Learning to Compost

The other day I posted about teaching my daughter to recycle.  At the same time, I'm teaching her the basics of composting.  I say basics because even I know very little about the science of perfect composting.  Several years ago I built this compost box next to our garden.

I built two sections to setup a rotation throughout the year.  I basically throw all compostable material into the box.  Some examples are banana peels, orange peels, grass, rotting fruit, etc.  I stir it every once in a while with a shovel/rake and let it break down.  By the time the spring rolls around most of it has broken down into a nice compost mixture that I toss into the garden as organic fertilizer.  I then till it in to the dirt before planting.  I can't say that my garden is doing any better or worse as a result of the compost but it gives me the feeling that I'm doing something environmentally sound.

Lately I've been working with my 5 year old daughter on teaching her what goes in the compost and what goes in the recycle bin/trash can.  Each night we usually fill up a small bowl of compostable material and she takes it out to the compost box and dumps it in.  She loves to do this and in the past has been disappointed when I didn't wait for her to dump the stuff into the box.

If you have a garden, consider adding a compost box.  It's a great way to teach your children that in addition to recyclable material there are other things that can avoid the trash can.