Ok, I promised more on composting. We started our first compost very simply. We hardly knew what went into the pile, other than veggie food stuffs. We bought a roll of chicken wire and four metal stakes. We took a rake to an area in the back yard that gets a decent amount of sun. We cleared the area of grass and roots. We got down to the good, dark brown soil. If you don't have good dark brown soil that's ok, just expose the soil you do have. Our compost butts up against a wooden fence. This isn't the best of ideas because the compost will rot the fence over time. We put the stakes in four corners forming a square, then we wrapped the wire meshing around the stakes. It took a little manipulating to get the wire the way we wanted it.
After the bin was formed we had to fill it. We didn't start out with any special compost starters. We simply added a bag of manure to the ground we had turned up. Then, we added raked leaves, we had plenty of them. The key is to alternate browns and greens. Browns= coffee grinds, card board, leaves, I think of them as the more fibrous material. Greens= kitchen veggie scraps, egg shells. The key is no grease and no meat by products. But the list of things you can compost is insane. Here is a list of the things that go in our compost pile weekly:
Veggie and fruit scraps (no citrus)
Egg shells
cardboard
dryer lint
leaves
garden trimmings
Qtips
paper towels
coffee grinds and filters
left over coffee
The key is to make sure the pile is moist and you turn it once or twice a week. This mix of yummy goodness will practically call out to the worms. If you compost it, they will come. We now I have neighbors raiding our bin because they've never had success before until they used our compost. So beware with whom you share : )
I will post pictures of the first bin later, when I explain the second bin :)
Happy composting.
Oh..and a list of 163 things you can compost http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm
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