I finally got around to switching out the compost bin this past weekend. Originally it was a circular structure about two yards in diameter made of 2X4 fencing with a couple of feet of rat wire around the bottom to hold in the small material after breakdown. This served us well for nearly 18 years as a fill and forget (no turn) bin system. The new bin was made of three untreated skids with the lower slits covered over with planks from a fourth skid. The front was closed off with a section of the old bin held in place with two T-posts.
But I thought it was time to give this a bit more attention and convert over to a bin that is turned on a regular basis. This switch out was only the second time in 18 years that I've harvested true compost. After removing the top foot or so of undigested material I was able to pull out 8 wheelbarrow loads of good quality compost. This went directly to the main patch for augmenting the soil.
Other than that, the weather continues to be unusually cold with two nights this past weekend getting down to freezing. This most likely will lead to some loss of strawberry blossoms. But since they are so thick, a little thinning might be good.
