My New Composter
As I mentioned in my update post the other day, I recently ‘adopted’ a composter.
On the weekend my wife and I were heading off in the car for some shopping when I noticed a backyard composter sitting on the edge of the curb on one of the streets in our neighbourhood. It appeared to have a paper sign taped to it, but I could not make out what it said.
We were in a bit of a rush at the time so I (sadly) kept driving, vowing I would come back to check it out when I got home. I was pretty sure it was being given away, and I was also pretty sure it would be gone when we got back home - but when it came down to it, I decided it was better to risk losing the composter than it was to have an angry pregnant woman on my hands!
It will of course come as no surprise to anyone to learn that the composter WAS indeed still there when we drove past it again. Once we had unloaded our shopping stuff and settled in a little I decided to take the car over and check it out. As I suspected, it did indeed have a couple “free” signs taped to it, so I happily tossed it in the back of the car and drove it back to its new home.
What did however surprise me was the fact that A) Someone would want to get rid of a perfectly good composter, and B) Nobody would have grabbed it before me. Judging by the insane turn-out at the regional Water Barrel Sale on Earth Day Weekend, I got the impression that many more people were becoming interested in these sorts of things.
It was almost a bittersweet victory - on the one hand I was very excited to have a new bin, but at the same time it almost felt like a dark day for composting in general.
Ok, perhaps I’m being a wee bit melodramatic here!
Anyway…
Since bringing it home I have dug myself a decent pit, positioned the composter over top, and piled in as much extra green waste as I could find lying around. As it turns out this new bin is just what the doctor ordered! I’ve been having some real issues trying to keep my large outdoor worm bin from heating up. In an effort to reduce any further heating I have kept a large amount of green waste out of the bin - leaving it to sit in various bags and heaps.
The great thing about the new bin is that it will serve as an excellent “precomposting” bin, where I can pile as much green waste as I want, and then transfer it over to the worm bin once it’s partially composted.
The only problem I have now is that I don’t have enough waste to go into it - and really, that’s not the worst kind of problem to have!
Technorati Tags: composting, composter, compost bin, backyard composting, yard waste, grass clippings, worm composting, worm bin, vermicomposting
Written by Bentley on June 14th, 2007 with no comments.
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