Inch by Inch: Thawing out the rotting banana peels and decomposing egg shells

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Ahhhh! The sweet smell of rotting vegetables. Actually, it’s the sweet smell of rotting glass clippings, egg shells leaves, vegetables and more than enough coffee grounds.

Our compost pile is finally starting to thaw after months of living underneath inches (er—feet) of snow.

He … do compost piles identify with traditional gender roles? … Anyway, the compost at the Feulner house turns two this year. Days after moving in the summer of 2013, my husband and I built a wood-slatted compost bin. For awhile it housed our grass clippings and eventually we started adding kitchen waste and leaves in the fall.

BDN file photo

BDN file photo

Brian goes out every couple of weeks and moves the piles as needed to keep the decomposition process going. Once the organic matter starts to break down and resemble dirt we transfer it to the garden.

So far so good. In fact, our entire garden last year was filled with dirt made from decomposed yard and kitchen waste. We’re going to change that up this year – one because we’ve since learned that adding too much compost can actually do more harm than good and two – because we want to have more than one garden box.

Do you compost? What are some of your tried and true tricks of the trade? Any horror stories? Please share!

(Mine includes finding several avocado pits in the garden last year, yeah, those buggers don’t really break down …)

 

Natalie Feulner

About Natalie Feulner

Natalie Feulner is a journalist and “semi-crunchy” cloth diapering momma to a rambunctious toddler named after a county in California. She drinks too much tea and loves to climb rocks but not at the same time.