27 Januberry 2018 : Blog

Sometimes I wonder if a glass doored refrigerator might be nice to have. But no. My guess is that the pressure to keep the contents always looking beautiful would prove to be too great.

Hidden behind our metallic refrigerator door, the shelves are arranged so that a plastic bucket fits in. Kept clean with absorbent paper on the bottom, it contains all the many space-greedy vegetables. They are wrapped in greaseproof paper so they keep better. They are fresh and appealing.

And what of the unapeelings? Well wrapped in plastic bags, we keep the scraps in the crisper part of the refrigerator until a suitable time arrives to bury them in the garden. Any temptation towards postponement of this task is balanced by the suitable time being quite capable of announcing itself to the nose.

It is well worth the considerable effort, because the clay we have masquerading as soil has improved slightly and last summer we actually grew 3 moderate sized pumpkins. Even so, perhaps Waratah might get a shiny, rotating compost bin for his next birthday. Wouldn’t that be lovely, the perfect present!

I am trying to think of what would happen if I did not have a garden. The unapeelings generously give their nutrients to any ground so it is quite acceptable to place them in the rubbish collection. Do you recall those old fashioned plastic rubbish bins? Hardware stores still sell them. I think with some holes drilled into the bottom of them they could sit on an apartment balcony holding a combination of unapeelings and potting mix. I would have three or four of them in rotation. The potting mix will improve its nutrition over time and in the summer I’d plant tomatoes in them.