Who wants to make some dirt?? Make dirt? That's insane. From food scraps? Won't it rot and smell?Well, maybe. I don't know yet. I did see some bugs and stuff the last time I threw stuff into my compost bin and seriously thought about calling this whole little project off, but I thought better of it. Because I want to make some dirt!!
When we decided to build a raised vegetable bed, the idea of composting was a natural offshoot for me. After all, what better way to create healthy plants than with compost? And why buy it from the store when I can make my own, for free, from the scraps that fill up our garbage every night anyway? Mmmmmmm, yummy.
The hubs and I did our research on the web, and we decided to go with small, simple and cheap to start off. We bought a large garbage can with a locking lid (it cost us about $14). Then Jason drilled holes all over it, a few inches apart. All over. Top, bottom, sides. If you look carefully, you can see all the little holes. This allows air flow to occur all over, oxidizing and breaking down the leaves and food stuff into what will become compost. We normally have it raised on bricks, but I took this picture as I was getting ready to roll it.
Then, we used leaves that had fallen in the yard (less raking and throwing out leaves in the trash as well!) to create a ratio of 4:1. Four parts "brown" (leaves, newspaper, etc)
to one part "green," For the green, we noobies to composting, in a small, highly regulated city, chose to use only raw fruits and veggies, coffee grinds, tea and egg shells. They seemed the least risky in terms of safety, and smells, and possible neighbor complaints. And even though our wildlife is somewhat scarce in NYC, we do have opossums and raccoons where I live, and ain't nobody got time for that. There are a lot of other options people choose; some use bones and meat and cooked food, and there's nothing wrong with that. We just chose this method.
We keep the scraps in an air-tight locking container that some quick dry cement we had bought previously to patch a small area of our patio came in. It stays on our counter, and locks tight enough to keep any smells or cats from getting out or in, respectively. It's designed to keep wet cement from drying out, so clearly it's working. And it was free. If this works out and I become a master composter, I'll buy a sexy stainless steel one. For now, re- purposed garbage will do.
Every few days, we roll it around on the ground to get the gross stuff mixed.
We are also supposed to keep the mixture moist, although with all the rain we've been having, that hasn't been an issue.
I'll post an update in a few weeks to see whether it's worked or not!!
Thanks for reading and following!!
XOXO
Marissa
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