Composting

I started composting a couple of months ago. I had heard about it before, but hadn’t actually tried it. One of the reasons was lack of a proper bin, which every book and site I had read on the subject insisted you ‘needed’. Then I talked to some people who actually did it, and learned about open air composting. At this point I decided to give it a try. I knew that I couldn’t just make a big compost pile in my backyard without anything around it; not because it wouldn’t work, but because my dogs would be all over it.

Over the last two months I have been putting everything possible onto the compost pile that was listed as acceptable on the lists I’ve read. Grass clippings, weeds (minus the roots), dryer lint, over ripe fruit and vegetables, vegetable peelings, newspapers, and the like. I turn the pile about once a week. I am utterly amazed at the results so far. At first I thought it would smell horribly, but it hasn’t. (Though sometimes the ingredients have, until I mix them up.)

The process is just so amazing. When I turn the pile, instead of smelling garbage, I smell –earth. Rich, musty earth. And all of this ‘rubbish’ is slowing breaking down. It is turning into a deep brown, crumply mass. I am making dirt. It’s unbelievable. And amazing. This is the most incredible thing I have ever done or seen. I was mostly a city kid, and to make dirt? Its absolutely incredible.