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!
That's a very nice compost bin! I made the difficult decision to stop composting last week and it's an almost physical pain I feel every time I throw good carbon sources into the trash can. This is step one in getting my house ready to sell and getting me to realize that my house is not a forever home. Life comes in seasons and this has sure been a good one. Congratulations to you on your new season!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Elaine. Good luck with getting ready and the sale of your house. :o)
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