One interesting phenomena that started ever since I began this website earlier this year is that I am now a resident expert among my friends with composting. And now that I think about it from people I just meet as well.

Which happened as recently last night from a girl who just moved into her house and there is a compost bin in her backyard that hasn’t been touched in 2 years. She was afraid to go open it because she thought it would smell!! Don’t worry, I put her back on the right path and she is no longer fearing. I told her that she’s the proud owner of true compost “humus”, the end goal of anyones composting activities.

Now today I am going to a friend’s pot-luck through a pleading request to help them choose a site for their compost bin on their new property. I assure you this is just the beginning. I have also been asked to suggest a compost bin for a friend’s fiancee’s birthday! I pointed them in this direction:

Spinning Composter on Amazon.com

I could go on but I’ll save you. I don’t mind being the resident expert by any means. I just need to figure out a good way to make it profitable ;)

I’ve been noticing when poking through my worm bin that I don’t easily see those worms popping out at me. At first I was worried that my worm population was starting to shrivel, perhaps the bin was too hot or too dry?? But when transferring compost from the bin to new pot with a baby Aspen Tree I’m trying to grow I noticed 3 or 4 worms in the process (and I didn’t move over a lot of compost).

Seems that these worms are just expert dirt hiders! The spread out all over the place so you don’t see a big group of wiggly worms which is very noticeable, and they are…well…dirty! So the blend in well. Every once in awhile a big glossy one easy pokes out at you and you have no doubt your worms are doing well.

But it’s not just worms that I see. There are plenty of crawly bug like things that are in the compost. And this is a good thing! Each one of these bugs has it’s purpose and it’s all helping break down the kitchen scraps into reusable compost. Yay for the circle of life!!

I began a new practice this summer that I’m appreciating. Every morning before I start reading the paper or “The Week” I bring my breakfast and french press with me to the balcony. Enjoy the weather and relax.

When I’m done with everything I take my french press and left over coffee over to the worm bin. I empty the coffee grounds directly onto the top of the bin and pour my leftover coffee (if any) right on top! Of course it’s cool by this point, and I drink my coffee black as well. Although a little sugar and dairy wouldn’t hurt in my opinion.

Any way, it gives me a good opportunity to tell my worms hello in the morning and make sure things are looking good in the bin.

Oh, and my roommate has been chucking whole oranges into the compost which stay whole oranges forever if you don’t cut them up. Newbie I tell you. No respect for the compost.

I was poking through the old worm bin today and the first thing I noticed was how dry it is. About a week ago I added some soggy early stage compost from my Simple Style Composter to help equal out the moisture levels of the worm bin and it worked great. Now I noticed it was dry again already!!

Lesson learned: it’s smart to take a peak at your worm bin more than just once a week. Especially in dry areas such as Colorado your worm bin can get dry very quickly, which will make for some very unhappy worms and a bunch of stuff in your bin not composting.

So I’ve been trying some of my own aerating techniques for awhile now. My favorite thus far is using old beer cans and taking a can opener to the top of them and placing the compost containers on top of them. This way if they leak any it gets caught in the beer can. And beer happens to be a good fertilizer [see link] .

Before that I tried wine bottles and my bin kept rolling around I had to skew the wine bottles and it just got kind of annoying.

Recently I’ve been putting a lot of thought into getting a video camera and making some YouTube videos of what I’m doing with my balcony compost bins. Let me know if you think it’d be a good idea!

One of the most fundamental principles of creating compost in the quickest fashion in aerating your pile. Also, one of the reasons your kitchen scraps compost in the landfills at extremely slow rates is because they compact everything so much it doesn’t allow for aeration. Let’s not make that mistake ourselves. Here’s what you need to know to make the most out of the air around you.

Different composting methods allow for different methods of aeration. The most notably air friendly composter is the tumbler.

Named after its wonderful ability to tumble your compost in the midst of plentiful air and mix the two together, it is the most aeration friendly composting device you can have. Just give it a swift nudge and your compost is aerated. There are also air holes on the tops and bottom to allow air to move freely through the contraption, and some have compartments to capture excess liquid or “tea” to keep the compost at the right moisture level.

Now as far as using something more like the Simple Style Composter: (more…)

The Denver Post just put out a front page article on the growing popularity of food grown locally

Food gardens a growing trend

Soil, it seems, is the new oil.

This just emphasizes what we’re trying to accomplish with this site. A way for people to make the most of what they have and be more self-sufficient while at the same time helping the environment and building more of a community.

This is just the beginning folks.

It’s always fun poking through my worm bin and seeing how everyone is doing. Good news is: they’re doing well! Great news is: they’re eating away at a lot of kitchen scraps and I’m seeing a lot of real dirt, which is truly known as vermicompost. Seems vermiculture is the term for the technical using of worms for making compost.

I think it’s good to go in every once in a while and stir in the shredded newspaper and not eaten kitchen scraps and move the dirt on to the top. First it’ll get rid of some of the fruit flies, second it allows the microbes of the soil to touch more of the stuff I still want to break down.

I went ahead and touched some of the materials I thought were too dry, but they had a wet spongy feel to them which is exactly what you want to be feeling on your compost. I think I may have watered my simple-style composter a little too much. When I do that it starts to smell and is “no bueno”. I’ve had to leave the lid off for awhile now to get it back to a normal state.

Oooh, I almost forgot, one of my new projects is to add one more step to the simple-style composter. Clothes hangers through some of the holes to help with breaking up the clumps. Clumping is no fun, and what happens when you try to hydrate your pile too much.

I’m creating a personal blog section to put down more of my day to day type of findings and info that I normally wouldn’t want to make into a “professional” front page posting. This will be more about what I’m doing and a place for me to document my findings. A lot of what I find and document in here I may post about in more detail on the main website postings.

Pictures will more than likely be right from my cell phone like this!

I had this really cool heartleaf philodendron a month ago that I gave as a birthday present to my best friend Brandi. But before I did I plucked off a piece from the bottom, but it in my betta fish bowl until it grew roots and then put it in this mini pot. Now it’s starting to bud anew! I can’t wait to have my plant back! Growing to the previous size will take some time but will be fun.