Upside of Sustainability... composters unite!

Sooo I've decided I'm gonna take matters into my own hands, and damn these hands are gonna get dirty. I bought a bunch of vegetable plants recently and plan to buy more so I think it's about time I stopped sending so much of my compost "waste" to where-ever it is the city sends it and turn it into a new resource. A challenge then, I dare thee to begin composting at home. How hard could it be? So this week we'll start by planning and gathering what we need. Here is a good description of how to make your own compost that I stole from wikianswers:

Making a Compost Bin

You can make a compost bin from almost anything: cinder blocks, lumber, rubber garbage cans,...; to me the question is: "How large or small do you want it to be?". If you live in a area where you get a lot of rain then you should to keep it covered; also, by covering it you will keep out the night-time critters.

As an example: you could make it 2 foot wide by 2 foot long by 3 foot high with 3 or 4 sides. It may be placed under cover out of the weather or fitted with some type of a lid.

The most important things about composting are:

1. put only vegetables, peelings from the kitchen, cut-up newspaper, leaves, grass;coffee grounds, egg shells, no fish or whole eggs keep the contents as wet as a sponge
2. turn it over at least once a week.

You could make a compost bin out of a rubber garbage can. The only problem is turning the material over: the smaller the container the harder it is to turn the compost over - that is the hardest part of composting (besides keeping the material wet as it is breaking down).

Also, you don't even have to make a bin to have good compost. You can just make a pile and get the same results.

So I have myself a big ol' kitty litter bin and I plan to pick up some used gardening tools(for turning the mulch.) Now I'm only going to put good stuff in my personal compost, stuff my plants will enjoy like veggie scraps, light paper, coffee and still leave the kitty litter/meat scraps/bad cheese to the city's compost program. And I know that it can be tough to start a compost if you don't have a backyard or a patio but think small. My suggestion is to simplify by only focusing on composting a few things like veggie peels and/or coffee grinds/used tea. Next week along with a different topic post I'll update you folks on how things are tending at my place. Post below with your own comments.

ciao! mike.