How I Compost

I've been small scale composting for about two years now. I'm still learning about the process of composting, and I'm always looking for ways to improve. Today, I want to share with you my current composting system. 

There are a few things that have shaped my system into the way it is today. 

• We have limited yard space.
• Riley (our dog) gets into everything.
• My husband was worried about the compost smelling. 
• I am fairly lazy. 

These factors led to my trash can compost bin. You can find a great tutorial to make your own here. This system is great because the trash can protects the compost from the nosy dog, and it can live out by my garden. No smells by the house, and it doesn't take up a lot of room. 

To make life really easy, I purchased a bucket from my local ranch supply store to use for our kitchen scraps. Every day we just throw anything you can compost into it. At the end of the day I fill it with some water and take it outside to the composter. 

This system has led to the phrase "Chuck it in the bucket!" which we say whenever we are getting ready to throw something out that should be composted instead. 

Right now the bucket has parsley that was a little past its prime, an old banana (which I cut up into pieces to help the decomposing process), strawberry tops, and bits of a toilet paper tube. 

My compost bucket has to be secured to my garden with a bungee cord, since the wind blows so much here. In fact, the bungee cord holding my lid on broke and the lid blew away. 

This means that I can't roll my composting can around the yard right now. I have found that turning it with a pitchfork works just fine, but it does dry out much faster without the lid. 

I get pretty lazy about composting in the winter, so my pile has been a little neglected. I need to get some greens on this baby to get it going again. 

I'm so excited to be eating great, fresh foods and using them to feed my garden, too. I am planning to add some red wriggler worms to my compost bin soon. I hear they do wonders for speeding up the composting process. Some people have compost bins based entirely on using worms! I'll probably buy mine from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. 

So that's it! That's how I try to be a little greener and feed my garden with my own compost. To learn more about how to compost, visit Composting 101.