In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"George.com" wrote in message
...
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


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

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.

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

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deput.../compost_sum/s
ubmit.htm

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!
*

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA
"Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound
or outward circumference of Energy.
Energy is Eternal Delight"
William Blake