Saturday, August 25, 2007

Oh, the compost, it happens.

Compost. It cuts down (significantly) on the amount of kitchen garbage. It gives my garden soil an extra boost of nourishment. It cuts down on our trips to the brush dump and leaves fewer leaves for the city trucks to pick up.
Compost is awesome. It takes time, it's a slow process, and eventually it happens. Before and after pictures can be fun, but I rarely take them. I concern myself with adding goodies to the pile and stirring it once in a while. Well, I do admit, we've knocked down an old fence and trimmed a tree to make room for the bin. There's a little effort once in a while.
There are specific "recipes" a home composter can use, but I'm pretty easy about it. If the compost is too dry, I add more wet ingredients (and I use the term ingredients loosely). If it's too wet, I start adding dry ingredients like dried grass clippings. But right now, the decomposition is not happening smoothly.
Husband added a batch of wet grass clippings after he mowed the lawn last. This usually works great; the heat of the pile increases, speeding up the process, and the grass itself decomposes quickly. This time, though, the Week of Constant Rain hit the Midwest.
The additional moisture made the grass clump together, develop mildew, and stink.
The continuous rain made any other dry ingredients that were set aside, well, just as wet as the grass clippings.
The result: Eeew.
Today I'll add the usual kitchen waste and stir what I can to separate the clumps of green and, um, grey-green. If the sun stays out, there may be hope for a few dry stacks from the beyond-bloom daylilies and other past-their-prime perennials.
But even if I don't "fix" it, eventually, next spring some time, I'll have a pile of luscious, deep brown compost to mix with my garden soil. No complaints here. Compost, no matter what I do, will happen.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

We had a compost at our place in New Mexico. I never quite got the hang of it, but my roomies were pretty good at that kind of stuff. Like gardening, lawn care, etc.

Growing up in the city leaves you a complete idiot when it comes to anything that has to do with nature ;)

8/26/2007 8:33 AM  
Blogger shannon said...

Daisy, do you know where I can find a good list of what you can and can not compost? We're moving soon (yea! got the house) and I'll have enough space to be able to compost (and a garden to receive the goodness).

email me if you do...

chlortence AT gmail DOT com

8/26/2007 9:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My Dad is a composter .. I hope to once we are all settled. Your so right though ... it just happens!

8/26/2007 5:00 PM  
Blogger MamaMaven said...

My husband just built me a compost corral in the back yard and I've happily been filling it! I've also been reading up so I can use it to my best advantage! Glad to have stumbled across your blog!

8/27/2007 3:54 PM  

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