Having a huge space set aside for composting your raw materials really isn't necessary. We live in one of the middle sections of a building of townhouses/row homes. We have a watertight metal garbage can and a ceramic counter-top holder with holes in the top. We put egg shells, strawberry tops, banana peels, coffee grounds, carrot peels, fruit rinds, tomato ends, anything that can decompose into the ceramic jar every night until its full.
The composting jar lets in air through a filter while keeping smells in. Waste decomposes all by itself. When the jar is full, Tim empties it into the metal garbage can and puts the lid on tight. He puts all his grass clippings, plant trimmings, extra dirt, etc. in there too.
This is the stuff we use to turn over the garden twice a year. First, before planting mixed with some fresh topsoil to cut down on the smell. (its pretty rancid for a few days, but my neighbors don't mind--they love the vegetables we get) Then after the growing season is over, Tim breaks down all the dead vegetation, mixes it with new compost and lets it sit over the winter. In the spring, the process starts all over again.
A few things I just thought of: If you have trees and rake your own leaves, instead of having to find a place to get rid of them at or someone to come and pick them up, you can add your leaves to the compost to get a more even spreading mix. We don't have trees here, but I did plant those new perennials in the front garden and will probably add those dead leaves in the fall to the compost.
Depending on the size of your garden would depend on the amount of compost you keep. Our garden is small compared to most people who have their own organic gardens. I just measured it and got 66 square feet.(11x6) Plus, we only can grow outside only a limited amount of time per year. For those of you in warmer climates, the growing season may be longer. 
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Composting made easy
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2 comments:
I am proud to say we have finally started composting too. My boss has been doing it for years and I have been wanting to try it but until we got moved into our house, it was not possible. We have an old style coffee pot on the counter with a lid and keep the daily scraps in there. Then we transfer them weekly to the garbage can for now. This weekend we are building the outside compost spot. One thing the guy at Home Depot warned me was to be careful not to attract mice in the house. He said if we kept the container under the sink, that would not be good. I compromised with it being on the counter so the cats could keep an eye on the rodents and the smell has been pretty minimal too.
We are lucky enough to have a door that opens off the kitchen. A covered metal porch with 8 steps down keeps it high enough off the ground to keep the mice away. We keep our jar right outside the door.
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