My compost bin has been one of the summer's best acquisitions... in my opinion anyway. I love this thing! I got it used from someone we knew here in the valley. It needed some adjustments and our friend Juan, helped me by adding missing boards and chicken wire to keep it rodent free.
We juice regularly and the pulp that comes out is ideal for a compost bin. The girls half eat bananas and leave other fruit laying around. Before I felt guilty for throwing it all away but now I feel that it's going into the compost bin and serving a purpose.
My mom added to my fun by getting me this super glam pitch fork from Crate & Barrel. It's the perfect height and weight to move the compost around. I feel so city slicker/farm girl when I use it!
Composting has it's science. I knew some of the rules from growing up with my mom semi-composting. She didn't exactly use a bin. To this day she digs holes next to her plants and buries her kitchen scraps. She has always had some pretty healthy and delicious fruit bearing plants. Gotta love her unconventional methods. Anyway, I know the no dairy, no meat rules. I also know the layers need to alternate between wet and dry. When I dump in the wet kitchen scraps I know I have to dump in some dry leaves to balance it out. I am mostly learning as I go. I'd love to know more about the worms you can add to brew a worm poop tea or something! Google and YouTube have been very educational.
I must say though, when I churn the piles it smells delicious. It smells like a good, deep, oaky/earthy red wine. It smells so good I crave a glass when I'm done. I was warned that moving the bins around was going to be hard work. I admit, it is a bit tough. However, I'll take churning my yummy smelling earth to doing a bunch of bicep curls at the gym any day. My guns are getting back in shape just with my decomposing banana peels and snazzy pitch fork!
I love looking out the window and seeing my bin out there. It could use some sprucing but I know I can't paint or stain it. I plan on using this future soil in our edible garden so it has to have natural organic materials. Dave suggest I coffee stain the boards. Not a bad idea! I have big plans for an edible garden on our property. Due to lack of space in the sunny areas the garden will go vertical! I have plans, we'll see how they go! Until then I'm making some yummy soil for my future tomatoes from my old bananas. From earth you come and to earth you shall return.....
Labels: compost, garden
