Here is the newest addition to my veggie garden:

It's a double compost bin, consisting of two 4'x4'x4' side-by-side cubes.  I have always done some composting, but this is the first time I have tried to do it on this scale.  I am not abandonning my old compost bin, which is much smaller.

It is a store-bought unit, measuring roughly 3'x3'x3', and it is presently full.  It works well enough, but the problem with this unit is that one is always adding fresh organic material to the top, and the "done" stuff (at the bottom) is hard to access without taking the whole pile apart.  Actually, it is even more complicated than that:  good compost management usually requires frequent turning, but if you keep turning the fresh material into the "working" stuff, then it never truly gets "done," unless you stop adding new material.  That's why serious composters use two     or even three     bins.  The first one is used to accumulate fresh material and to start the process, the second is for aging or "cooking" the material until it is done, or until it is turned into a third bin for finishing and storage.  I think I will use my old, little bin primarily to store finished compost until needed.

The other visible feature of my 2009 garden is this 4'x8' raised bed, which I am calling my "salad box":

If you look closely, you can see two rows of tiny lettuce seedlings (to the front and right), and one long row of onions (at the rear).  I also have carrots and Swiss Chard planted in the box.  Why the box?  Mainly to give the carrots enough deep, loose soil to grow in.  It is filled with sphagnum peat moss, manure and compost, and some good store-bought enriched garden soil.

Yeah, I know.  I'm obsessed.