The Beautiful Compost Pile!

  Oh, my beautiful compost pile...how you make the yard lovely!  Yeah, you read that right.  What normally is an eyesore at its best, the dumping ground for foodscraps has taken on a new appearance. Literally, it has come to life!  Mexican Petunias, Elephant Ears and Morning Glories have taken advantage of the vitamin enriched soil. They are all flourishing!  No, these are not necessarily volunteer plants that grew from seeds.  They were spent plants that I pulled from the gardens and plopped into the compost pile.  I figured that any scrap would rot to make more mulch.  Nope.  Instead the roots buried down and took hold.  The plants are enormous now!

  While I should have taken a photograph of the entire spot with its new growth and happy blooms, I instead focused on a tiny lizard.  A three inch long, green anole was determined to catch its breakfast and had chosen the pile as its diner.  Good choice.  With the daily dumping of food scraps, there are any number of critters at the pile.  Most are there to dine upon the kitchen scraps but a few predators are lurking up under the lush foliage.  I have seen the green anoles, skinks and a Southern Black Racer stalking the smaller critters, such as insects, birds and mice, that visit. The compost pile is definitely alive with all sorts of flora and fauna. It is a complete mini eco-system all in a four square feet area.  At least, the huge plants decorated that corner of the yard a bit!