Gardening

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Category: Compost

Compost for the garden

With the amount of vegetable peelings, grapes, weeds that don't have seeds, newspaper and everything else I been throwing in the compost this summer, I've managed to fill the two bins I have to the top.

So, to make more room, last night I opened up the bottom of one of the bins that had been composting since last spring and was able to get almost a bushel full of rich, dark compost. Well, actually that little door at the bottom of the bin is just not big enough, so I just pushed the whole thing over. Much easier. After taking out the compost it gave me more room to continue adding grapes, tomato peelings, etc.

It was a real lesson for the youngest daughter.She had never watched me get finished compost before; she thought that they were just two big garbage bins back there. She was almost right, but you need to have a combination of food waste (no meat or grease) and brown waste (such as leaves) so it will start to decompose over time in to a rich soil. You can read my previous posts on composting for lists on what you can and cannot compost to get an idea on what to put in your bin. I found one of my kitchen knives in there - that would definitely fall under what NOT to compost.

With the type of compost bins I have it can take anywhere from six months to 1 year to get finished compost. It helps to have two, one to fill, and the other to leave alone, and let compost.

You can catch up with my garden at Gardening in Lower MI.