For me, composting must be easy and convenient for it to work. I am a veggie, fresh fruit, and salad lover, and I always have heaps of peelings to deal with. Recently I found something that helps me a great deal.
I keep a round, wire bin that I had used as a trellis for cucumbers, cut in half and lined with a large leaf bag (it can be a used one). The plastic bag container is a temporary holding unit until it is convenient for me to take the material to the back yard. For some strange reason, we built the cinderblock compost stationary unit two hundred feet from the back door (What were we thinking?).
This solves my problem of what to do with a pile of vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, or egg shells when it is dark or raining.
The following are the reasons that this solution has been so successful:
- Convenience. The end of the flowerbed where the bin stands is just a few feet from my kitchen and utility room doors, and all available household materials are used (including dryer lint).
- Cost effectiveness. No maintenance is required, and recycled materials are used.
- Neat appearance. No messy kitchen scraps mar the looks of the back yard.
- Ease. Scraps are immediately out of the kitchen so there are no gnats swarming around.
I also keep these temporary bins at each end of my vegetable garden to hold the grass and plant trimmings when I weed and clean up.
Judy Tate, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas Cooperative Extension
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