Well… how do you?
If your a vegetable gardener, you have likely either done your own composting or bought compost at the store for your plants. Even if your not a vegetable gardener, you probably have used compost of some kind. It is known as black gold, texas tea… oh wait – that is something different.
I am wondering how many of you folks out there do their own composting. We started last year, but this year we are going to really stick with it. But our question (and reason for this post) to you us this…
Do YOU compost?
What are some tips you can give to a first time composter? Worms? No worms? Tell your tales. We want to hear it.
We’re novice composters having just started two years ago. We have a small plastic, mesh bin beside our potting shed. It’s out of the way….too much so! It’s quite a walk from the kitchen but very convenient when we return the garden cart to the shed to drop off debris and clippings. I’m going to invest in one of those kitchen counter composters this year and I think that will help me REMEMBER to compost more kitchen scraps. And I’ll still get the exercise walking out to the darn thing.
Having that fresh compost in the spring was wonderful. We don’t add worms, but certainly they have found it and I have a compost crank that allows us to turn the compost. It’s hard work, but well worth it…AND, other than purchasing the bin and the crank…FREE! Black gold.
We have a collection area under the rabbit hutch a working pile and a worm bin. At any time, I can usually find some finished compost in one of the piles. The worm castings are awesome. Remember, here in Texas you are going to have to water your pile or the stuff will quit breaking down.
Worms… definitely worms… we definitely have worms…
Oh. Wait… that didn’t sound good.
I think you saw my composter last year. We still have it. When I moved and left my compost behind, it was full of worms…I’ve literally never seen so many big fat worms in one place. And I didn’t add one, they found their way there.
We have a plastic coffee can in our kitchen for scraps, including coffee grounds, egg shells and all manner of fruit and veggie left overs. In the composter goes most of our grass clippings and leaves and I’ll add a little fireplace ash this years just cause I can. Torn up paper, cardboard, anything that can decompose fairly quickly goes in.
NO POOP. At least, not cat and dog poop. I don’t have access to horse and cow manure or I’d add that. Yummy, growing veggies in poop.