Sorry it's been a while. I was out of town for a week or so, and before that I was just busy and/or lazy.
At any rate, about 6 weeks ago I started a compost bin. I want to plant a garden next spring, and I figured I'd get a head start. I used a 14 gallon Rubbermaid container, some old newspaper, and some bricks for the bin itself, and a boxcutter, screwdriver, and spray bottle for the construction. Here are some pics of the basic procedure:
So in the past 6 weeks, a ton of stuff has gone into the bin.
-coffee grounds and coffee filters (every day)
-corn husks
-onion skins and scraps
-broccoli scraps
-old blueberries
-old grapes
-sliced tomatoes that didn't get eaten w/ the hamburgers they were sliced for
-half a bag of cole slaw mix
-dryer lint
-toilet paper and paper towel tubes
-egg shells
-banana peels
-grass clippings
-leaves
You get the idea. At any rate, it's a slow process, but it's totally fascinating to me. First of all, you'd think a pile of old rotting food would reek something awful, but it doesn't. I'm not prepared to say it smells good or anything, but it mostly just smells like old coffee. It's got an earthy aroma, but it's not a rotten smell at all. I keep a little bin beneath the sink that I put random scraps into, and every coupl'a days I go out and dump the new stuff in and stir it all around a bit. After 6 weeks of brewing, here's what it looks like:
Here's a close up. Notice all of the grub worms:
Anyway, as you can see from the pics (especially the second one), the compost is a little too wet. It's not quite to the slimy stage though, so I think it'll be fine. Part of the reason for the wetness is that we've actually gotten a decent amount of rain over the last week or two (though I should point out that it does have a lid on it when I'm not taking pictures, so don't think I'm just letting it get flooded like an idiot). But to help dry it out, I shredded a bunch of newspaper today and added it.
I stirred about 2/3rds of it into the compost:
And then I spread the rest over the top:
Hopefully in a few days when I check on it again, it won't look quite so gloopy.
Oh, and I also planted a few herbs the same day I started the bin. So far my basil and garlic chives are doing pretty well, while the oregano and parsley have both sprouted and died once already. The parsley is coming back in again though, so we'll see what happens.
Anyone else into this kind of stuff? It's all very new to me, but I find it pretty fascinating and fun. I'm really looking forward to getting my garden going next spring.
