Make It Monday - Composting Recipe

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What to put in your compost bin is only the first step!

Indoor ingredients - gather ingredients in our attractive kitchen compost bins

https://www.naturalhomebrands.com/collections/compost-bins

Include any non-animal food scraps: fruits, vegetables, peelings, bread, cereal, coffee grounds and filters, tea leaves and tea bags (preferably minus the staples)

Old wine

Old herbs and spices

Add the following ingredients to your outdoor bin

Leaves

Grass clippings

Brush trimmings

Manure (preferably organic)

Pet bedding from herbivores ONLY — rabbits, hamsters, etc.

Dry cat or dog food

Dust from sweeping and vacuuming

Dryer lint

All of these items can be added to compost and “stirred”. If you just toss them into a normal heap, they may still be there, virtually unchanged, a season or two later. Shredded newspaper, receipts, paper bags, etc (any non-glossy paper)

• Tissues, paper toweling, and cotton balls — unless soaked with bacon fat, kerosene, makeup, or other stuff that doesn’t belong in the pile!

• Cardboard, egg cartons, toilet rolls

• Used clothes, towels, and sheets made from natural fabrics — cotton, linen, silk, wool, bamboo

• Old string & twine made of natural fabrics

• Pine needles

• Pine cones

• Saw dust

• Wood chips

• Nut shells

• Twigs

• Hair, human or otherwise

• Old, dry pasta

• Nut shells

• Corn cobs

• Pits from mangos, avocados, peaches, plums, etc.

• Toothpicks, wine corks

Occasionally you can add eggshell, tea bag tag, or avocado peel

AVOID

• Raspberry & blackberry brambles

• Long twigs or big branches

Real No-Nos

• Pet droppings, especially dogs & cats

• Animal products — meat, bones, butter, milk, fish skins

Instructions:

In a vented bin, a raised bed, or just a pile in a corner, layer kitchen scraps and shredded leaves. If it hasn't rained in forever, add water and stir--a pitchfork works real well. You want your compost to be "sponge damp". That means if you were to squeeze a handful like a sponge, no water would drip out of it, yet it feels damp to the touch.

Give your compost a stir every now and then (weekly or monthly) to allow materials from the bottom of the pile to mix with air and the stuff on the top of the pile. Or don't stir it--left on its own, a pile of kitchen scraps and shredded leaves will turn into compost over time.

Stirring it just makes you feel like you're accomplishing something and does speed the natural process along a bit.

When the contents of your compost bin looks like dirt, you're done. Time to work it into your soil!