I don’t know if this would have been true of me as a young single, but nowadays all it takes to make my heart go pitter patter is to say the words compost + sifter.  Actually, just compost will do. Especially finished compost. Smelling salts, please, and a fan.

This weekend I got together with one of my favorite little sweethearts to sift some compost, and it was one of the best dates I’ve ever had.

With only a few ingredients: the sifter I put together years ago, a shovel, container, and the remains of one of last year’s compost piles . . .

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. . . we created . . .

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. . . a garbage can full of perfectly sifted garden nerdvana.

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I will use this to add to the planting holes for baby plants, cover beds of small seeds like mesclun, and, maybe, roll around in it when no one is looking.