I've started composting in a rather haphazard fashion. I have a tiny little compost pile tucked between the currant bushes and the golden rod in the back "wild" corner of my yard. I'm less interested in producing rich soil and more interested in decreasing my trash production. So far it's been mostly strawberry hulls, egg shells, tea bags, and some grass clippings (not from the lawn mower- those get mulched into the lawn- these are from some trimming I did by hand).
I like to visit Compost This to check on various things. They advise smashing the egg shells into little bits because they compost so slowly. Oops. Maybe I should jump up and down on my little pile to crush the ones I've already put out there? I try not to waste food, but there is invariably a few things that still must go in the trash. According to Compost This, the heels of my bread should not go in the compost pile, nor should the bit of uneaten pasta not worth saving. Although maybe the squirrels would like to snack on the bread, and would that really be a bad thing?
9 comments:
Congrats on the start up! You will be glad you did because it does make you feel good about putting less in the trash AND the added bonus that you do get great compost as an end result. :) I am looking to buy a little compost thing for inside (to collect stuff in until I take it out) - World Market has this great little bucket for only $14 - I am going to post about it in hopes that it warms my hubby up to the idea. :) Anything has to be better than the ice cream tub we've been keeping our scraps in. LOL. Sounds like you a great start too - lots of good "green" things to get it going - you may want to add in some shredded paper or cardboard (I usually just rip up our cardboard toilet paper rolls) and put in there to add some "brown" elements so it doesn't get all slimy - I've had that happen - where it really doesn't compose well - just turns to yuck and stinks. Compost shouldn't stink and shouldn't be too yucky - thats when you know your low on something green or brown...lol. Sorry for all unsolicited advice - I am just excited someone else is composting too! :)
Ooh, thanks for the advice! I did detect a bit of odor, but I wasn't sure if that was just part of the charm of composting. I'll try adding somme "brown" next time. And I so want one of those canisters you blogged about!
I have a small homemade compost bin. (honey bucket with a lid with drilled air holes) I found cutting up everything especially the tea bags helps with the decomposition.
Oooh, thanks for the report. This is something I need to do.
I live in a condo so we can't do a compost pile, but I have some pet worms living in an old recycling bin with a lid in the garage and they are awesome! They eat everything you mentioned, but I do mash the egg shells with my hand for them. They also eat virtually any paper products, which is awesome because I don't need to buy a shredder for all that personal stuff!
YAY! COngratulations.
I used to throw bread and pasta in--if the squirrels get it, so what--BUT--then I got a rat, so I stopped that, sadly. Now I take my bread crusts to the park for the squirrels there. I often put edible scraps in a used ziplock and take them in my backpack while walking and distribute them to various animals. It's not really that good for the animals to feed them too much human food but I walk in different places (often) so no one animal gets too much of it. And if we feed ourselves healthy food, the food will also be less bed for the animals if there are leftovers.
Also, if you BURY certain things deeply enough, it's OK. Then they rot and make nice soil without attracting unwanted pests (like mice and rats). That's PB's job--to bury the compost. He does a rather half hearted job, but better than nothing. We bury kitchen scraps down under the other stuff.
We do use the well composted compost on the garden--and we have a lovely little garden--it's very happy. I also put some certain fresh compost on the garden as well, to keep the weeds don.
We have a little rectangular (square bottomed but tallish) rubbermaid container with a lid on the counter that our kitchen scraps go into and get emptied when it fills up--that seems to work fine--usually takes about a week to fill up.
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