This evening when I went into the alley to throw out some things, I came upon a short, shiny row of apples at the base of one trash cart. My first compost-wacko thought was: “Marvy! More for my bins.” Then I noticed the apple line was pointing to a box full of rotting fruits, and next to that—another. Yep, I’m a cheap date. I get giddy from finding that someone has dumped rotting fruit behind my house.

I took this as an invitation to start up the new batch in my second bin, the one I harvested for this year’s garden. So I cleared out the last few cups of finished compost and tossed the gift fruits in: 177 apples, several bunches of grapes, 2 oranges, 1 peach and 1 plum.

Then I ripped up the juice-soaked cardboard boxes and added them as browns to balance out the fresh(ish) fruits. Now this will be the main putrescible pile, as we let the other binful burn down and transform into next year’s fertilizer. And this bin is well on its way to churning out beautiful, frugal food for the 2011 garden.

On the other side of the yard, it’s almost scape time!

Added for an inquiring commenter:

I got that one free from a friend who didn’t have room for it anymore. I think the city sells them for $40 in the spring, along with rain barrels.