Let me tell you why I compost.
First, I hate taking out the trash. I used to trade my sister for any other chore, even cleaning the bathroom, just to avoid the garbage cans in the alley. I'd much rather take a pretty bucket of kitchen scraps out through my garden to the compost pile. More compost means less smelly garbage!
Second, I'm cheap. Why pay for compost for my garden when I can make my own? Now, granted, I still buy compost. Our soil started out pretty awful, and I haven't been composting long enough to make up for it yet. But I'm getting there quickly with all the manure our chickens added this year!
Third, I just really like the whole cycle of life aspect. If I can return our food scraps to the soil and enhance it, why would I have them trucked to the landfill instead? Or give our leaves and grass clippings away to the city so they can make compost and sell it back to me? There I am being cheap again.
I'll let Wiki explain how to compost. He does it much better than I could. Also, check out this great slideshow which shows just what to do so simply your kids will want to take over the job!
Monday, February 09, 2009
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4 comments:
I feel the same way about it. I hate dealing with stinky garbage and dumping food stuff in a pile on the side of the house (where we keep our compost pile) is so much cheaper and means less stink. Also, the kids are more likely to actually do it and not miss.
I am currently a total failure in the composting arena! My bin didn't get hot and didn't compost down. It is rather an archaeological dig waiting to happen at this point.
Hope springs eternal though and I'm giving it another try! Thanks for the pics link!
Do you create new piles constantly or do you just keep adding to the same pile?
Christy -- ooh, an archaeological dig through the compost bin sounds like a perfect homeschool assignment!
Lisa - depends on how much room you have, and how soon you want it to be done. I currently have too many piles and need to consolidate. :) My three bins filled up, so I started a pile in the corner of the yard. The chickens dug through that one and flattened it out. I started another one in the shade for summer, so I'm going to move the others all over to that one and start fresh in my bin system.
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