Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Ease of Compost!

First, composting isn't for everyone. If you don't really want to do it, you probably won't be good at it. If you have an inkling of interest in it, then I am here to say it is relatively easy! I've been composting for about a month now. Kind of like recycling - if you make it easy, it is easy! Here's what I do:

I was using old grocery bags to put produce clippings, coffee grinds and egg shells. But then I was throwing those away. We drank our way through another container of Folgers - so I kept that and put all our compost in there (with lid). Every other or 3rd day, I put it outside. I can just hide this container under my sink if we have company or whatnot - but even if I leave it out, it just looks like a container of coffee is on my counter! Surprisingly, it doesn't ever smell bad. I just rinse it out after every dump in the big bin.

Here you see I have cut up a watermelon that my father brought with him over the weekend. Normally, I would have just thrown the scraps away.


Now you don't have to, but it's recommended that you cut up produce scraps to speed up the process of decomposition. I think cutting all this watermelon rind into chunks took me 51 seconds.

As you see, I put my scraps in my bin. I also have some coffee grinds from the morning's coffee, some egg shells, some lettuce and some potato. The watermelon rinds made my bin overflowing, so off to my compost bin to dump it!


This is my "new and improved" compost bin. If you want to see how easy it was to make it, click HERE. I don't think many critters would really want to eat anything from it (we have mostly raccoons that want the meat) - but I bungee cord it to be safe. I keep it off the ground but you don't have to.

What does it look like?
Like this! I just started this on Sunday, and I tried to dig out a bunch of the compost from the pile (minus sticks). I also threw in some newspaper and water. So now, I just keep adding food scraps, yard waste and water to keep it going.

3 comments:

Virginia said...

We start our compost pile in a coffee can as well! Then it goes to a 5 gal bucket on the deck, then into the main compost bin!

Paula said...

Great ideas. I have not gotten around to starting mine yet. I am going to link you so that others can see how easy it is to start the process.

I love the coffee can idea. I was wondering what I was going to use. Now I just have to find someone who drinks coffee. lol

The Mom said...

Awesome Becky! Composting cuts down on your garbage bill, is better for the environment and the plants love the fertilizer that composting provides. May I suggest throwing some worms in there. They help to break everything down and the worm poop is very beneficial. Just poke a few holes in the top for air. The rainwater that gets in will be great for it.