Composting: Just Do It!

So I'm a bit of a perfectionist. We've lived in the same house for 5 1/2 years, and for the first four I kept walking around the yard thinking, "What is the best compost set up for me?" I kept walking around and thinking about it, mulling it over, and walking around some more. I mean really - I needed to compost - as it was becoming apparent that a good portion of my garbage was food. So I kept thinking about it.

Compost Caddy

Finally my girlfriend walked up with a compost bin one day and said "just do it already!" (She had already given me a Compost Caddy to put my scraps inside indoors before transferring them outdoors....she's a really good friend!).

Yeah. So I started putting all of my yard scraps in this compost bin outside. And being paranoid, living in Chicago and a half block from the river I thought if I put food scraps in there I'd get rats - even though my girlfriend (who works at Green Home Experts) assured me I wouldn't. Still, I couldn't believe it. So in went the yard waste, but what to do with all the food waste?

It would be simple to get a worm bin. So that's not what I did of course. I started putting my food into the Compost Caddy (last August) and guess what? It filled up. Now what to do? Of course I figured it out. Take the outdoor garbage can, poke holes in the bottom to drain the compost tea, and set it up by the flowers so they can benefit while I make soil in the can!

My 'real' compost bin

The first night the raccoons got in there so I put some bricks in. That solved that problem. Being the excellent researcher I am, I researched nothing. So it was getting a nice sloppy goo. The nearby chrysanthemums seemed to love it. Winter came and I still kept filling it up. Amazingly the goo also shrunk down, and continued to do so. I realized at one point I should be putting some "browns" in there to balance out the nitrogen/carbon levels.

Finally, I was at a green social event and met Amber, one of the original Urban Worm Girls - yes, I really met her in person and she's very nice, even with all her celebrity. She said I might want to cap that garbage can and get back to the real compost bin. Definitely put in more paper and see if you can get soil to develop...and by the way, get a worm bin. This I can quote, "that's the fastest way to make soil."

My 'garbage can' composter

So what did I do? I capped that garbage can (after putting in more paper-like material of course). Yes, I'm determined it will yield me some soil, hopefully by next spring. But my food scraps were piling up again, and my real compost bin was hiding in the midst of a perennial jungle and looking like the leaning tower and I just couldn't get near it without a machete and a guide...so I bought another 32 gallon garbage can and started my experiment all over again. Opposite corner of the garden by my prized purple cone flowers. This time I'll add paper-ish or browns from the beginning! Yes, I'm doing it right - for me at least.


I'll get a worm bin soon...maybe next year.