door gulps the gourmet treat, Then regurgitates in glory. The egg-shells never make it To calcify my plants. The birds steal most of the precious shards Or they're toted off by ants. The peels get strewn about my lawn By some midnight compost thief. I try to promptly pick up the stuff, Before the neighbors give me grief. My composting efforts without a bin Have been daunting, to say the least. By the time the stuff finally starts to rot, It gets eaten by some beast. So you see, kind folks at DEP Why it's for a bin I pray. If I can clean up my compost act, The neighbors might let me stay!  

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Actually, my question was a surrogate for a different one. Let's wait and see what the response is.

[FarmI]

Ah Rob! You are indeed a garden bully! Nicely titled thread too (even if it seems that some didn't recognise the irony)! Perhaps you can take the lad under your wing and show him round your garden and show him how to really go about growing pumpkins that he might be proud to enter into a competition.

[George.com]

Dad had a good laugh about it too. He had to go out the next day a buy his lad another giant pumpkin seedling. The poor lad was totally bemused how his pumpkin plant had dissappeared over the weekend. I was helping his old man do some painting inside & got the envious job of painting slatted wardrobe doors which was a shit of a job. Unfortunately Crooks compost heap looked like a mound of weeds. Hard to differentiate what was a pumpkin plant and what was simply unwanted. A typical back yard compost heap with things like 'organic' plastic bags, bits of wrapper & cigarette butts. Next time I 'borrow' some compost Crook will need to guide me past the replacement pumpkin plant.

rob

ps I don't grow pumpkins, not too partial to the taste.

[FarmI]

Didn't the lad notice that the 'compost heap' had lost a heap of it's contents in addition to his pumpkin plant?

I was helping his old man

Eeeew! Brings on palpitations jsut thinking of it!

Unfortunately Crooks compost heap looked

But you are a good gardener from the things I remember you having written in the past. I'm sure you could give him some tips on growing his veggies in decent surrounding and with some care. I doubt whether you'd need to be a pumpkin expert to give him better advice than he's getting now :-))