Healthy Living: Composting BASICS!!!!

I had been wanting to compost for YEARS and was so overwhelmed with starting it, that I was just turned off by the idea. There are more opinions on how you should compost and what you should use that it was hard for me to know where to start. I finally took the plunge when Cody was born and this post is about what I did and what I have learned so far!

1. I didn't want to invest in a compost bin in the beginning and so I built my own. 

• 12-1/2 feet of poultry wire (36" wide by 1" thick)
• 4 plastic zip ties
• 3 metal or wooden posts (each 4 feet long)
• Wire snips, pliers, hammer, work gloves
• Lay out the poultry wire, and fold back each end three inches. Bring the ends together, forming a circle, and secure the edges together with the zip ties. Set the circle upright at its intended location, and pound the 3 posts around the perimeter inside the wire circle. (it may not be the prettiest, but it worked as a container!)
2. There are many different methods recommended, but with a newborn on my hands, I didn't have a lot of time. I ended up just putting all of my kitchen scraps, leaves and grass clippings in my bin. I never turned it or watered it. By the next season, it was NOT compost (as you can see above, it was a pile of mush)! However, I was told that if I take my pile out of the chicken wire and turn it to get oxygen to it, I might be able to turn my scraps into compost. So I did just that! 
3. At the same time, I decided I wanted an actual compost bin because it looks a little nicer (we are trying to sell our house) and it heats up your scraps which helps aid in the composting. So I assembled my new bin, took my half-decomposed-scraps from my DIY bin, layered some of that with grass clippings and bokashi, and put it in my new bin. I turned it once daily and added a little bokashi every day and within a week... I had COMPOST! 

Not too bad! The same week, a friend of mine gave me another compost bin. Now we have two, which is ideal in my opinion. You can have one bin composting and the other bin you can continue adding scraps. Composting is a great way to help keep waste out of our landfills and out of our environment! You get great soil for your plants and it is can be used as a great teaching tool for the kids! 

Have fun and please let me know your compost stories!!!!