Rotten!
It seems that we are officially composters.
There have been rumblings about this in our house ever since we moved here last July and it has finally come to pass. In the past few months Joshua and I looked on as Jay shredded newspaper after newspaper and then eventually built his own composter from plastic tubs. Then he went to the feed store to adopt some worms and, voila, now we have a compost pile.
There's been a small learning curve for me. I have to remember to keep our food waste rather than dumping it down the garbage disposal like I used to. I also have to remember not to turn off the garage light if I get up in the middle of the night. Apparently the light in the garage reminds the worms to stay in the nasty stuff where it's dark, so it's best to leave it on. That way I won't step on piles of worms on my way out to the car.
And I also have to remember what can be composted and what cannot. This is obviously not rocket science, but sometimes I have to ask to make sure. Meat is right out, but paper towels are OK as long as they don't have cleaners or other non-organic waste on them. This is a relief to me since we go through more paper towels than I'm really comfortable with. I was beginning to think that our paper towel usage was cancelling out the environmental good we were doing by using cloth diapers. But now they get eaten by worms and put in my garden! It almost makes me feel a little better about using plastic at the grocery store.
Hopefully we'll have a great garden to show for it.
There have been rumblings about this in our house ever since we moved here last July and it has finally come to pass. In the past few months Joshua and I looked on as Jay shredded newspaper after newspaper and then eventually built his own composter from plastic tubs. Then he went to the feed store to adopt some worms and, voila, now we have a compost pile.
There's been a small learning curve for me. I have to remember to keep our food waste rather than dumping it down the garbage disposal like I used to. I also have to remember not to turn off the garage light if I get up in the middle of the night. Apparently the light in the garage reminds the worms to stay in the nasty stuff where it's dark, so it's best to leave it on. That way I won't step on piles of worms on my way out to the car.And I also have to remember what can be composted and what cannot. This is obviously not rocket science, but sometimes I have to ask to make sure. Meat is right out, but paper towels are OK as long as they don't have cleaners or other non-organic waste on them. This is a relief to me since we go through more paper towels than I'm really comfortable with. I was beginning to think that our paper towel usage was cancelling out the environmental good we were doing by using cloth diapers. But now they get eaten by worms and put in my garden! It almost makes me feel a little better about using plastic at the grocery store.
Hopefully we'll have a great garden to show for it.
Comments
I really hope that composting works for you. My husband and I are manic re-cyclers. We go to ridiculous lengths to ensure that everything that can be recycled IS recycled - our car boot (or trunk?) is often full of plastic milk bottles waiting to go to the local re-cycling dump (other stuff is collected from home).
BUT. We did not get on with composting when we tried it. We put the composter at the bottom of the garden - about 20 meters from the house -and yet we were inundated with small flies. The composter seemed to attract them and they came into the house. So we gave up and I'm afraid to say that our food-rubbish goes into the bin.
Don't want to put you off though - and if anyone knows how to compost without the flies, do tell! (My mother composts and has no flies.....?
yea.
We did composting one year. :)
Let us know how it goes. And thanks for the link!
Kitchen Composter
I think my abhorration to composting comes from lugging bags upon bags of bad Kimchi back to the compost pile on the island and seeing rats running around...total gross out!!!!
I love my garbage disposal and I'm proud of it.
Frankly, I don't think composting's worth the effort unless you have a place to use the compost. I also wouldn't bother if you just want to increase the fertility of your lawn. I like a lush, green lawn, but not as much as like to avoid mowing. I'm planning on using it on the vegetable garden and fruit trees, and if there's a surplus, it will go in the pasture. The pasture's vacant currently, but stay tuned. I'm sure any arriving tenants will be introduced here on Pastor Mom.
First, I didn't know there was cheesecloth in our bin. The rule in our house is that if it's your big idea, then it's your responsibility. (Except for the cloth diapers. Not my big idea, but now that I'm home all day I get the responsibility for washing them). Ergo, I have not gone anywhere near the compost bin.
Second, do we have fruit trees? Are we going to have fruit trees?
This is precisely why Jesse doesn;t read my blog. ;)
I cpmosted for a bit and really liked it - I preferred it to throwing stuff away - it did make me feel virtuous :)
We've moved to another rented house and left our compost bin behind. We're hoping to buy soon and I'm hoping to have a garden to do some more composting in.
Our composting didn't fly (heh) because we didn't use worms, and because we live in a suburb where people do not appreciate the fine art of being crunchy (or the smell of compost bins). Maybe I will try again one day now that I have all this great info.
Guess what? We wound up with a fruit fly paradise in the corner of our classroom. (There's a reason why middle schoolers don't run the world!)
But, I'd love to try it again when we get a house...