I have to admit it: I’m very proud of myself. After weeks of putting it off, I finally emptied my compost tumbler.

I used the compost to sidedress the poor plants in the boulevard. (It’s the only kindness they get. I don’t feed them and I rarely water. Surprisingly, they do alright.)

Now, I’m not going to brag about my compost. (Though it did have a lovely dark, crumbly texture.) And I won’t go on and on about the how cool composting is. (Even though turning yard waste and kitchen scraps into a rich, organic soil improver seems like a modern miracle to me.)

Instead, I’m going to whine about how it seems like such a hassle to actually use the darn stuff. I can turn the compost. No problem. I can keep it moist. But it takes me forever to dig the darn stuff out of the composter and get it in the garden where it can do some good.

Do you get right on it when your compost is ready? When your compost is calling, do you answer on the first ring? Or do you take your own sweet time to do something with the stuff?

How do you like your coffee — black, iced or composted?

A recent medical study found that folks who drink a cup of coffee every day may live longer than those who don’t. This is good news for us gardeners who need a morning jolt of java before we put on our gardening gloves. Trust me, no one wants a bleary-eyed Greengirl wandering with pruning sheers through their back yard. (Luckily, our sand cherry shrub is making a come back.)

Besides increasing gardener awareness, drinking coffee also has another important side effect — The grounds make excellent soil. But what is the best way to utilize this nitrogen-rich treat, as compost or as a side dressing?

Chime in fellow coffee fans and help GG reader Mark:

Could someone post about using un-composted coffee grounds in the garden?  My wife brought home a large bag of used coffee grounds from Starbucks, and I’m not sure how to use them in the vegetable garden.  I’ve got tomatoes, carrots, onions, herbs, romaine lettuces, peppers, corn, snap peas - the usual suspects.  Should I just lay down a layer around all of them?  Thanks!

Mark

Do you compost your coffee grounds or directly apply them to your plants? Where do you get your coffee grounds, your kitchen or your favorite coffee shop?

I’m no compost zealot. In fact, I’ve been a lazy composter for years. I joke that until my husband made me a compost tumbler, that’s how long it took my compost to get done: years.

I’ve never worried about having the correct ratio of “browns” and “greens.” I forget to add water when it gets dry. And I turn the pile whenever I think of it. Still, I get nice compost. It just takes awhile.

But I am careful about what I put IN my composter. I don’t throw in weeds. (Experts say most home composters don’t get hot enough to kill them dead.) I don’t put in anything animal (bones, eggshells, etc.). And while I do toss in a few paper products like tea bags (even the kind with the little string), I don’t compost used paper towels. (Yuck! Do you know where that paper towel has been?)

My former neighbors were a little less, ah, picky about what they put in their composter. Their worst offense? A dead bunny rabbit. (Imagine the smell. In mid-August.)

What do you — and don’t you — compost and why?

I do believe in composting. I do, I do, I do!

I compost veggie peels and fruit rinds, coffee grounds and garden trimmings. But it’s time for me to come clean and admit that I don’t compost everything single thing I could. After years of pulling whole corn cobs out of otherwise finished compost, I now consign corn cobs to the trash. Ditto with bananna peels. And weeds.

For more Zone 4 gardening tips, check out Connie’s weekly podcast Dirt on Gardening

I know there are plenty of folks who compost weeds. But I’m of the belief that most home composters don’t reach the temperatures needed to kill weed seeds.

So does this make me an environmentally unfriendly gardener? Am I going to be inducted into the Gardener’s Hall of Shame? What about you? Do you compost tea bags? Used paper towels? Even the newspaper?

The melons needed mulch. And all I had was a big pile of weeds, which didn’t seem appropriate, somehow. Then I had a little lightbulb-over-the-head kind of idea.

In the garage sat 10 garbage bags of raw wool. We picked these up last fall after a farmer posted them on a “free” list. At the time, I thought it would be great fun to learn how to spin wool into yarn. But as often happens, I didn’t get around to it. Instead, we stored them in the bed of the pickup for months and months.

I’d recently read about Woolch, a Minnesota-made mulch that is a blend of wool fibers and wood toothpick shavings — both byproduts of other industries. Woolch could do two cool things: reduce the need for herbicides and pesticides in commercial growing operations, and provide a new market for wool producers.

So I thought, why not use those bags of wool now sitting in my garage as mulch for the melons?

Puffed up with smartness, I ripped open the first bag, and gently distributed the downy wool around the stem of the melon. I marveled at how beautiful and soft the wool was. When I got to the bottom of the bag, I found an index card with the name “Truffle.” The wool in the second bag was donated by “Tinker.” I never got past the second bag.

Truffle and Tinker are registered Merino sheep from Stone Soup Farm in Wilson, Wisconsin. It seemed wrong to take their wonderful wool and use it for something so pedestrian like mulch. Handspun neckscarves or mittens seemed right. I might have to learn to do that after all.

As for the mulch, I put the bagger on the trim mower and the melons are now getting a good layer of clippings. Just not sheep clippings.