My Post on Compost

I teasingly call myself a bit of a tree hugger. I homeschool my kids, we live on 2.5 acres, I make my own bread, wear Birkenstocks, we recycle and now we have a compost pile. That adds up to tree hugger doesn't it? Maybe we are just turning into "greenies", but I have taken plastic water bottles home from a birthday party to recycle. Not just the bottles that my girls used, but collected all the bottles from all the kids. (My kids aren't old enough to be embarrassed of me yet).
We started a compost pile on the edge of our garden. This fall I dumped in all the leaves I raked from a cherry tree. I didn't have much more to add than that, but it was a start. Then I started researching for what I needed for compost. Both green and brown. Leaves and grass clippings and scraps from my kitchen. Once I started *thinking green* it is pretty easy. Coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels, strawberry tops, orange peels. apple cores, brown lettuce...the list goes on.


The key is to keep it wet and warm. I have a hose right next to it and I spray it every day or so. I also turn it with a pitch fork. It is amazing to see this stuff decompose. I hope to put it in our garden this year. I recently added ashes from the fire. (basically burned up wood). Ashes turn into the greatest soil.











I took these pictures several weeks ago and now all of this stuff has turned into dirt. Pretty cool...