Hey everyone,
Just wanted to share something that’s been quietly growing (and cooking!) in the corner of my backyard — my compost pile. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s become one of the things I’m most proud of this year. It’s sizeable, heavy, and backbreaking to turn with a shovel, but every time I do, I can’t help but feel a little admiration for what it’s become.
This whole project started in a pretty unique way. For a long while, I was growing mushrooms at home, and when that operation wrapped up, I was left with a mountain of spent substrate blocks — a mix of oak and soy hull pellets, a bit of gypsum, whole oats, and, of course, plenty of living mycelium. At first, I used to give those blocks away to neighbors and friends. Funny thing — every time I did, people would bring me something in return. Homemade jellies, jars of honey, fresh-picked vegetables, plants, and even friendships that have lasted well beyond the growing season.
Eventually, though, I started to think: Why not keep some of this and see what it turns into? So I grabbed my shovel, broke the blocks apart, and piled them up. From there, the pile became my ongoing project. I added everything I could — and I mean everything.
At one point, my dogs trampled through my watermelon patch, and I was left with a crazy number of unripe or split melons — easily over twenty-five of them. Into the pile they went. Along with that came cantaloupes, kitchen scraps, horse manure, chicken manure, even a few unfortunate critters (possums and moles) that my dogs brought in. I’ve tossed in eggshells, banana peels, fruit scraps, grass clippings, straw, oak pellets, leaves, wood shavings — the list goes on. Over time, all those odds and ends blended together into this deep, earthy mass that looks and smells alive.
Right now, it’s still in its curing stage I think?. Before I added my last batch of manure and wood shavings, it was already dark, rich, and crumbly — nearly finished. But I decided to give it one last round of “food” before winter, just to let it steepen and mellow out over the cold months, that’s why you see those wood shavings.
My plan is to use this compost in a few projects I’m really excited about: Growing my papaya trees in both ground and container setups, trying a few subtropical fruit trees and temperate trees in pots, and, of course, giving a big fertility boost to the beds where I grow tomatoes, peppers, and okra
It’s shaping up to be a busy spring ahead, but I can already imagine how satisfying it’s going to feel to see those plants thriving in soil enriched by this compost I built from scratch.
It’s amazing to think that what started as a pile of mushroom blocks has turned into something that represents so many seasons of growth, hard work, and even a few stories from the garden.
I’d love to hear from anyone else who’s built up a compost pile over time — what did you put in yours? How long have you been working on it? And what are your plans for it once it’s ready?
Thanks for reading, and here’s to the humble compost pile — the unsung hero behind every good harvest. 
