Compost!

I've decided to try something I've wanted since I've moved into my house: start a compost. I've been worried that I don't have enough space or a good place to put one, but I got over it. I purchased a 20 gallon plastic trash bin from home depot for around 12 bucks, and I started filling it.

It turns out that when creating a compost bin, you have to have the proper ratio of brown to green materials. Brown material is dry stuff like brown leaves, paper, small twigs, etc. Green material is grass clippings, old veggies, weeds, etc. You should have more brown material than green in your compost.

Since I have no dry leaves to compost, I will be getting all my dry material from my mailbox. Yes, I will be composting my junk mail. Some folks say colored ink is bad for composts while others say it's ok. Since I don't have a lot of brown material, I'm going to go ahead and use ads that use colored ink. I am going to avoid glossy paper though, because I read it doesn't compost well.

First, I shredded a bunch of junk mail and put it in the bin, then I gathered all the nasty old fruit and vegetables I had in my fridge, which included some rotting tomatoes, a couple packages of old herbs, and a rapidly blackening banana. All this went into the compost. I also added some egg shells, which will give the mixture some calcium.

After adding all the ingredients, I gave the bin a good shake, sprayed some water (the bin must stay moist, like a wrung out sponge). It's going to go in one of the corners of my patio for now.