Adventures in Composting
My wife and I were taking a day hike through IKEA recently, when I turned to her in the kitchen section and said, “Let’s just do it.” Her eyes lit up, and I said, “You know, I am tired of talking about it; let’s buy this kitchen compost waste pail”. Yes, I am that romantic and so started us down the path of composting.
Composting 101
Working with our Czar of Content/Trash, Jordan, has changed the way I look at trash. I am much more vigilant about waste, and started us on a rigorous recycling program that I am sure amuses my suburban recyclers. Hitting the recycling hard has changed what we throw away; we generally have halved our trash output without being ultra-orthodox or militant about it. However, we still have struggled with the last mile, food waste. For months we've talked about a good composting solution and then decided to just move forward and do it.
Before using the little white bin, we had to explore what we could and could not compost. The EPA has what I found to be the best list(s):
What can one compost?
- Animal manure (but not pet droppings)
- Cardboard rolls
- Clean paper
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Cotton rags
- Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
- Eggshells
- Fireplace ashes
- Fruits and vegetables
- Grass clippings
- Hair and fur
- Hay and straw
- Houseplants
- Leaves
- Nut shells
- Sawdust
- Shredded newspaper
- Tea bags
- Wood chips
- Wool rags
- Yard trimmings
What should one not compost?
- Black walnut tree leaves or twigs
- Coal or charcoal ash
- Dairy products (e.g., butter, egg yolks, milk, sour cream, yogurt)
- Diseased or insect-ridden plants
- Fats, grease, lard, or oils
- Meat or fish bones and scraps
- Pet wastes (e.g., dog or cat feces, soiled cat litter)
- Yard trimmings treated with chemical pesticides
That little white bin started a mild revolution in our house. All of our food waste now found its new home happily. We looked in our kitchen trash barrel and marveled at what was in there, and patted ourselves on the backs, saying this was going to be great.
By the end of that week, however, our love affair with our white composting bin began to sour. The truth is... it stunk. After that we moved our precious white bin from the kitchen in our house to our barn where we couldn’t smell it. But as the temperatures rose, the barn became an unpleasant reminder of the fact that we didn’t have anywhere to compost . That is when we decided, we had to bring in the big guns, we needed a composter.
Choose your weapon
What Do You Have Space for?
We are lucky from a space perspective. Our old New England farmhouse sits on almost an acre abutting protected wetlands. The issue for us wasn’t so much where can we find room, but what was the best spot for it, and what did we want to compost in. Meaning, did we want to go old school and have a compost pile or new school and use a bin. We decided to go with a bin, given that we have a lot of guests that visit our yard from the wetlands. Our critter friends range from bunnies to a family of deer...an enclosed bin would be best way to keep our backyard from turning into a critter buffet.
What are you going to compost?
We are omnivores, so in our composting research we faced a very important question: would be composting meat or dairy products? My solutions usually lean towards the "go big, or go home" approach. Composting meat or dairy, means you are looking a vermiculture solution (composting with "red wigglers", also known as "worms"). However, my vision of an army of worms doing my dirty work was quickly vetoed by my wife.
What work do you have to do your compost?
After my army of worms proposal was nixed, we discussed the logistics of what keeps the compost going. Roughly speaking, compost piles need to be maintained, you add waste to them and you need to keep “turning” them to make sure the magic happens. Compost piles are not a simple dump and forget project. This turning business sounded like smelly work that I would end up doing (and not exactly what I had to signed up for).
Looking at composters, we found a whole category of compost tumblers. Tumblers let you turn them rather than flipping compost, after much deliberation we chose the Tumbleweed Composter largely because of its National Home Gardening Club (whoever they are) stamp of approval.
Compost Location
Experts recommend you put the composter, some place in a convenient location, so that you regularly use and "turn" your compost. That location should also get a fair amount of sun so your compost will cook. We decided to put ours behind the barn where it will get the most sun for the longest time. The downside to the location is because it is behind the barn. If you are wondering how one turns their compost using a tumbler, watch this entertaining and informative video:
Start Your Engines
Anxiously we waited for the Tumbler to arrive, and 4-5 business days later, it was on our doorstep. The following weekend, we constructed the Tumbler and set it up in the backyard. Assembly was straightforward and quick, the tumbler was constructed in less than 30 minutes.
Once we had our composter built and placed, I was ready for the next step: filling the composter. While I was running to do this, my wife stopped me. The catch was...I needed to make sure that we had the right mix.
Right mix? Right mix of what? I quickly found out that dumping our waste into the tumbler and tumbling was not going to work. I needed to find the right mixture of "brown and green". The secret to successful composting is making sure that your composting material contains both carbon and nitrogen. That mix of carbon and nitrogen is referred to as "brown and green". What are they?
Green Materials
- Grass clippings
- Weeds
- Vegetable peelings, leaves & stems
- Kitchen scraps (not meat)
- Rhubarb leaves
- Soft green prunings
- Seaweed
- Animal manure (sheep, poultry, horse & cow)
Brown Materials
- Sawdust
- Shredded/chopped newspaper or card
- Peastraw, lucerne or straw (wet well)
- Twigs & small branches (shredded)
- Leaves
What Did We Learn
Knowing what you are doing is always a plus. Fortunately, you can learn from our mistakes.
Things We Love:
- The Tumbleweed (made from recycled plastics, looks like a robot from Star wars, sturdy).
- IKEA White Bin (we like the little white bin, good size and form factor)
- Cutting down our trash
Things We Wish We Had:
- Brown: Has definitely got us down.
- BioBags: a must for your kitchen composting bin. Everyone raves about them. They keep your compost bin clean and cut down on the smell.
- Compost Thermometer: this will tell you if you have achieved the right mix of materials in your composter. When the composter hits a certain temperature, you know that all is right.
- Compost Turning Tool: despite buying a tumbling composter, I think we will need to break up the pile as well. The compost tool acts like an auger and breaks up your compost pile.
Where Do We Stand?
Here is our current situation:
- One new shiny Tumbleweed composting bin...empty
- We have three bags full of rotting/decaying/ripening “green material” ready and waiting
- Hunting for brown material…
Our hope is this weekend to solve the brown problem, on our list:
- Hit a good garden center
- Grab some Cadillac grade compost to help start the magic
- Trek into the neighboring wetlands to grab some brown
We are cautiously optimistic that we can get our tumbler into action. We want to reduce what hits the landfill, but to create deep rich compost that we can use in the gardens we have. I'll keep you posted as the adventure progresses.
By DonC
Also in Izzit's Lab
Image from Flickr user efekt shared with a Creative Commons Attribution License.
