Thursday, August 26, 2010

I Am Afraid to Look in My Compost Bin!

I had good intentions.  I recycle everything I can and try to reduce my use of plastics and excess packaging.  Composting seemed like a good idea.  Then I forgot all about it...

I got the idea for my compost bin from this link:
 http://dinnergarden.blogspot.com/2009/05/dinner-garden-learns-to-compost.html

Mine didn't look exactly like that, but I did use a plastic tote with a lid and I had my husband drill air holes on the side.  I had visions of an earthworm farm, and I did add a few.  I am sure they are quite dead now.  This picture is from June.


This is a blurry picture, but you get the idea.  I put down a layer of potting soil (since it was handy in my garage) and then layered kitchen scraps and strips of torn newspaper.  I did wait a week or so and put the results on my garden as "fertilizer".  I discovered that kitchen scraps, especially bigger peelings, really need to be small in order to compost well.  Also, bigger pieces of bread did not do well, they just turned blue and looked like rocks.  Guess that means that there was not enough moisture and I definitely did not stir it often.  Later I added more scraps, a bit more soil and a little bit of newspaper.  I think the last time I opened the lid was in July?  It is August now and the bin is buried under the rubble in the garage somewhere...

My kitchen scraps since then have gone in the garbage or down the disposal and edible scraps, like bread crusts, were once again given to the dog.  The garage seemed too away to walk with my coffee can of scraps.  And I was too lazy to cut all the bits up into manageable, compostable pieces.  And I got discouraged when the fruit flies and gnats would come out, so those are my excuses.

Hubby doesn't know it yet but I think I will have him dump the bin on my garden when I am sure I am done harvesting it and then we can start over.  Or maybe the bin gets hosed out and put away until Spring?  Yeah, that's it.  I am sure I will do better next year.

1 comment:

  1. A couple years ago I bought a bunch of red wigglers and put them in a plastic tote in my basement, along with all our food scraps and some newspaper. It was so cool until I realized I don't really like digging through hundreds of worms and partly decomposed food to get the compost out. When we started getting fruit flies I scrapped the whole thing for good and just dumped the entire bin into our garden. I still really like the idea though, so I think I may try this worm-free method and see how it goes.

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