Hello Friends!
It’s your Steward Jenny here, and I have a confession to make. I’ve been Compost Curious for some time now. Maybe, like me, you’ve also felt little pangs of guilt each time you’ve dumped your food scraps into the garbage pail. Or perhaps you’re a gardener who is interested in low cost, chemical free fertilizer.
It turns out composting can be a great way to both reduce household waste and provide top notch nutrition for your plants. It’s also a lot simpler to get started than I had anticipated. With the plans for the Pantry Community Garden in full swing, this year seem like to perfect time to jump into the practice of composting.
Like any amazing would-be Girl Scout, I spent some time researching the different types of composting, including the most beginner friendly practices. I wanted to take this opportunity to share what I’ve learned, just in case anyone else is interested in taking the plunge with me and just not sure where to start.
Back when I was a kid, my grandfather had an enormous garden. His entire life revolved around his plants. Gardening wasn’t just a hobby for him; it part of his identity. Not only was he was growing fresh produce, he was also cooking with it. His homemade French fries were out of this world... thick, crispy, salty… yum! Anyway, being a curious kid, I loved to watch him at work both in the garden and in the kitchen. One item I noticed in his kitchen that was never in ours was a small container for collecting food scraps.
That container was a small, homemade compost bin that my grandfather
used to store food waste for his garden. It turns out you can make your own kitchen compost bin pretty easily (The Internet and YouTube are very helpful in this respect). You can also purchase a small compost bin specifically designed for under the sink for a reasonable sum of money. I decided to purchase mostly because the store bought brands come with tight seals and a built in charcoal filter. With two dogs already deeply interested in our garbage contents, I didn’t want to add any other ”intriguing“ smells to entice them. I also didn't want to test my husband's patience since he has been more than supportive of all my extra projects.
In terms of outdoor composting, I looked into all sorts of methods including compost piles, worm bins, and a variety of other bin type products. Ultimately I decided to create compost tubes for the garden beds out of left over 4 inch PVC pipe. The project itself was pretty easy to execute. We simply cut the PVC pipe into 18-20 inch sections and drilled holes for the worms to come and go. We added removable end caps (purchased from the local hardware store) and spray painted everything green to blend in with the garden beds. Then we ordered composting worms online (they shipped all the way from Florida!) and added them to the garden soil. The looked a little sad and tiny when they arrived, but they perked up and filled out in no time.
Now every week we collect all our produce scraps in our under sink compost bin and feed them to our worms by simply filling up the tubes. The worms are happy, the plants are happy, and our family is happy to be putting our food waste to good use! Plus, the little stewards really enjoy checking in on their worm friends regularly.
If you are interested in composting there is SO MUCH information available online, including instructional videos on YouTube. There are even free online courses available!
We promise it is super simple to get started. You may even have as much fun as we did. Plus, there are no failures in gardening, only experiments!
Happy gardening!
