Salute To Earth Week
This weekend, a compost was started in the backyard. So far, it doesn’t stink. Of course, it’s only three days old.
Composting is basically a natural process of decay that you can use to eliminate trash and create useable soil for your gardening projects. Decay will happen whether you make it happen or not but there are things you can do to help speed up the process. Composting has the added benefit of saving me money because our local trash service charges by the bag and since thirty percent of most household trash is compostable, it makes sense to at least attempt. My mom bought us a compost bin (it’s big and black and has a locking lid) for Christmas and now that spring has come, it is set up in the back yard next to our tiny wood shed.
If composting interests you, you don’t need a fancy compost bin to try it out. The Savy Gardener tells you how. if you live in Maine, you should take advantage of the free services of your local UMaine Cooperative Extension (most other states have similar services so check it out). The CO has all kinds of free information about how to do anything remotely hands-on in relation to flora and fauna.
The one thing I may recommend you purchase is a composting pail. Not only will you not want to go out to your pile everytime you’ve found something compostable (unless you are easily excited), you will also not appreciate your organic matter decaying early in your kitchen. The special compost pails also have filters in them to keep them from smelling. (You could also just try a container you already have first and if you find it smelly, get the pail.)
Since I have been worried that this somehow won’t work for me, I am keeping this article today about how to kick-start a compost that is happening too slowly in reserve just in case.
If you are still unconvinced, you should check out the list of things you can compost. Fur, Kleenex, tea bags… I took the list and distilled it into a one page list I could post on the fridge near our pail. You can download it below if you want a one page list as well.
Like with other projects I’ve done, I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this one.