I want to share my story about what I love about composting
and what the challenges are.
Long ago, my husband and I had a wire cage compost bin. We
filled it to the top with dry leaves and then added food scraps, thinking
that’s all we had to do to get compost. However, we never really got great
compost. Also, critters would comb
through our bin at night and we would find food scraps around the yard the next
morning.
We had always wanted to create good compost, so recently we took
a free composting class with the City of Austin. We learned many things, including why our
composting efforts had not worked. The
problem in our previous attempt was that we did not build our compost pile
gradually with the proper proportions of brown material to green material. We
learned a lot in the class. At the end, we were given a free covered compost
pail to collect our food scraps. After that, how could we not start composting?
Our quest then began for a compost bin that would work for
us. We thought we wanted a tumbler, but
discovered that they were too small, too heavy, too expensive, and a pain to
assemble. We finally found the perfect
bin for us. It was a PVC coated wire bin
with cabinet door-like wire closures on top. It set up easily and the top door kept
the critters out. We bought it at The Natural Gardener here in Austin. We loved
it so much we went back and bought a second one.
I worried about our having strong enough backs to turn the
compost, but I soon learned it was no big deal.
We add the material very gradually and stir it in. We have set up the second bin so we can now
let our first one cook and be totally ready to use at the beginning of the
summer.
Here is what I LOVE about having a compost pile – as I prepare
meals, I am often left with carrot tops from our garden carrots, old lettuce,
tops of leeks and other various food scraps. I actually turn this green matter
into wonderful dirt for my garden, grass and all my other plants instead of its
going to the landfill. My tiny garbage can is never even half full and my
compost bin is cooking away. There have
been no problems with critters or odors.
If you live in Austin, you can sign up for a free composting
class here.
Completion of the class includes a $75 compost bin rebate.
As always, please feel free to post any recycling or
composting questions.
HAPPY COMPOSTING!!!
