Composting

On my other blog, one of my friends said she didn't even know you COULD buy a composter. Well the thing is, you don't have to. (I am only renting my house so I didn't want to build one and we aren't allowed to have an open compost pile in our city anyway)

There are a ton of different ways to make a compost bin. Here's an example of what I would like to have some day--when I own my own home and have a big yard. It's good to have a least 2 bins so that you can "mix" your compost if you want (mix it by shoveling it from one bin to the next). Organic matter decomposes the best in the heart of the pile so if you want your pile to turn into compost quicker, you will "mix" your pile more often so that all of the organic waste gets a chance to be in the middle!


My composter manual says that composting is the "environmentally responsible" thing to do. I already feel better about myself already! haha

Anyway, here's what you need: A good mixture of Carbon (75%) and Nitrogen (25%)

Nitrogen are your "green" materials. Think of moist things like veggie and fruit scraps, manure, landscape trimmings.

Carbon is your "brown" stuff. Think dry things like leaves, twigs, hay, etc.

Tip: I wish I had thought about this last year but during the fall, you get a bajillion dry leaves but really nothing much after that. You can save your leaves in a pile/bin so that throughout the year you can have dry things to add to your compost.

If you want to make your own closed-container composter, you can but it is a little bit more difficult. Mine was unsuccessful BUT I think it would have worked if I did a few things differently:

- I got a garbage can with a good fitting lid.
- I poked holes all over the bin. (my holes were probably too small--you want at least a half-inch in diameter).
- Your compost should look moist, but not swampy (like mine). If it is too wet, add more dry ingredients (here is where your stored dry leaves comes in handy). Also, leave the lid off so excess moisture will evaporate.
- to mix, push bin over on its side and roll it all over the yard. OR get a shovel and dig up the outsides so that they make their way to the inside of the pile
- keep your bin in a sunny place.
- If you want to get really fancy, go to a bait shop and buy some worms. My friend mentioned that if you do this, you may want to line your bin with mesh so that the worms don't escape out of the holes!
- Don't add seeds/pits to your compost. (oops)

Please comment if you have more specific questions on composting, I would love to address them!