Let’s talk about Composting! I first heard about composting in 2012 when visiting a friend in Seattle. We had finished eating a meal, and her mom instructed me to toss my food scraps in a separate bin. Um, what? I was confused and a bit disturbed tbh! It seemed so gross. And what was the point? Why not just throw your food away like a normal person??
Flash forward 8 years, and here I am, a composter. Granted, not a very good one, but I’m working on it! I started my compost bin in April of this year and am honestly surprised how much food I have to put in there. I have filled up two bins already!
I’m learning as I go, which is a nice place to be at. I’m not one for not knowing things – I like to either know things and be good at them, or not do them at all. Composting is (strangely) helping me overcome this! I know that no matter what I do, my compost will eventually break down. I can’t really mess it up! But even though it can’t be “messed up”, you can help the compost along to become nutrient rich soil for plants and gardens, which is my ultimate goal.
One of my biggest hurdles with composting is having enough “browns”. For a good, healthy compost, you should be adding an appropriate mixture of “greens” and “browns”. Greens are things you may think of when you think of composting: fruit and vegetable scraps and skins, old herbs, dead flowers, tea bags, coffee grounds, etc. Being vegan and eating a LOT of fresh foods, we have A LOT of greens.
“Browns” are things like dead leaves, hay, paper bags, cardboard, animal shavings (from a chicken coop or goat pen, etc), sticks, and so on.
The ratio I’ve seen should be 1 part Greens to 2 parts Browns. To make up my browns, I use a lot of paper bags (from the grocery store), cardboard boxes, and… well, that’s about it. We don’t have animals that use shavings, we don’t do our own gardening (and honestly I don’t want to keep bags of dead leaves around, so sue me), we don’t even order many things online that would result in much excess cardboard! I do, however, have a ginormous pile of brown paper bags from the grocery stores. Even though we have an equally large collection of reusable bags, we cannot use them right now due to Coronavirus (ugh). Plus there are the times (like every other time lets be honest) I run into the store for 1 or 2 things so I don’t take bags with me, and then end up buying so much stuff and cave and buy paper bags. Or I haven’t restocked my car with bags. Or my husband, who doesn’t tend to keep bags in his car, does the shopping. So many reason why we have so many paper bags, but I digress.
Since composting, I’ve been a real stickler for keeping the paper bags instead of just recycling, so my collection has grown. So big. So so big. We’ve had to move it to the garage. But for good reason! I need the browns!
With composting, it’s a plus if your greens and browns are in small pieces. They just break down faster. I’ve spent HOURS cutting up and ripping up paper bags. It’s hard work! My poor arm muscles can only handle so much! I was reading a reddit post about composting, and someone mentioned they picked up a food processor at a yard sale to help break down their food scraps easier, and a genius idea struck me – A PAPER SHREDDER. (queue the heavenly light shining down on me with that angelic music playing in the background).
But, I didn’t want to spend money on a paper shredder. It seems like such a ridiculous thing to buy. So I held off. I kept ripping up paper bags, little by little. Until I had another stroke of genius! Look on Facebook Marketplace! But then I didn’t. For a long time. I never looked. But then! I did one day! And there was one listed for TEN DOLLARS. So I bought it. I think it has changed my life guys. I’ve shredded so many paper bags already. And having the smaller pieces of “brown” material to so easily mix into my compost bins is going to be huge I think.
I’m still working on getting it just right, and my compost is not even close to being useable in a garden or plant yet, but I know it will get there at some point.
I’ll try and keep posting updates on my compost adventures!
Do you compost? Are you interested in composting?
Linsey 