Monday, February 02, 2009

Mmmmm, Compost


We love compost. We don't have the most sophisticated system, but we just could not bear with throwing food scraps out. Hope to try vermiculture (worms) soon (ideas for how to do that here), but for now in our teeny tiny backyard we are choosing this method. Metal garbage can with holes drilled in for drainage and oxygen. We are pretty maxed out with this one and need another. Hoping at the bottom will be some soil we can use for this year's garden. But since we're pretty lazy about the turning, it may take longer. In the meantime, the bugs love us, we've had no problems with critters getting in (or annoying neighbors), and it's great for Nuala to see us bringing our food out for something else to eat what we don't. The cutest thing ever is when she said (shortly after getting it up and running), "Mom, you can't throw that in the garbage! It goes in the compost!"For many inspiring ideas like this and other such projects, definitely check out this book. It's so exciting! I think I might run out now and get the 5 gallon bucket for humanure!!! Ok, maybe not yet, but at least we are going to start looking into using the grey water from our washing machine for the garden!

1 comment:

Evan said...

This is a good idea. We have a monster plastic compost bin and the lid freezes shut in the winter sometimes.

We love composting! Not only do we put food scraps to use, but we have saved a ton on yard waste bags throughout the years. When you don't completely flip and turn the compost it goes much, much slower, but I'm still amazed at how quickly it decomposes. Pitchforks work well and some retail compost bins work kind of like a bingo ball machine.