Tag: plants

Mango Manqué: When I went to turn the compost bin* this morning I found this young mango sapling – a volunteer from a seed in our kitchen scraps. There is little chance it will produce fruit, but I think it will make a handsome houseplant. 

*It’s not the bin that actually gets turned. My bin is a homemade, mostly permanent affair cobbled together with 4×4 posts and slat sides. It’s the compost inside that gets turned – with a pitchfork and the sweat of my brow. We named the bin after Luther Burbank; our family code for taking scraps to the bin is “feeding Luther,” as in, “Will you take these mango peelings out to feed Luther before they attract flies?” I am the only member of the household to whom these words are ever spoken.  

Mango Manqué: When I went to turn the compost bin* this morning I found this young mango sapling – a volunteer from a seed in our kitchen scraps. There is little chance it will produce fruit, but I think it will make a handsome houseplant. 

*It’s not the bin that actually gets turned. My bin is a homemade, mostly permanent affair cobbled together with 4×4 posts and slat sides. It’s the compost inside that gets turned – with a pitchfork and the sweat of my brow. We named the bin after Luther Burbank; our family code for taking scraps to the bin is “feeding Luther,” as in, “Will you take these mango peelings out to feed Luther before they attract flies?” I am the only member of the household to whom these words are ever spoken.