One of our true steps towards self-sufficiency has been our garden. Slowly over the course of the past few years we have been expanding our garden site, as well as diversifying the variety of vegetables that we grow. Each year we have been buying organic material to boost the garden soil, since the soils around our house are very sandy. This year we have decided to take things one step further, and we started a compost pile.
This bowl sits on our kitchen counter and collects our food scraps (except meat and dairy). Banana peels, onion skins, broccoli stems, egg shells, virtually any and all scraps go into this bowl. When the bowl gets full, we send our unofficial "compost girl" out into the backyard where she then empties the bowl onto our compost pile. It's the perfect job for my five year old!!!
Our compost pile isn't anything fancy, just a heap of dirt, leaves, and kitchen waste. Once every couple of weeks we go out with a shovel and stir things up a bit. I've been surprised by how quickly our little pile is growing, and how much kitchen waste we had previously been throwing in the trash.
Once the compost has matured (either this fall, or next spring) we'll then till it into our garden bed to help build up the fertility of the soil, turning our kitchen trash into fertilizing treasure!
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