Reflections
I grew up in a gardening family, but for years, work and lifestyle prevented my husband and me from having a garden. Once I weaseled my way into non-travel work positions, we dove headlong into gardening. Part of this journey was to start converting our kitchen waste into compost to amend our soil. We bought a countertop scraps bucket and a couple of large, black compost tumblers.
We also went online to research some composting best practices. What we found was overwhelming: Authors approaching composting with the rigor of rocket scientists. As thrilled as we were to see the enthusiasm with which other gardeners approach composting, I thought: If our grandparents could compost without finishing high school, it can’t be that difficult. This can’t possibly be rocket science, right?
My Solution
We simply started composting. We started putting our fruit and veggie scraps in the tumblers along with crush eggshells, and away we go. We exclude any trash, seeds or meats from our compost. Otherwise, everything else goes in. We include non-printed, non-bleached, shredded cardboard and spent egg cartons as our browns. We keep the moisture level constant (spongelike) in our bins and turn them regularly. Even during our savage Palmer Divide winters, when the compost essentially dies, we still add our scraps. Once the weather warms up, our “frozen, dead” compost comes right back to life.
We don’t check the temperature of our compost, measure pH or monitor the compost it in anyway except to keep it “moist like a sponge” and to tumble / turn it regularly. We add no amendments, we just through food scraps in and let the compost do its thing. And we make incredible compost! Our plants in our veggie and flower gardens grow robustly, flowering and producing food for our table and even extra for our friends.
Key Takeaway
Gardeners, in my experience, tend to nerd out on gardening. I don’t fault anyone for doing so, and I understand the desire to optimize our garden and dive deeply into areas (like composting) we enjoy. It’s great that there are people out there enthusiastic enough about composting to dial in their art and science of composting and share their best practices. Don’t let the weekend composting scientists scare you away from composting. It really isn’t that difficult or technical. Just start collecting your food scraps, make an attempt to balance your greens and your browns, maintain a proper moisture level, encourage warmth and turn baby turn. When the time is right, till that earthy compost into your soil and watch your plants flourish. Don’t overthink things. Just be proud that you’re keeping your food scraps out of the trash and converting them into natural soil amendments for your gardening projects. Enjoy!
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