by Wendy Gabriel
GREEN TIP: Compost. Recycle your yard and kitchen waste and reduce the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills.
When I was little my parents always had a compost pile. I have to admit I was a little unsure of its purpose beyond the need to make trips to it seemingly every ten minutes.
Now that I am an adult with my own children I decided to look into composting. We recycle everything possible so it just seems right that we would recycle our organic waste. I found an adorable Beehive Composter from Gardeners.com. I could get the red so that it would match our front door. Now, to look into HOW to compost.
The first few things I read made composting seem a teeny bit daunting. Brown organic matter, green organic matter, carbon/nitrogen ratios, chicken poop – not what I had in mind. I called my Mom and she explained how easy it is to compost but advised looking into vermicompost because I have a tiny yard. Fortunately, the bin would fit in our garage. And have I mentioned my husband knows nothing about my plan yet? I know he’ll be really delighted. I digress.
So, I googled v-e-r-m-i-c-o-m-p-o-s-t. That led me to TreeHugger.com which said the following: “When beginning a vermicompost bin…” blah, blah, blah, “add the worms…” WORMS? I am not a worm sort of girl. I love the outdoors, playing at the park, giving my parents a hand with things on their organic farm but to have worms in my own garage? Maybe not.
This quote from Gandhi always spurs me on when I think it might be a little too inconvenient for me to do my part to save the planet: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I am picking up my bin next weekend. Then my worms. I will be thrilled to be recycling our food scraps and yard clippings into nutrient-rich fertilizer! And, apparently my four-year old daughter LOVES worms and wants to name each of them… Wormy.
I doubt my husband will be calling them by the same name.
Tags: composting, Gandhi, TreeHugger.com, vermicomposting, worms
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I have been vermicomposting for about a year, and it is pretty cool once you get over the initial “ew” factor. I still got squeamish the first time I wanted to weigh them because they kind of looked like ground meat that had come alive!
I started my blog when they first arrived, so you might pick up a few worm tips there 🙂
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