I don't know about you, but I like doing earthy things. So when we moved into our house, I just knew I had to have a compost pile. I had seen my grandma put her scraps in the compost and thought it was so cool how the food turned into dirt.
Then someone told that happens because of worms.
After a little deliberation, I decided to go ahead with it. I just pretend the worms aren't there.
I'm not an expert on composting by any means, but it's pretty easy. We take the scraps from our fruits and veggies, as wells as eggshells, and put them in the pile with yard clippings and leaves. And voila! It magically turns to dirt (again, please don't mention the worms. They give me the creeps).
I love doing this for several reasons. One, it's just pretty cool to watch nature do its work. It also feels good to be doing something with the scraps from the food that I paid good money for. I don't have to throw them in the trash anymore! Finally, our compost is going to be awesome for our veggie garden next spring. Our soil will be full of nutrients (for free, mind you)!!
Another greenie thing we've been doing around here is cutting back on the number of cleaners we buy and use. I get tired of having a bottle of cleaner for each room of the house. So now we have two kinds of cleaner, Mrs. Meyer's all purpose cleaner (lavender scent...yummy!) and vinegar mixed with water (not so yummy...but good on glass and safe for eating surfaces).
The Mrs. Meyer's cleaner is concentrated, so I paid about $8.00 for the bottle, but it is going to last for a very long time. And vinegar is just plain cheap.
Oh, one more thing about being earthy. We have a lovely pear tree in our back yard. It had all kinds of beautiful pears on it in July. We went on vacation and came back and there was not a single pear left on the tree. The squirrels got every last one. Have any of you had this problem? What do you do about squirrel thieves?
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8 comments:
I like to compost too. In fact if I find worms around the yard, I will take them and put them in the compost.
I'm totally composting too! It really bugged me throwing perfectly good decomposing material in the trash! :)
Wow, Jennifer. You are one brave woman! That sounds like a job for my little girl...:)
I'm excited to hear about others composting. It really is fun, isn't it?
Thanks for commenting.
Good for you! We compost too. And we are switching over to all vinegar cleaner as well.
As for the squirrels eating your pears, that is terrible! I would be so mad. I am not sure if this will work or not, but I have cherry trees and to keep the birds out I hang silver garland in them (like what you put on your Christmas tree). I dangle this from the branches and it keeps them away. Maybe this will scare the squirrels too. Good luck.
Wow! I wonder if I could compost in an apartment...
Sara,
Thanks for the advice. We were so upset to find them all missing!!!
Kathryn,
I don't know about composting in an apartment?? Maybe on the porch? I was worried it might smell bad but it really doesn't. It is messy though.
About composting... I love doing it, it is so fun to put a bunch of "trash" and weeds in there and then come back later to find such rich black dirt. As far as the worms go that is not an intergral part of composting. Composting happens because the stuff is breaking down and decaying and if you have all the right stuff in there it will actually heat up and then work even faster. I can't say that I have noticed a ton of worms when I have turned my compost.
As far as the question about composting in an apartment there is something called Vermacompost (hopefully I spelled that right) which is where you do specifically use worms. I haven't done it but I have read about it and heard it works very well. But anyway you do it in a small tub which you can keep in your house (I am sure you wouldn't like that with your dislike for worms!). I think you have to tear up your food scraps into small pieces though.
Thanks, Abbi!
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