I read an article today about a woman who said that all of her home's waste last year would fit into a small metal box....

Now, I am realistic.  I know I will never be that fierce, but I know my heart is in the right place.  After our few days of 60 degree weather last week and now our stupid snow on the ground, I got the urge to play in the dirt.  My super awesome compost pile was one of the things I lost in the divorce so I had to start over.

Composting may sound like a daunting task or only something that the super earthy people do but really, it's not that hard and it's kinda fun.   Besides, it will come in handy when we plant stuff later on (but more on that later).


There are about a million websites on how to compost and unfortunately most of them get way too friggin' technical.  There are just a few things that you need to remember. 

• Composting at home is for fruits, vegetables, paper/cardboard and that's about it.  
• Play it safe and don't add cooked food
• dog poop and manure are not the same thing.  Keep the animal waste out of your compost  pile
• You want absolutely no meat, no dairy, nothing with any kind of fat.  That stuff will go rancid and ruin it for you.

With that being said, here's what I did.  I just went and bought a regular old 35 gallon garbage can  with a lid from Lowes. I drilled the sides and bottom with little holes so that air can get into it and so that excess water can get out of it.   I also like quick results so I purchased two bags of mushroom compost for two bucks a piece.  No need to start from scratch if ya don't need to. 


Composting needs two different components.  Green Stuff and Brown Stuff.    Green stuff includes things like kitchen scraps, fresh grass clippings, fresh leaves and things like that.  Brown stuff includes old dry leaves, newspaper (not the slick advertisements, though)  straw... you know, dead things.  You need to make a layer cake of sorts.  If you throw some kitchen scraps in there, you need to toss in a handful of newspaper.  It also needs a bit of water.  I usually give it a quick shot when I go out to water my plants.  I also give it a stir then too. 



Too much brown stuff = it never breaks down
Too much green stuff = it rots and smells horrible.


It should smell pretty pleasant, truth be told and if you do it right, you will end up with some beautifully black kick-ass dirt to grow your tomatoes in.

I used to save all of my kitchen scraps in my freezer and take them out at one time but I have this bajankity old freezer with very little space.  I had to come up with some other plan.  I went to the paint aisle and found a really cool metal bucket with a handle.  I painted it and stuck it in my kitchen.  I will just put the food in there and then dump it when I go to the car or when the boy goes out to have a smoke.  Keep 'em useful, I always say.