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05/18/2010 at 06:20 pm
Ok, so I'm a composting convert... Finally! It's a great way to keep more crap out of landfills, and feed your garden to boot!:) Actually, I've wanted to buy a composter since I started the gardening thing last fall, but DH made me wait until: a) he saw the utility in it, and b) he knew I was serious about gardening... Then he bought me this beauty for my birthday (along with a rain barrel) - I love him! :)
We started our compost with about 60% dry leaves, and the rest was grass clippings (from weed-free areas in the lawn), kitchen scraps, egg shells (from my hard-boiled egg obsession), and cuttings from around the garden and our yard. This is what it looks like:
ps. I was going to post about my edible garden today, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow... So I thought I'd point out the crazy-growing raised bed in the first pic as a preview ;) |
He got it from Lowes, and I think it's around $100, but I'm not absolutely sure of price.
Luckily he put it together for me, because I looked at all the parts and got a little intimidated! The nice thing is it's easy to spin, and seems really well-made.
We filled it about 1/2 full. So now we'll just close that puppy up, give it a spin or two a
day, and we should have "black gold" for the plants in 6-8 weeks, give or take! :)
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05/19/2010 at 05:39 am
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05/19/2010 at 06:46 am
"what is a compost...?" -lol! That's ok, I'm learning too - homeownership is an education! Basically, compost is broken-down organic materials. People have been using their food wastes in this way for ages, but it's gaining popularity among the "save the environment" crowd because it does cut down on what goes into landfills. And gardeners have tons of uses for it. You can just make a huge pile in your yard, then wet it and turn it every few days. Like this:
Or you can use bins or a tumbler, like these:
The heat that the decomposition and microbes create gets concentrated and breaks larger particles down into tiny, fine bits of all-natural fertilizer. You need 4 ingredients for good compost: carbon ("browns"), nitrogen ("greens"), water, and air. Carbon comes from dried (dead) plant material (good use for the leaves you rake up in fall) and chemical free paper (among other things), and nitrogen comes from freshly clipped or not completely dried plant matter (like veggie scraps from the kitchen and grass clippings). The carbon and nitrogen materials need to be in a somewhat specific ratio, or you'll just have a stinky pile of muck (but it will still work). We did about 60% carbon to about 40% nitrogen (if it starts to stink, we'll just add some more dried shredded leaves). Shred or chop your materials so that the particles are smaller to start with, and your compost will finish faster. Then you add water so it's about as wet as a damp sponge (turn it while you're watering it to evenly wet the pile). And you turn it every day or two (either in a spinning barrel or with a pitchfork if you're using a bin or pile) to add air, so the aerobic microbes can do their jobs. Some people use worms, bat poo, chicken poo, and other stuff to speed up the process, but it's not necessary if your pile is large enough to generate good heat. If you do all this, and refrain from adding to a batch while it's "working", it should look like this within a few months:
More info on composting: |
