April 16, 2010
Well… April 22nd is Earth Day. Forty years, can you believe it? Older than I, I’m happy to say! So in honor of this special day, I want to share a bit about our efforts to be “green” in our home. What do you say? Up for a little trash talk? No, nothing like that. I’m talking about my compost bin. A few years ago I had a three-bin system built for our space at the back of the property. It’s rather large with three 4′ x 4′ containers with removable slats.
In my compost I put everything except meat, poultry, badly diseased plants and insect-infested plants. I keep a big bucket under my kitchen sink where all the kitchen waste goes like egg shells, tea bags, coffee grinds in the filter, all discarded fruits and veggies –this adds up to quite a lot of waste. The gardeners put the grass clippings, and any clippings or leaves from the garden in it as well. The design came from Sunset’s Western Garden Book (if you don’t have this book you should absolutely pick one up, it’s like the west coast bible for gardens). I just need to figure out a recycling plan for my espresso capsules and I am like totally eco (are my Newport Beach-girl roots showing yet?) This isn’t very sexy content is it? Maybe not the trash talk you were hoping for.
If you must know I have an unhealthy obsession with my compost bin…. I get a thrill from the fact that it creates less waste from the house and garden. It feels awesome to see less trash being hauled off every week and there is something so fulfilling about using my own mulch! Now we are talking sexy, really sexy. Be aware however, there are some negatives — don’t strike me down mother earth! In the spirit of full disclosure, you should know, while it’s not supposed to smell, honestly, it does… a little… and it is a little buggy. Neither of those things would ever compel me to stop composting (even if the dog does feed on moldy baguettes from time to time) but I want to be honest here! Do yourself a favor and make sure if you’re planning to install one that it is as far from the house as possible and that your pets can’t get into them…a friend’s dog got a bacterial infection from feasting on some decomposing matter. That aside, composting makes me feel like I am doing my part to help our beautiful earth — like around here, every day is Earth Day.
