Easy compost bin (click to enlarge)

Let me tell you that composting is one of the greatest things you can do in the garden.  It’s the hidden treasure at your house.  First of all, the ingredients are FREE.  They are the scraps from your kitchen, the weeds you throw away, the prunings, scrapings and left overs from your garden.  Usually, people throw them in the garbage, put them in the green bin or worst of all, put them in PLASTIC Bags and then throw them away. Yikes!

Why would you throw away your greatest asset?  Because you didn’t realize that what looks like garbage will be turned into gold.  It’s easy to do and you’ll love the results.

Inside my compost bin

I’ve been using this compost bin for about 20 years.  I never turn it, water it, or futz with it.  I just throw those kitchen scraps inside it and cover them with some dry leaves, weeds or a little sawdust.  You need to pay little attention to what you put in the bin, because there needs to be a combination of wet and dry elements.  Too wet and it gets all mushy, too dry and it doesn’t break down.

Don’t put noxious things in the pile like bermuda grass, poison oak or ivy or noxious weed seed. Unless your compost gets very hot, it won’t kill these pesky plants.

It may take a little time to break down, but as I like to say, “Life composts”. Eventually everything organic breaks down.  It’s just a matter of time.

The indoor compost holder

This is the can I use in the kitchen to hold my food scraps until I put them outside. It looks good, holds several days worth of food and has NO odor or flies. With the foot pedal I have two hands free to scrape the bowls.  Nobody would even know you are hiding old food in the kitchen.

I call this guilt free living.  Have you ever looked in your refrigerator and found bags of old, rotten lettuce, or food in containers with blue green mold? Have you felt guilty about throwing away good food? Well, never again, because all that good stuff is going into the compost and then into your garden to feed your plants. Definitely a win-win situation.

There is more to learn about composting, but the most important thing to do is get started!