We cleaned up the comm garden pile earlier this week. That took some work - I was not able to get to it much last year, and no one else did it so it was a brush pile. Got to it before the rain at least. I bought a super tomahawk last spring and keep it over at the garden, so it should not be hard to keep up with. The problem is getting the other gardeners to follow the basic rules for what goes where.

So what was composted? Everything in the green pile from last June through now was run through that shredder! The freshest were my brussels sprouts stalks. A few weeks back I cut them to plant peas there, before I realized what I was seeing. They were starting to produce again! And I cut them out to throw in the compost. Idiot.

I don’t do my compost correctly, the green/brown layering and stirring, but whatever, there’s billions of organisms in there that miraculously chew all this debris up and make some rich compost. Not very much compost in the scheme of things, but I manage to use a little here and there when I need to and it saves me a trip to the feedstore to buy a bag of compost. I have an additional bin that gets any overage.

A huge pile of dead goldfish. We have a large pond which contained hundreds of goldfish for several years. Some were Koi, and there were some Fantails. Sadly, we had lots of thaws over the winter, which caused the ice to melt and re-freeze, often trapping the fish which then froze to death.

Hubby is very disappointed as he fed them every day and loved it when they all came to greet him at feeding time .

@Labradors I can commiserate with your husband. A few years ago, I had a goldfish pond that I kept water circulating year round, and covered during the winter. My goldfish got excited whenever I would walk by, thinking it was feeding time. Unfortunately some kids threw some laundry tablets in the ponds and killed the goldfish. I ended up digging out a section of garden boxes, interring the fish, and covering them up with soil. Now every year when I plant something there, I am reminded of the now defunct goldfish pond.

@pondgardener

So sorry to hear the demise of your goldfish, and not even by the hand of mother nature . So sad!

About 15 years ago, we had a similar devastating crisis after a very hard winter. We gathered up all the dead fish and put them in the freezer until the ground had warmed. Then we planted three trees in their honour, and buried the dead fish around the planting holes. The two willows and a Starburst locust are now quite big, and serve as a lasting reminder of our lovely fish.

pondgardener wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2025 5:48 pm @Labradors I can commiserate with your husband. A few years ago, I had a goldfish pond that I kept water circulating year round, and covered during the winter. My goldfish got excited whenever I would walk by, thinking it was feeding time. Unfortunately some kids threw some laundry tablets in the ponds and killed the goldfish. I ended up digging out a section of garden boxes, interring the fish, and covering them up with soil. Now every year when I plant something there, I am reminded of the now defunct goldfish pond.

I remember that. How terribly sad. Do you have any other ponds running or was that the only one?

Today another gallon pail of kitchen scraps (veg peelings etc) got dumped into the gamma-lidded 5 gallon bucket on the back porch. So now that bucket is 3/4 full and when it's full (probably after the next full pail), it will be toted to the compost bins down at the garden. At that point I will turn the working pile, layering in the contents of that 5 gallon bucket and more leaves. It works.