I did a bit of work on our compost heap this morning. I shifted the fresher layer near the top, pulled out a couple of tub trugs full of material from the lower section and then sorted through it to remove the twiggy bits, sift out finer particles and leave large clumps to use as a surface mulch. It isn’t a new process for me, although I think I had a large pile of twigs than has been the case in the past as I’ve been a bit lax about shredding plant trimmings before dumping them on the heap. Lots of worms though, so that’s a good sign.
However, I did come across a couple of unexpected finds. Near the top, I spotted our vegetable peeler. This must have been caught up with a recent set of peelings as I don’t recall having missed it. Further down, I also discovered a small pair of gardening scissors. Both items have now been suitably scrubbed, cleaned and restored. The scissors had started to rust a bit on the handle and so needed some quite thorough work but the blades still seemed amply sharp.
I’m not sure the plastic in the peeler counts as inorganic in scientific terms (plastics contain combinations of carbon and hydrogen, which makes them ‘organic’ to a scientist) but the metal is definitely in that category. Neither are things I will be adding on purpose to my heap!