I hope you guys came back ready to get down and dirty because after over-hauling the basics of our lives and cutting our trash down significantly, we started to see something.
Something we didn't really like.
We noticed that after all those recyclable items got into the recycling bins, we had very little trash going out. Though, most of the trash was food.
Ends of veggies, dinner's that didn't get completed, stems and leaves from grapes, peels from eaten fruit etc. I started to think about how useful those items could be to the Earth and how useless they were sitting in a plastic garbage bag in some landfill. Why oh why don't we use those food items to create soil that is rich in nutrients for growing plants?
I couldn't find a good reason.
At that time, I knew absolutely nothing about composting.
It seemed like a complicated deal that included balancing ph levels and stinky old food. (which is my least favorite thing, ask my husband he'll tell you.)
Again, we started small.
First we put this bin outside the back door that leads out from the kitchen. That way, after chopping veggies or eating dinner we could quickly and easily put our compostable scraps into the bin rather than the garbage.
It took a little adjusting and some digging to get orange& banana peels back out of the trash, but eventually it became routine to put any fruit/veggie/grain items into the compost bin.
Lily likes being able to walk outside on her own to do this. :)
Since that bin is super small we quickly filled it up.
Luckily, the neighbor noticed we were starting to compost and offered us a large plastic compost bin that was given to them& sat unused for a few years. Score for not buying something new.
So, when the little bin gets full, we flip it and move it to another small bin to turn for a bit.
After the first bin get filled again we do a little game of move the compost... putting the (almost) dirt from bin 2 into this big boy, contents of bin 1 move to bin 2, and bin 1 is left empty to be filled again.
Although we don't have composting down to a science (sometimes the big bin gets a little stinky& we add paper to clear it up) but it's also not a frustration. It's pretty straightforward, let the earth do it's job and turn everything back into rich soil that we can use it to
....
GARDEN!
Which is what I'll be discussing next week!
Year 2's goal was so easy peasy that for year #3 we went bigger and better by choosing to grow our own garden and also to dive into the world of canning.
Since I'm taking a family trip to California, I'll be putting together some guest posters to share a few other Conscious Living options while I'm away.
Come back soon!
<3
This is such a nice, non-intimidating introduction to composting. We also give our veggie scraps to our chickens and use their poop in our garden. Talk about stinky - but powerful stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jenni! We are really excited to use our new soil in the garden next year to see the difference in yield. Has using the poo helped yours? Also, I totally thought about you while on vacation in S.F. Cali when I came across an awesome art recycling center called Scrap. They had so many awesome fabrics that were all saved from going to the trash. Such a cool place!
DeleteMae