Breakin' It Down

It seems there are many, many different approaches and/or methods to composting kitchen waste and with this in mind I present MY method to recycling the organic matter that usually goes into the sink disposal or the landfill. In the photo above I have collected a couple of days worth of our kitchen waste. I love this photo because I see every item here for its latent potenial to break down and provide nutrients to my vegetables! Now I know there are those that say citrus should not be included, but I do. You can see here there are apples, banana peels, orange peels, egg shells, and the morning's coffee grounds. Yummy for the compost heap. We collect it in plastic bowls and one of us takes it outside to the mound in the backyard.

For the sake of showing how I do it "from the ground up" I chose to start a new heap. This is STEP 1. I clear the ground to expose the soil and break it up with a shovel. I may even turn the soil a bit, just so it is loose.

Step 2 is the addition of the kitchen scraps. All I did here was pour them on top of the broken soil.

In STEP 3 I take the shovel and chop up the material. I like it to be smaller and the cuts allow for more water and bacteria to get into the act and speed up decomposition. This is kind of fun to do...chopping it into the soil.

This is STEP 4, the final step in the addition process. I simply take a couple of scoops of loose soil and place over the top of the scraps so they are completely covered. What is not shown here, and the way I typically do it, is a bag of inexpensive GARDEN SOIL that can purchased at any garden center such as Lowe's or The Home Depot. I keep a couple of bags nearby and just pour enough on top to cover the scraps. It's a lot like building a lasagne and just as fun!! Once the heap is about 18" high I will start another. I let the completed heap sit for a few weeks then turn it. If all the scraps are rotted, I add to the garden and till into the soil.

Easy stuff!