You can make an apartment size composter, if you’d like, that you keep indoors. And during the spring and summer you can have an outdoor one. You can buy a composting container from Home Depot or maybe Lowes might have, for the outdoor one. You can buy a storage container from Walmart for the indoor one.
You can use a plastic container with a lid, like a storage bin, it can be a small one or big one (both work just as good, but the smaller one fills up fast).
You can put veggie and fruit scraps in your composter. They can be cooked too but they should be cooled off before you put them in the composter.
You can also put paper, or a little bit of grass or leaves, plant clippings, sawdust or gerbil bedding (you can get gerbil bedding from Walmart, it acts as sawdust).
You can put coffee grounds and tea leaves in the composter. I don’t put the tea bag in, I open it and put the leaves in the composter.
I wouldn’t put:
Onion in the composter because it might make it smell bad.
Cabbage might not be too good of an idea either, because cabbage has an odour too it that isn’t good.
Meat
Bones
Fat or grease
Feces
They say you can put egg shells, but I think that’s what can make your composter stink like rotten eggs over time, so I wouldn’t put that in my composter.
Or things that don’t break down, like plastic or aluminum.
So, to begin your composter, you should poke holes in the top lid and the bottom of your composting container. Find something with a sharp point to it and poke small holes, then use a star screw driver to make bigger holes. Or you could use a drill to make holes, you’ll need a drill for metal containers if you choose to use metal containers.
Make sure you have a lid to cover the top and a lid on the bottom so that your floor doesn’t get dirty. There might be some leaking, if its too moist, or soil might go through the holes. So have a lid on the bottom.
You should layer your composter with a few inches of soil on the bottom. (You can get the soil from Dollarama, it works just as good).
Cut your fruits and vegetables in small pieces.
Then add your scraps of fruit and vegetables, and branches, leaves, etc. to the composting bin.
Then you want to put a little bit of sawdust or gerbil bedding, about a handful or more depending on how much scraps you put, to the composter. The gerbil bedding helps stop it from being too moist. But you do want your composter a little bit moist. It helps to decompose what’s in your composter.
Then you mix the composter up.
About once a week, you want to put a handful of gerbil bedding and about a scoop of soil and mix it up.
If your composter starts to stink, put a little bit of gerbil bedding or sawdust or leaves or paper. If you think its too dry, spray a little bit of water from a spray bottle just to give it a tiny bit of moisture.
My experience with composting:
I did everything like I said above, except I didn’t have leaves, grass clippings, and plant clippings. I just had fruits and vegetable scraps. And it turned out not too bad. I found that potatoes didn’t decompose for me. They’re a little more tough to decompose.
You can add scraps as often as you’d like and always mix it when you add things to your composter.
I haven’t had my composter smell like rotten eggs yet, but if yours does, put paper, or dead yard waste.
I do like using gerbil bedding a lot as sawdust. Its not as expensive and you can get a lot of it for a small amount of money.
The soil from Dollarama works really well. I haven’t had issues yet. The bags are a little smaller, but a big bag from a place like Lowes or home depot might be more expensive then a few bags from Dollarama.
You should buy two lids from the store, one for the top and one for the bottom.
To separate your scraps from garbage, you could use a pail, or a bigger margarine container, or some other sort of container, and have it by your garbage.
Make sure your composter is in a warm place. If its too cold, the scraps won’t decompose. During the winter, if you have your composter in the garage and its not very warm, just have your composter off the ground. That should keep it in a warmer place and allow your scraps to decompose.
When the composter is done decomposing, you can put your nutrient rich soil in your garden or your plants. (I put some in our plants and they grew a little greener and have thicker leaves. The orange tree became a lot darker in color.)
It really shouldn’t stink, maybe a little like what you put in your composter, but it shouldn’t be very potent. And it should smell like soil.
Well that’s about it. Have fun composting.
:D
How many times have you given up on doing something because you couldn’t get it done perfectly?
As a recovering perfectionist I know what it’s like to never feel good enough. Always trying to control every situation. Always being critical of yourself and those around you.
Perfectionist either don’t get very far in life or they’re miserable if they do.
Since life is fluid and change is a constant it’s important to realize that imperfectly done is better than perfectly NOT done.
What have you put off because of perfection? What can you release control over and let be?
Strive for progress not perfection. 1% better every day after 100 days is a 100% improvement! It’s the small steps that make the biggest changes.
Let go of the fears you have surrounding perfection. Trust. And let it be.
-Jhon LeBaron https://ift.tt/2QVU9el
