Reducing Our Footprint - Part 3

One other thing I started last year was a garden.  I'm sure you will remember pictures from last year and the day-long struggle my wonderful husband had trying to till our new garden.

This year's garden was much easier to till thanks in part to last year's garden and compost.

My fantastic compost, if I if do say so myself!

I began composting after reading how much water and electricity it saves from not using the disposal as much, and the reduction of compostable waste in the trash can.  It's remarkable, I really noticed a difference right away.

I bought a plastic compost bin from Costco.com and was super-excited to get it.  I did some research on what was compostable, all veggie/fruit scraps and breads are allowable, but no meat or dairy because they don't break down very well and attract vermin.  I also learned that if you layer your compost, green layer (grass clippings, food scraps) then brown layer (straw, leaf clippings) you will see better results.

My compost bin looks like this:

My compost bin was a very interesting science project in my backyard last summer.  It would never cease to amaze me how quickly the pile would fall.  I would fill it up to the rim with grass clippings and hay and in three days it had fallen several inches.  I loved going out there to see what progress was being made.

Until the maggots showed up.

Yep, maggots.  Loads and loads of them.  Sickening little wormy things devouring my food scraps.  Wait!  Was that a bad thing or a good thing?  A little internet research showed they were "black soldier fly maggots" and were the sign of a healthy compost pile.  Some people even get buy these fantastic creatures through mail order to benefit their compost pile.

Don't believe me?  Check this out!  http://www.grist.org/article/black-fly-magic/

All winter long we composted as well.  Although the progress went slower because it was colder, I was still amazed how far it fell.  The only time we didn't compost was when the snow storms hit and the compost bin was two feet under snow.  Even then we left a bucket outside for food scraps which we transferred to the compost bin after the thaw.

The result in the spring was amazing!  Not only did we save loads and loads of trash from the landfill and countless of gallons of water wasted, but we ended up with rich compost to spread on our garden.  The thick nutrient-rich soil will hopefully help to produce a wonderful garden bounty this summer and fall.

Emptying the compost bin was a little tricky.  I tried using the little doors on the sides, but they were small and cumbersome.  Eventually I just picked the darn thing up and moved it to another part of our lawn.  I was pleased to see most had composted well, with the exception of a corn cob or large pumpkin.  I was not so pleased to see little mice scampering away, I counted seven but I'm sure there were more I didn't see.  I'm not a big fan of mice, but I'm sure they are good for the compost pile.  Thankfully I wasn't thinking about something else that hides in a compost pile...snakes!  I am really not a big fan of snakes, so I'll take the mice.

Once the compost was fully spread on the garden, Steve tilled it all in about 45 minutes.  A lot less time than last year!  I will update how our garden is doing as it grows.

Until then, start a compost pile!