Roses & Compost

Our red Rose has shown its appreciation of the Miracle Grow and extra fertilizer that it received earlier this spring. This is the best that it has bloomed in the last few years. The River Birch makes a nice backdrop for the rosebush and our Petunia planting. The Blue Bird Bath gives the planting a nice Red, White & Blue effect. I mulched the bed lightly with material from our compost bin recently and am surprised at the number of volunteer Tomato plants that have come up in the area. Some years ago, I was on a tour that visited a farm near Kearney, NE. The farmer was taking material from the City Waste Disposal facility and composting it with manure from his feedlot. There were rows of this material a couple feet in height and every couple days he would "mix" the material to give the microbes an opportunity for further "action". Some of the rows that had been composted  were still on site and were beginning to turn green with tomato plants. He explained  that the Tomato seeds were not effected by the "digesting" and "composting" processes. Oh yes, he also pointed out that the finished compost also contained condoms that survived the processes. A Rose is a Rose, is a Rose.