R otten Potatoes? Yuch!
Hold on a minute. Although we may no longer want these with our dinner, they still serve a great purpose. And that’s called compost. Composting is one of the great things we can do for our gardens and our world. It’s green recycling. Recycling is when you take stuff you’ve used and are going to throw away, and instead make it a part of something that can be used again.
Recycling food scraps is an important part of good composting.
COMPOSTING refers to the process of putting organic material into a storage area where it can break down (decompose) and become rich material (called humus) to be added to the dirt in the garden. The practice of recycling food and other vegetable waste can reduce the amount of trash we send to the landfills or garbage dumps by as much as a third. And it is just like the recycling that happens in nature, when leaves drop to the ground and become part of the dirt. It’s your small circle that mimics the big circle of natural life.
Here are some of the things you can add to the compost pile while cleaning the yard: old leaves, cut grass, weeds, and plants that you no longer want in the garden; scraps from fruit and vegetables; the finished plants from your vegetable garden and any fruit or vegetable you didn’t get to eat; tea bags and coffee grounds; and, of course, cold peas and rotten potatoes.
Making Your Own Simple Compost Bin
You can buy pre-made compost bins that are neat and attractive. Some of them even turn with a handle so the compost is regularly turned over. These are called “compost tumblers.” But making a starter compost bin is easy. Here’s a simple diagram and instructions.
The simplest way to make a compost bin is to pick up some wooden stakes. 5–6’ high and 2” x 2”. (If you want to build a nicer-looking compost bin as part of your gardens and landscape, you can use 4’ x 4’ cedar posts as the anchor posts. Using these posts enable you to put hooks on the posts so you can actually remove the screening material if you want.
Simple compost bin
Find a space that gets at least a few hours of sun per day and is away from where you spend most of your time in the yard, but still convenient from the house or kitchen. Measure a rectangle large enough for your compost; anywhere from 2’ x 4’ or 3’ x 6’. Make it narrow enough so you can reach into the center with a pitchfork to turn things over once in a while. Drive the stakes into the ground deep enough so they’re sturdy. Purchase some thin gauge wire (vinyl coated is better because it won’t rust) and staple or nail it to the stakes. A height of 3’ works well so you can reach over it easily. You can leave one side tied off lightly so it can be opened to shovel or pitchfork compost out of the bin.
It’s best to fill the compost bin in layers and then mix things up every few weeks. A pitchfork or baling fork is great for this. Water the layers in hot and dry periods.
Good layering helps compost.