It’s been about two months since I started my compost bin. I have wonderful news! It’s working! It’s so amazing, I’m in love with the hole-punched plastic container, dirt, worms and decomposing food stuffs!
To catch up since my first post at the end of June, I’ve added worms, a little bit of dirt and water when it started to dry enough to pull away from the sides. I got the worms from my parents house. (Thanks Dad!) I got some of the dirt there and also used some of my co-op bought organic compost (mostly broken down with wormie poo) to layer between the composting material. I now also have a compost poker, a two pronged thingy normally used for bbqing, which I used first a couple of weeks ago to check on the progress of my heap. Amazingly, after about a month and a half, most of the food stuff had broken down. The only remaining thing were some “biodegradable” plastic that hadn’t changed, perhaps one banana peal added recently and egg shells. The rest was gorgeous, lumpy looking dirt – also known as dead food and worm poop. I’ve never been so excited for poop! Sorry couldn’t resist. I am still about age 10 at heart.
So, since I’ve discovered that the stuff had turned to dirt, and was taking up a lot less space, and because I was impatient and didn’t think first about maybe taking some out so I could use it – I started tossing in more compostable stuff. So perhaps by mid-September I’ll have some more dirt.
My discoveries/notes for the beginning composter, and so I don’t forget:
I shall leave you with these lovely appealing compost pictures that I’m sure you were dying to see.
Compost Pile - Month Two
Compost Pile
AND! Full view!
Compost Pile - Useful Worm Farm
Hi Missy!
Love your post about composting.
It’s quite an adventure, eh? We started composting in our backyard last year in a homemade composter – didn’t work so well, was hard to turn or to mix the compost. This year we picked up a couple of awesome backyard composters and transferred everything to that. It’s doing BEAUTIFULLY! Next year we will have some lovely compost to use in the garden. 
I also started the worm composting this year as well. I have a rubbermaid bin that sits in the bathroom – has holes in the bottom for drainage and sits on top of a second bin to catch any excess water. It was slow getting started, but is now to the point where it’s time to get some of that worm poop out of there! So I’m not putting all of the food in on one side to get the worms to migrate over so I can scoop out the stuff from the other side.
I just love this kind of stuff, and am so happy to have stumbled across your blog! Yay!
Jess,
Thanks so much for the comment. I’m glad to meet a fellow composter. I’m excited for you to be able to use that compost! It’s going to grow some amazing things! Good luck with your composting adventures!
Missy a.k.a The Modern Hippy