Compost

Don't you just love compost! I mean, come on, it's so exciting! Right? Not so much. Yes, compost is awesome, it is great, it does great things for your soil and your plants but it isn't something people get all excited over.

If you're anything like me you're like "eh, too much work" when someone suggests composting. About this time last year I started my first compost bin. It was a trashcan outside and I just tossed everything into it. It was a horrible stinking sludgy mess! I dumped it out on the side of my house that we don't use(into a hole that my kids dug) and it sat(and grew potatoes.) I'd say about 3 months ago I decided to give it another shot and this time, I decided, would be different.

This time I'm adding stuff to my compost every single day, I'm turning it every single day. I must confess that the idea of shredding up newspaper(it's non toxic and compostable) doesn't thrill me so I just rip it up. I figure I'm not wasting energy running that noisy shredder; so what if it takes a teeny bit longer to break down? I'm not going to waste time shredding it. Period.

The most important things that I've learned while composting: dry out your grass before you add it to your compost and turn it often. It should go without saying but I'll just get it out there: No waste from meat-eating animals! No, your cat's poop will not help out that compost heap! Or your Dogs! And for goodness' sake not yours either! The reason for these exclusions are simple: disease. You can have bird poop(including chicken), cow poop, worm poop, but not your poop.
Moving on.

Remember how I said that compost is great? Well, it is, let me tell you why. When you compost material it shrinks down to one-tenth the size that it was. Let's let that sink in for just a moment. This isn't something that I've given much thought to until this week(hence, the post) I have probably 200 lb of compost from the last 3 months. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out what 10 times 200 equals... My family has saved over a ton of garbage from going into our landfill just in the past few months. How is that possible? There are seven of us and you can compost anything that came from plant matter. You already know that I garden, whatever I pull out of the garden goes where? Into the compost heap! Egg shells. Into the compost heap! Bread crusts. Into the compost heap! Tortillas. Into the compost heap! Pancakes, too.