Tuesday 10 March 2009

I'm not messy, I'm composting!

I'm new to the world of composting, and therefor I don't have any preconceived notions of how I'm "supposed to" do things. Meaning, I do things my way - which may not necessarily be the right way. I like the idea of recycling, but I don't actually want to have to go through all the trouble of setting up a composter, watching what I put in it so it stays healthy, blah blah blah. My solution - dump all organic matter in the forest! WOOHOO! I keep a big ol' bucket in the kitchen (formerly the "barf bucket" when the kids are sick - don't worry, I cleaned it) and I just dump all our little odds and ends when I'm doodling around in the kitchen into it. Egg shells, carrot tops, wilted lettuce, etc. and then after dinner, the kids take it out to the forest conveniently located just to the left of our house and dump it.



You know what's neat? The garbage doesn't stink anymore. No more rotting food hanging around. You know what else? The forest doesn't stink either. Something magical happens to the food you dump there. Animals eat the big stuff, worms and bugs eat the little stuff, and the rest (and the animals/bugs own "recycling") gets broken down for plant food. I was out there he other day poking around, I lifted up an old eggshell - and there was a flower growing underneath. How cool.



I know one thing - my flower beds are very appreciative of the top-notch soil I've been pulling out of there. Worms and all.

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