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| My homemade compost bin |
The first benefit is that our trash volume is very small. We produce one standard kitchen sized bag of garbage each week. We also recycle, so there is that. Nearly all food wastes go into the compost bin.
As you can see from the photo above, fresh garden foods, trimmings, egg shells, spent floral arrangements etc are added quite often. I add layers of dead leaves during this time of year, after they have been mulched, and green grass clippings a few times a year during the mowing season. Since I mulch all the grass clippings in the summer and leaves in the fall, I will attach my mower bag once in a while to catch these clippings to add to the pile. I them remove it so my yard has natural ingredients all year.
This latest bin I constructed out of leftover wood. The slats were attached so that air can get into the sides and the pitchfork stays close by so that I can turn it over every few weeks. The bottom of this pile is dark and rich and is very potent. It needs to be added to other soils and amendments and not used alone. Sometimes, I will take a scoop of the muck in the bottom and make a tea by putting the scoop into a bucket of water and letting it steep. Adding this to potted plants, and other plants around the yard is like adding a natural liquid feed.
While we don't add meat products, we will add mussel shells, shrimp shells and clam shells to the mix. They don't break down very easily, but the added calcium and other minerals to leech in. I have noticed too, that the squirrels will gnaw on the clam shells from time to time.
In the spring, I will take off the top half, and take out the bottom half and put it into another pile, ready to be used. I will then put back the top half so that it will be ready for the next round of decomposition.
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