Vegetables Growing From a Compost Bin!

In life, how often can you get something good for nothing? Never!

All my life I have worked hard for every single little thing we have in life.
Therefore, I was tickled pink this morning when I went out to our side yard and discovered something we never expected to happen.

The compost bin in our backyard

We have a compost bin in our backyard where we deposit all the vegetable peels, left over food ( except bones and meat) at the end of the day.

A couple years later, these left over food, vegetable peels and fruit skins will turn into rich black soil which we put back into our garden.

I thought :Wild plants & weeds growing near our compost bin

This is expected and is what we call composting - turning kitchen waste, putting it into a compost bin where the micros such as warms etc will do their magic, breaking the food waste turn and turning it into soil - a natural recycling process.


 However, what we didn't expect was vegetables growing out near our compost bin!

A healthy squash plant plant on the ground itself

We have been very busy and I haven't been out to our side yard much lately.

  Now we have found healthy squash and tomato plants both growing well on the ground!

This wild plant has gigantic size leaves growing near our compost bin

About a couple of weeks ago, when I was out watering the hanging baskets, I noticed a plant growing on the ground with great big green leaves.

I did not give it  much thought thinking it probably was some wild plants or weeds.

A flowering bud about to bloom on the squash plant

Then a little later I saw flower buds coming out of this plant big wild plant.

Not a green thumb person and possessing little knowledge about planting, I had not a clue what would happen next.








A week or so later,  some bright yellow big flowers started to bloom from these buds.

" They are pretty flowers," I thought to myself.

Pretty bright yellow flowers from the vegetable plant

Big beautiful yellow flowers are blooming; some have bloomed, withered, and the plant is now bearing fruits!!!

Squash from our side yard, I think, or are they cucumbers? Not sure

Home grown organic vegetable ready to be picked and enjoyed right in our own backyard!

A healthy tomato plant growing on its own near the compost bin!

How about that?  We have not done a thing ourselves.

This morning as I took a careful look near the compost bin, I found a healthy tomato plant and  some robust chives flowering ready to seed themselves.

 We will have more fresh vegetables in a few weeks ( if the racoons do not eat them first) !

Chive ready to seed themselves

It just dawned on me me that the seeds from the left over food we threw in the compost bin have germinated and taken on a life of their own!

However, we are city slickers who don't know much about growing things. We are not really sure what seeds have grown from our compost bin.

Getting something out of doing nothing has never been a part of our lives.  How lucky are we? This is a real pleasant surprise for us!


R.T.
Our Garden
Toronto, Ontario