Garden season is just a stone’s throw away, and we are getting ready for another fruitful season. As we’ve developed our skills as urban farmers, we’ve also been learning the art of composting. Composting is the process of taking organic matter and allowing it to decompose. You use the decomposing matter on your gardens for extra fertilizer.
The Art of Composting
One of our big purchases after moving was to buy a composter. We opted for a Miracle Grow brand composter from Amazon. After all, who knows gardens better than Miracle Grow? Bonus, this composter is easier to “stir”. We’ve spent the past two years filling our composter with everything we can imagine: fruits, organic waste, coffee grinds, etc. We’ve convereted many of our household items to compostable items: utensils, cleaning wipes, and compostable plates.
Photo source: Amazon.com
We stored organic waste in the kitchen for a few days before we took the waste out to the composter. After a few months of composting, storing organic waste inside the house became problematic. And the problem was flies! Amazon had a simple solution, we purchased this OXO Good Grips tub to keep in the kitchen. The tub keeps all organic waste sealed and we simply carry the waste out to the composter when it’s full. Problem solved!
Photo source: Amazon.com
This weekend, we emptied our composter to fertilize our garden. So, what does two years worth of composting look like when you have been learning what works and doesn’t work along the way? One bucket. Yes, just one bucket. One of the biggest lessons learned was you cannot just have stuff from the kitchen in your compost. It will all basically disappear. An important part of composting is having enough brown material in your mix. The goal is to have 1 part green material(most items from the kitchen like fruits, vegetables, as well as cut grass, etc.) and 2 parts brown material(dried leaves, dirt, topsoil, sticks, etc.).
Do you compost? Any tips for us?
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- Amanda is a native of Richmond, VA. She enjoys writing, blogging, traveling, shopping, and spending time with friends and family.
This is so helpful! We’re planting a garden for the first time this year so I’ve been trying to learn all I can!
You will love it! If you get a composted, get one that rolls. Then, you don’t have to stir the waste!