Composting

Shhh, don't tell the rats in the alley or the squirrels playing in the trees all up and down the street, but there is a bin full of decomposing food right in our garden. So far all the furry creatures have been staying away from our compost, except maybe our cat, who likes to sit next to it and warm up on really cold days.

First let me tell you how easy it was to set this whole thing up. I bought a 32 gallon trash bin with a lid for about twelve bucks. With a drill, using a 1/4 inch bit, I cut drain slots all around the bin from bottom to top, as well as bigger drain holes in the bottom of the container, about 1 inch in diameter. All of this would take no more than a few hours, if your drill is even marginally better than mine. Placement is important. Obviously it doesn't have to be in the middle of the garden, taking land away from plants, or in plain sight of everyone in the neighborhood. Its not unsightly at all in my opinion, but as Dalton put it, opinions vary. So I thought it would be nice to be as considerate as possible to others, after all we all live in very close proximity in the city. Once I found a nice spot for it, by a brick wall in the corner of the garden, and not too close to the house itself, I dug a hole in the ground a bit less than 1 foot deep and set the bin in there. I transplanted some marigolds right around the bin, which covered and camouflaged it nicely, put some dirt at the bottom of the container to get it started, emptied the first load of kitchen scraps in there, and covered them with dry leaves. And here we go.

This was in late summer. Every once and again I turn the contents of the bin over with a shovel. From time to time I add water to the compost to help decomposition. And even though I have no idea if this is effective, sometimes I put cat hair into the bin after our cat is brushed. My thought is, the scent acts as an extra deterrent for the furry creatures that live all around us, but to my knowledge this has not been scientifically proven. Other than this, compost is on auto pilot, we empty out kitchen leftovers in there, and others in our row house do the same. We cover things that will decompose with things that are already dead, dry leaves, shrubs, cut up newspaper, and we wait for the spring when the first batch of decomposed organic material will be ready to go into the garden as fertilizer.

In our bin, we put almost everything that comes out of the kitchen in food preparation, not so much the table scraps. Onion peels, pepper insides, broccoli ends, potato peels, banana peels, celery ends, tea, apple cores, etc. No meat, no dairy. There is container with scraps in the fridge, and sometimes what used to be garbage, now lives in the freezer until its time to put it out. Its not that strange since I already keep all the egg shells in the freezer for months at a time, and also ask anybody from San Francisco what they have in their fridge since the whole city started composting, and you will see that a few leftover veggies next to your butter is not the end of the world. When it comes time to put things in the compost, we try to keep about 50/50 balance of green stuff (from the house), and brown stuff (from the outside, leafs, mulch, etc.).

So there it is. Compost. Almost no trash in the house, except a few recyclables, free fertilizer in the spring, free leaf cleaning service for our neighbors, and a cat warmer.

"Opinions vary"