{"id":4738,"date":"2013-04-05T05:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=4738"},"modified":"2016-09-26T21:27:15","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T02:27:15","slug":"composting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=4738","title":{"rendered":"Composting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"DSC_0001\" href=\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8244\/8614254531_ca294f9106.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8244\/8614254531_ca294f9106_b.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0001\" \/><\/a>The ground in our back yard has finally thawed enough for us to start up our composting again. We have one pile going strong, and though cool temperatures at night will likely keep the decomposition rate pretty slow for the next month or so, I am continually surprised by how quickly kitchen scraps break down in that big old pile of dirt!<\/p>\n<p>So, I thought I would provide a few tips that we have learned over years of composting, and in return, I would love to hear some of your tips, if you compost!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 15px;\">Keep the dirt-to-scraps ratio high: I keep ours at about 1\/3 dirt, 1\/3 scraps from the kitchen, and 1\/3 other organic matter (including dried leaves, grass clippings, and other discarded plants- excluding weeds with seeds, unless you want a pile of dandelions growing in your compost area). This keeps the odor of decay completely at bay, and discourages critters.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Do not add any sort of meat or animal feces! There are good kinds of worms (earthworms, for instance) and bad kinds (um&#8230; maggots&#8230; you don&#8217;t want those). If you decide to add cow or horse manure, make sure is is seasoned (dried out)<\/li>\n<li>Good examples of kitchen scraps to add to your compost: eggshells (I crush ours first and they literally disappear within a day), veggie and fruit peelings (but not citrus), coffee grounds, even wilted flowers from your home (see mini daffodils above)<\/li>\n<li>Be sure to keep your compost pile turned (every couple of days) and moist (if you are having a dry spell, I do recommend gently watering the pile, or the earthworms will go elsewhere)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you compost? I am always amazed by how easy it is. You don&#8217;t need a compost container at all, just a pile! And also, I am reminded every season of how much food waste goes into our trash when we don&#8217;t compost. Pretty amazing stuff!<\/p>\n<p><em>Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=1972\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a> from a year ago on composting for extra tips on starting your own compost pile.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ground in our back yard has finally thawed enough for us to start up our composting again. We have one pile going strong, and though cool temperatures at night will likely keep the decomposition rate pretty slow for the next month or so, I am continually surprised by how quickly kitchen scraps break down &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/?p=4738\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Composting&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,99],"tags":[115,173],"class_list":["post-4738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden","category-green-living","tag-garden","tag-green-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4738"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12215,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions\/12215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}