Hey! I am so excited. We got to use finished compost for the first time, to start some fall seeds and to replenish our soil in the community garden plot. It was pretty interesting sifting through the lumpy contents of our tumbler so I thought I'd share our successes and failures. We have a tumbler that you can rotate by flipping it over. I will confess that we were erratic about rotating it, and I can vouchsafe that our pile was probably not as piping hot as compost piles get. Still, for a beginner, I'm pretty happy with the results -- we made compost! Compost that we can use! That won't go to the landfill! Wooooo hoooooo!
What did break down?
- lint
- bread
- veggie and fruit scraps galore
- dog hair
- leaves
- bagasse plates and cups from a block party -- I would definitely use these again
- corrugated cardboard
- cotton cloth
What didn't break down?
- a metal grapefruit spoon
- produce stickers
- pine cones
- sticks
- theoretically compostable utensils
- rocks
- a rubber band
- small bits of plastic (plant markers, packaging waste)
- thread
Fascinating to see the process from start to finish, and I am thrilled to be composting our scraps once again. Now, if Worms Eat My Garbage would just come in to my local library -- I actually cleared a couple shelves in my laundry room so I am definitely heading down the wriggler path.
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