| Composting is difficult. The wonderful truth | | | | the bottom. |
| is you couldn't stop stuff from decomposing | | | | |
| if you tried. | | | | In your kitchen keep some kind of container |
| | | | with a handle to collect compost. Some gallon |
| A good compost bin or pile will decompose | | | | ice cream tubs come with a lid and handle and |
| items quickly. A poor one will still | | | | are great for this purpose. A lid helps |
| decompose items, but slowly. Consider your | | | | prevent fruit flies in summer. When anyone in |
| location carefully. You don't want a compost | | | | your house chops vegetables, peels an orange, |
| to send smelly air downwind to your house on | | | | etc, put it in the compost bucket. Once a day |
| a hot day, but you also don't want to have to | | | | carry the contents to your compost bin. |
| walk far from your kitchen to put things into | | | | |
| it on a cold or rainy day. If your compost is | | | | Into the compost bin you can put vegetable |
| located to receive sun, the contents will | | | | and fruit parts, pasta water, spoiled food, |
| break down faster than if you put it in a | | | | sour milk or fuzzy yogurt, coffee grounds, |
| shady place. | | | | egg shells, citrus rinds and cantaloupe rinds |
| | | | surprisingly break down quite well. When you |
| A compost can be made with metal fencing or | | | | are cleaning up your yard you can put in |
| wood pallets, or you can purchase a | | | | healthy leaves. |
| commercial compost bin through a garden | | | | |
| center. Improved features on a compost bin | | | | What you don't want in your compost: meat, |
| might include a lid to prevent animal entry, | | | | bones, kitty litter (even if you use clay |
| a black exterior to improve solar gain and | | | | litter, this would create a health hazard), |
| speed up the compost process, vents also to | | | | nut shells, those little sticky labels they |
| speed up the process, and a trap door at the | | | | put on fruits (watch out for them), look out |
| bottom so you can pull out the rich, finished | | | | for accidentally dumping in plastic wrappers |
| compost to spread around your garden beds. | | | | (happens more often than you might think), |
| This last feature can be very nice as then | | | | sticks, any parts of pine trees, green |
| you won't have to muck about from the top | | | | walnuts, diseased or unwanted plants from |
| with a shovel to get to the useable stuff at | | | | your yard. |