composting

Part of the reason why my husband and I bought our house four years ago was because of the large, beautiful garden in the back yard.  We had never lived in a house with a yard before, so we were forced to learn a lot about plants, flowers and gardening very quickly.  And through this somewhat hasty education, we learned that we absolutely love it.

In an effort to recycle more and decrease our trash output (while also saving money on soil and mulch), we decided to start composting for our garden.  About two years ago we started our first compost bin.  We used a large Rubbermaid garbage can with small holes cut into the bottom and side.  We added yard clippings and food refuse and poured in a beer to get the process started.  Over the next 8-10 months, we added all of our yard/garden waste, newspaper, cat hair, coffee grounds and food product waste like fruit, veggies and egg shells.  When we finally used the compost this past spring (in mid-March when we began prepping the perennial gardens) what we found was the richest, most wonderfully smelling and nutrient-packed base for our plants that I could imagine.  I really believe that this compost, combined with a rainy spring season, gave us the loveliest garden we've had since moving into the house.  All of our flowers and herbs were huge, with abundant blooms or leaves.

In the colder months, we keep an old cat litter bucket like this one beneath our kitchen sink.  We throw in our food waste, cat hair, dryer lint and coffee grounds until it's full and then take it out to the large compost bin.  Because the cat litter bucket has a strong locking lid, we never get bugs or an odor from the compost inside.

The large bin in our back yard gets "turned" or mixed every week or so, when we take the smaller container out to dump it. This helps the process continue successfully.

You can read more about composting at Composting 101 or about the cool Philly Compost project.