Another trash question: Tell me about composting? Speak slowly and use small words?

[melissel]

I admit it, we don't compost. (Please don't throw rotten tomatoes at me--they'll just go in the garbage can anyway!) My only experience with composting involved, um, worms or maggots of some kind, when I was a kid? And I just can't deal with that. I'm not particularly girly-girl or anything...I just can't do worms of any kind. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing a bin of worms was nearby. Even my DH won't go that far, and not much bothers him.

So, are there alternatives? Are there alternatives to a big smelly bin in our yard? I've heard of kitchen bin composting, or something like that. What are the options?

Thank you again, garbage gurus :o

[Closeacademy]

My husband composts and says the best book on the subject is called Let it Rot! Basically, we have 2 bins in the back where he puts coffe grounds, fruit, veggies, grass, and such. It has to be layered and turned as well.

Check out the book.

[Colleen]

There are all kinds of books and websites about composting, most of which make composting out to be much more difficult than it is in reality, in my experience. There are discussions of how to build a composting bin; how often to "turn" the compost; what to add (or not); and on and on and on. Here's our method, such as it is: We dump the stuff in a relatively discreet corner of our vegetable garden. In the past, we just had a pile ~ no frame or anything. Now some wire mesh encompasses the pile. We never turn it. We don't cut things up into little pieces before adding them. We do often put things in there that you'll hear won't compost well. (I do avoid putting in bones and eggshells.) There are things we could do to speed up the rate of composting, but it isn't important to us.

Oh, btw, we keep a small bin under the kitchen sink and when that's full it gets transferred to the pile.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We use a composter that we bought from Gardeners' Supply company or something like that. I know that you don't necessarily need to get a fancy thingamabob, but living in suburbia, they have rules about these things;) We keep a container with a filtered lid in our kitchen to hold scraps until we get it out to the composter. You could probably use any old bucket with a lid, but we don't get out to the yard as often in the winter (no mud room.) The filter cuts down on odors. We only put fruit and veggie scraps, not meat because of the critter problems. (We have to have special garbage cans to keep them from toppling things, LOL!) No turning or other maintenance. We just shovel from the bottom in the spring into the garden.

hth,

[Renthead Mommy]

Try a bokashi. It's a bucket you can keep in your house (ours in the laundry room). You add your scraps to it and they basically pickle. After your bucket is full, you can bury it in the garden and it decomposes then.

I have a write up on my a few post back on my blog. www.okinawaraw.blogspot.com

If you start googling, there is a lot of information on Australia and NZ sites especially.