Putting our composted yard and food waste to use

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This past month, with the help of a wonderful man known as “Dr. Arbol,” we welcomed twelve new fruit trees to our backyard.

They are, in Spanish:

Acerola, Pitanga, Limón, Aguacate, Mango, Panapen, Guanabana, Pomarrosa, Tamarindo, 2x Nim y Malagueta

In English:

Barbados Cherry, Surinam Cherry, Lemon, Avocado, Mango, Jackfruit, Soursop, Roseapple, Tamarind, 2x neem and West Indian Bay

Growing up in the Midwest I think I had only heard of three of these fruits, and I certainly never thought I’d have an orchard like this in my backyard to care for.

This brings us to the topic of this post: putting all the compost to good use!

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Dr. Arbol instructed us to add compost to the trees once a month, and just this past weekend they got their first dose.

• The first thing I needed to do was make sure my compost was ready. There’s a million resources online, but this 16 second video was my favorite.
• Next, I dumped out my (now two!) compost bins onto a tarp. The compost smelled nice and earthy.

• To get at the really broken down good stuff, I used an old dish rack to sift through the compost. I made a mess doing so and can definitely improve this next time around!

• Lastly, I added a layer around each tree, leaving some room around the trunk. And then I sprinkled some water on.

After adding compost to all twelve trees, I still had about 3/4 of a bin left. I’m going to let that one keep composting, rotating it each week to let some air in. I’ve started a new compost pile in the other bin. I’m hoping this two bin approach will work with the monthly cadence of using the compost.

According to Dr. Arbol, with some luck we might have fruit on some of the trees within six months! In future posts I’ll explore the different uses and properties of these trees. I’ve got a lot to learn.

Until next time, cheers!