Do You Even Compost, Bro?

Composting is something I was initially reticent and intimidated to do when we lived in the city until our neighbor explained how easy it was with her backyard that was the size of mine!

First of all, I loved the idea of composting but wasn't sure I had the right "scraps" to do it. It seemed like people who composted made everything from scratch and lived on lettuce and homegrown tomatoes. That IS NOT us!

Second of all, I was scared of the mess/smell that it seemed it would attract -- flies, maggots, animals, etc. That is not the way I wanted my backyard to look.

Finally, to have a "closed compost" that would thrive without mess and super amazing scraps (which I will explain that you don't have to have), you would have to buy a plastic composter that was hundreds of dollars and only could hold about two groceries' bags worth of scraps. When the chickens arrived, it was clear that we would have that much within a month and have to wait until it broke down in a super fancy ready-bought composter.

When my neighbor showed me her compost pile(s), I realized I could DO THIS! She showed me how she had two piles of scraps right up next to her fence on her property line (as far from the house as she could get) and there were all kinds of things decomposing in there that I already had in my TRASH CAN: orange peels, apple cores, eggshells, almost-rotten blueberries and grapes that you pull out, tomato tops, cucumber ends, banana peels, you name it. Those were all the things that I was already using/consuming and then just throwing it away.









Here is our compost bucket (which we keep on the porch outside the door so we can throw stuff in) of stuff since yesterday!

In her first pile, there was no fruit to be seen, to be fair. She had started it last year and now it looked like fine, good and dark dirt. She explained that she would put her scraps from last year and then "stir" it with a shovel every couple weeks and then placed on top dirt/pine needles from under her trees, and that my family could even use our used chicken bedding. Then she put more scraps, repeated the process until it got as high as she wanted it to be from the ground without falling over. Then she placed one final coat of dirt (or brown) on it and moved onto her next pile, separated with a log or even some chicken wire if you want.

Her second pile was her "new pile," and it looked pretty much like mine (that we started in February once the weather got nice) at our new house.

The cool thing is that her first pile would be ready to use for fertilizer for her garden in just a few months once she was sure everything was good and broken down! Free fertilizer! Less garbage to take out! And even some BABY PLANTS that had popped up in her dirt from the seeds from her fruits and veggies (which she carefully removed those and transplanted for new plants and to give to neighbors)! (The other upside is you know those seeds are "proven" because they grew a previous fruit versus seeds from the store. I will do another post later about how to save seeds from your food to grow more food!)

I was hooked! Let's face it, it feels bad to waste half an apple, or a banana peel, or even throwing away rotten tomatoes and celery you forgot was in the back of the fridge ;) This is a way to make those things work for the environment, the worms/grubs outside, and eventually for your own garden, either fertilizing or growing new plants.

So, who's in? Who's already been in? Do you have a different way to compost to share? Tell us in the comments below or post a pic. Either way, if you have a backyard, start investing in it by sharing your waste scraps! :)