Compost bins

Chuck was able to get our new compost bins made. We had just been using a pile we started several years ago. With the garden and chickens we have quickly outgrown it. He used pallets scavenged from a dumpster. They look great and we will be able to move compost from one to the other as we are digging it each year for the garden.

This brings up something that I have never been able to figure out. How people can make composting sound so difficult. By the time you are done reading the directions you just want to give up. We simply dump weeds, grass, leaves and whatever else we have on the pile. We do bury our kitchen scraps so we don't attract rodents. If it starts to get a little odor we will add more brown material to it. If it doesn't seem to be doing much we will try and add more green stuff to it. The instruction manuals on compost are trying to get you to keep it at a specific temperature which you do need to do if you need compost in the near future. If you are just looking for a way to recycle your garden waste then this other method works well. We use our compost mostly in the spring and have always had more than enough.

You can compost many things and save a lot of things from going unnecessarily to the landfill. Most kitchen scraps can be composted such as vegetable and fruit, egg shells, coffee filters and grounds. Things that should not go in the compost are cooked grains and breads, meats/cheese and anything cooked with oil. These things will attract rats and other creatures you may not want in your yard.

If you get a chance, find an out of the way part of your yard. Pile your weeds, grass and leaf clippings there. See what happens. Happy composting!