Outside: composting

Lately, I've been thinking a LOT about spring and what I want to grow outdoors. I have a lot of hope this year, even though last year was pretty awful, (read watering twice daily and everything still dying on me.) But this year I want to garden smarter and plan ahead. Gardening should start with good soil and that starts with composting. I've been wanting to compost for as long as I could remember but was always too intimidated to do so. A few days ago, I finally said yes and started my little compost pile. And it actually worked out perfectly because I had just raked up the rest of the leaves a few days before. So, I moved the leaves over to a corner between the back door and back of the house.

Then I put some chicken wire ends together to make a tub and started layering leaves and kitchen leftovers in that. It's little but I'm so happy to be composting! Since our diet comes from about 95% plant products, we can compost just about everything from the kitchen. Here is a great list of what you can and can't compost, (from sustainable baby steps.)

Right behind my compost pile, I want to put in a water bin. I actually want to do three or four of these for all of the down spouts around our house.
I've got a smallish list of all the new things to do outside. I'm hoping to do these without spending too much money and that everything will grow in them!
I want to hang some gutters on the fence and plant lots of vines and hanging flowers in them.
I'm also going to be making four raised beds. Two will be in the backyard, with one of them being just for the girls to plant whatever they want then take care of. A is already planning. The other two will be in the front yard and I'm hoping to be able to garden all year long with those babies.
And here's a little story for you: Monday morning I was looking for garden inspiration and remembered this little picture of two tires stacked and a plant in them. Since I did not want to go buy tires just for gardening I made a mental note to ask around to see if anyone had any old tires. About an hour later, the girls and I left to go drop a few bags off to The Rescue Mission, but I took the wrong street. On that wrong street were two tires sitting on the side of the road with a free sign on them. Um, thank you Jesus! Those tires are now in my backyard, waiting to be used.
I'm sure my mind needs to just settle down with all the gardening ideas, and I need to stick to simple, but all this warm weather is planting a seed. Ahem :)