I first learned about compost years ago, but at the time I had no interest in gardening so I quickly forgot anything I learned.
A few years ago, when I first made a small attempt at gardening, I decided that we needed to compost.
Using other garden blogs as my guide, I drilled holes in a large trash can and made myself a compost bin.
I’ll admit, composting has always made me a little…insecure.
When you google for composting, you’ll find WHOLE BOOKS written about it.
Y’all, seriously. WHOLE BOOKS. Geez, it makes it seem so complicated!
I’ve been left feeling as though I’m not doing it right, that I’m missing some important step and leaving out a crucial element in my composting process.
As you might imagine, I haven’t created that much compost over the last few years.
Since this summer is my big attempt at turning my brown thumb green, composting has become a focus for me again.
I’m uncomfortable with most commercial products for my garden, so amending my soil is something best left to the natural wonders of homemade compost, you know?
Still, I felt like I was doing it wrong.
Suddenly, last week, I had a “eureka” moment!
I’d been diligently dumping my food scraps to to my bin, adding cut grass and such, mixing it around, and frankly, all it resembled was a big pile of nasty gloop.
While stirring it with the shovel, some back part of my brain snapped into gear and I remembered: I’m supposed to add DIRT to this, too!
(head slap moment)
So I grabbed a bunch of topsoil and stirred it in.
You know what happened?
My pile of gloop turned into compost right before my eyes.
That’s when I remembered a conversation with Darrel that led to my “eureka” moment.
Back when I was belaboring over which cloth diaper selection I would make, and once again asked Darrel for his opinion on the latest of my options, he looked at me and in all seriousness said “Honey, it’s a piece of material that collects pee and poop. Does it really require this much thought?”
Um…good point. I made my cloth diaper decision within five minutes and moved on.
Sitting there in front of my compost bin, watching the gloop turn into compost, I remembered that conversation and re-worded his response to fit composting:
“It’s a bunch of decomposing stuff. Does it really require that much angst?”
NO!!
Composting isn’t hard, and I’m here to advise you to ignore anyone who would make composting a full-time job in their advice.
Keep it simple. Keep it easy. Keep it real.
Composting is simply turning garbage into plant food. It’s an entirely natural process, God-invented, and therefore it needs no serious interventions from mankind in order to be just perfect.
Follow a few simple guidelines, and you, too, can have yummy plant food in no time!
Here’s all you need to know in order to make your own compost:
- Save your scraps. (No meat products, though!)
- Dump them in a compost bin.
- Add some natural materials (leaves, cut grass, etc.)
- Add some dirt.
- Stir it up.
- Keep it moist but not wet.
Now…
Did you forget to stir your compost for a few days? No biggie! Go stir it when you remember.
Forgot to moisten it and it’s dry as a bone? No biggie! Add some water and stir it up.
Forgot to add natural materials or soil? No biggie! Go add some now that you remember.
Do not – I repeat – DO NOT waste a single moment of your gardening brain stressing or worrying about composting.
Some folks have turned composting into a fine art, and evaluate what you should add in exact proportions to create just the right balance of nutrients.
Good for them, I say!
But for me?
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Just leave the meat products out, since they don’t degrade the same as plant products, and your compost will basically take care of itself.
In a short while, you may not have perfect, precisely balanced, exquisitely rendered compost…but you will have homemade compost that will enhance your garden with no chemicals involved!
I’ve been keeping my scraps in an old bowl on my counter. When it gets full, I give everything a whiz in the food processor and dump it in the compost bin.
That takes a couple of days, so about every 2-3 days I stir the compost and decide if it needs more grass or soil.
I keep a second trash can next to the compost bin that I dump natural materials into when I find them. Then they’re always nearby when I need to add some to the compost itself.
I’ve almost filled up my current bin, so I think it’s time we get another one. At some point you need to leave the compost alone and stop adding stuff to it to let it sit and finish “melding” so you can use it.
My garden should be getting a nice nutrient boost here in a few weeks!
Seriously. Composting is easy. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
Happy Gardening!
