composting

Turned over the compost pile today. Almost surprised to find the bottom fourth of it nice, dark material- still very coarse, but Isa and I kept saying: "yay, we made dirt!" It didn't make much, though, used it all on the bed under kitchen window, where the soil is full of little rocks and hard to dig in. Layered it on top of soil surface around the sprouting garlic, and on top of damp newspapers where I'm going to plant the lettuce. This is the only spot where I'll try the method I learned in Weedless Gardening; I don't have enough well-rotted compost to do more. Have to manage the pile better this year. The other garden plots will get turned over w/half-done compost raked in or trench-buried like I did before.