stop and smell the humus

Being in the army has been described to me by many an NS man as akin to watching grass grow. Especially when lying in wait in the field during combat training, they say. Suddenly, you're conscious of everything... each blade of grass, each stalk of seedling encased within, each bug that crawls to the tip...

Being a housewife is not much different. Of course, the battles are dissimilar, as are the chores, tasks and duties to take care of. But the level of consciousness in the watching-grass-grow regard, I suspect, is the same. And since there is laundry to do everyday, dishes to load into the dishwasher everyday, someone to cook for everyday, and clothes to iron everyday, it means that there is always some room to procrastinate and contemplate... and time is on YOUR side.

So you organise wedding photos and reflect on how you want to group them specifically. You start painting again and plan your canvas meticulously. You prune your rose garden carefully. You recycle religiously. And then you sit down, have a bottle of beer, and think leisurely... what next?

And then it hits you. COMPOST!

So you happily hop to home depot to get a compost bin, and you read up on the best compost recipe, and then you start making your own veggie crap! And if there's anything else more satisfying than watching grass grow, it's watching it rot into a soddy... mushy... mess. Especially if you get to add your own ingredients and mix and match the colours and know that your guests will not be picky eaters.

So you throw in all sorts of yard waste. dead leaves, twigs, hedge trimmings, rose petals, dead bouganvillas flowers; along with kitchen scraps like mango peel, shrivelled tomatoes, avocado skins, pistachio shells, over-ripe apples and pears. Mix enough colours in and you've got a Monet in a bin, circa 1889, and lots of nitrogen for the living, breathing, heap of rot. There you have it... form AND function.


And the best part about it is that after the heap of rot matures and turns into rich, nutritious soil, you can lay it out nicely in your garden again and know that this time, MY grass on MY lawn is gonna be the greenest of them all.