Working On Some Compost

 

You may have already heard that there is an extreme fertilizer shortage, along with everything else it seems.  One of the largest fertilizer plants in the United States burned down and a lot of our other fertilizer came from Russia and Ukraine, among other things.  Under the circumstances it seems prudent to make compost and create my own organic fertilizer.  The beauty of compost is that we can all do this.

 

We have a large two section compost bin in our backyard.  I built it myself out of four by four fence posts and cedar fence boards.  Composting requires two things - brown matter and green matter as well as some water.  Brown matter is things like leaves, cardboard and paper (boxes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, shredding, junk mail, etc.), straw, grass clippings, wood shavings, etc.  Green matter is your coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels and other kitchen waste.  It can also include manure.  Fortunately for us we have chicken and rabbit manure a plenty.  Combining all of these items makes for some good composting action.

 

This ice cream bucket is an excellent collection bin for our kitchen

Our compost bin has been largely ignored and neglected in the past year so I was eager to get outside and get it started back up.  One side of the bin was two thirds full and inactive while the other side was empty.  I had been saving cardboard and paper in the garage, plus what little kitchen waste we had I was collecting in a one gallon ice cream bucket.  Most of what was in that bucket was simply coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells, but every little bit helps.

 

I emptied my shredder into the compost bin as well

I began by placing a nice layer of cardboard in the bottom of the empty section.  A couple Amazon boxes, a cereal box and a worn out egg carton.  The card board attracts earth worms and that is a good thing to have along with your compost.  Next went the ice cream bucket of goodies I had been collecting and some bunny manure mixed with hay and wood pellets.  Then a good dousing of water before I added a layer of dried leaves, more bunny manure and then water and repeat.  By layering the brown and gray matter with a bit of water you get a good mix of carbon and nitrogen matter that will work together and begin to breakdown.

 

Every few days I will take a shovel out and give it a good turn to help the breakdown process and within about four to six weeks we should have some really good compost to add to our garden beds.  Then we'll start the process all over again.  Another good way make sure nothing goes to waste while giving back to the earth what we've been taking from it.  And it keeps more stuff out of our landfill.  Even better!