Finally composting!

     In Genesis, 2:15, God places Adam in the garden of Eden and tells him, this man, to take care of it.  That's a directive for all us.  We are meant to be stewards of our home.
     If you were to click on my blog label, "a wee bit o' greening," you would see that I work at doing small things to makes a change in the world. I'm still using my metal razor, my cloth napkins (about 90% of the time), my white washcloths, my reusable shopping bags...but I understand I have much more I could be doing.

 (A gift from Anna, a student)

    So this past weekend, I started--with Brad's agreement and help--a compost bin!  I am so excited!  I followed the directions I found here, and I did my own thing to adapt it to our budget and use.
     First, we went to Lowe's where for under nine dollars (including tax) we found a green (blends in with our house and bushes) bin made of 90% recycled plastic.  Our mistake, as we started the next step we realized the lid was VERY hard to open.  Before buying a bin, you may want to test it out since the idea is to open and close it frequently.
     Next, Brad drilled holes in the lid to allow air and rain water in.  He also drilled holes, not as many, in the bottom to allow water out.

      The next step was the easiest, I added a few inches of shredded paper.  Brad shreds all mail and old office documents, and then he recycles the paper, so I hit his home office for this fill.

      Seeing that it's summer and the heart of the growing season, this next one was tough--I had to have a layer of "browns," or dead stuff.  Had a hard time finding them, as you can see.  They didn't quite fill...

     As they say, easy-peasy, next went the greens.  Weeds, leaves, grass.  We have an empty lot across the street, and it's fringed with plenty of easy-to-pull-because-it-just-rained green weeds.  Sweet corn husks went in as greens too. 

     To make it pretty, it was time for table/kitchen scraps. Two tea bags, corn hulls (cut up), and a paper napkin.  I added two wilting carnations for a garnish.

    Now, on the site I used as a guide, worms were not used. After my classroom worm experiment, I had to! So I added some WalMart bait fridge night crawlers.  I've heard red wigglers are best, but they didn't have those in the fridge.  I dumped in the worms and added their "compostable" cups--after tearing them up.  Here are the worms in close up:

     Ready to go!  We'll keep adding scraps:  egg shells, strawberry stems, coffee grounds, old lettuce...no dairy and no meat scraps.  They don't compost at all quickly and they attract critters.  I carried the bin to the patio, and I placed it on two bricks to allow it to breathe and leak (we plan on hosing off the leakage so it doesn't mar the patio.)
     It smells, but only when we open it to put more in.  
     In a few weeks, we'll turn it.  In winter we may move it to the garage.  (Do worms freeze?  Further research needed.)  And perhaps, a mix of this compost and our clay soil will allow next year's backyard plants to thrive!