Composting for an urban environment

Just-Moxie

Garden Addicted
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
1,057
Points
283
Location
Zone 6a
How much are you composting, and what is in it? For kitchen scraps, I've heard the bokashi method can be done indoors. It's unique because it can do meat and dairy, but the trade off is it can't touch plant roots directly until it has been mixed in for 2 weeks.

Nothing much yet but coffee grounds. It has been too much cold winter to even consider exploring the garden that she has planted.
 

catjac1975

Garden Master
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Messages
8,945
Reaction score
8,877
Points
397
Location
Mattapoisett, Massachusetts
So, this new year finds me in a whole different setting. Instead of 1 acre in the boonies, I am now in a suburban city environment with an HOA. I will still compost, but now see I need to come up with some sort of smaller hidden bin. A large planter perhaps? I have been looking online, to see what I could see. When the nurseries open in the spring, I can't wait to shop around and find something to use. Whatever I manage to locate, it cannot be a standard ugly pile...like the re-purposed pallets or fencing. Will be making this more of a challenge.
I was looking at some sort of willow type fencing, to make a circular style bin. Even those are being tough to locate. Hmmmm

I think I can hide one or two, in the 12'-18' deep flower garden late step mom had created. It goes the length of the property, covering the rock drainage ditch the subdivision had made. Dad won't be in on my design idea. He, even though he was born and raised in rural KS, in the 20's......is NOT a country boy. But I refuse to toss in the landfill anything that will create soil.

Soooooo...ideas?
You can do indoor earthworms. They will quickly eat all of your kitchen waste. As long as they don't make your squimish in the house.
 

Just-Moxie

Garden Addicted
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
1,057
Points
283
Location
Zone 6a
Right now, I don't even cook enough food to have leftovers. My father had informed me he doesn't eat vegetables. So there is that.
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
15,877
Reaction score
23,767
Points
417
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
Right now, I don't even cook enough food to have leftovers. My father had informed me he doesn't eat vegetables. So there is that.

wow! not that i'm surprised as i know plenty of older people who are very much in the meat and potatoes and not much else camp... (yes, they don't consider potatoes a vegetable)...
 

Just-Moxie

Garden Addicted
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
1,057
Points
283
Location
Zone 6a
wow! not that i'm surprised as i know plenty of older people who are very much in the meat and potatoes and not much else camp... (yes, they don't consider potatoes a vegetable)...
Far cry from our childhoods when parents forced the veggies on us eh? ;)
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
15,877
Reaction score
23,767
Points
417
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
Far cry from our childhoods when parents forced the veggies on us eh? ;)

i never have had a problem with eating vegetables. i'm pretty much an nomnivore. i nom about anything. :) when you grow up on the hungry side of things you can't really afford to be picky, but i also loved growing and eating from the garden.
 

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
25,713
Reaction score
28,711
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
How about onions?

First, there are lots of varieties of potatoes, if he is receptive to baked, boiled and fried. And, if you don't go too waxy or something - he might be okay with many variety choices. Maybe, that can be a move away from white bread.

We ate lots of onions growing up. Adding shallots has been something special in my adult gardening life. Of course, there are bulbing onions and scallions.

Steve
 

Just-Moxie

Garden Addicted
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
1,057
Points
283
Location
Zone 6a
i never have had a problem with eating vegetables. i'm pretty much an nomnivore. i nom about anything. :) when you grow up on the hungry side of things you can't really afford to be picky, but i also loved growing and eating from the garden.
When I was a little wee one, I had health issues. Ear infections, tonsilitis, everything. I didn't like food. Period. My Grandma had to come up with a way to get me to eat food.
Whatever she did, worked.
Oh, the Dr even prescribed home made eggnog, trying to get nutrition down me.
Now, at 57, I love veggies. Most everything, for that matter.
 

YourRabbitGirl

Garden Ornament
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
434
Reaction score
192
Points
85
So, this new year finds me in a whole different setting. Instead of 1 acre in the boonies, I am now in a suburban city environment with an HOA. I will still compost, but now see I need to come up with some sort of smaller hidden bin. A large planter perhaps? I have been looking online, to see what I could see. When the nurseries open in the spring, I can't wait to shop around and find something to use. Whatever I manage to locate, it cannot be a standard ugly pile...like the re-purposed pallets or fencing. Will be making this more of a challenge.
I was looking at some sort of willow type fencing, to make a circular style bin. Even those are being tough to locate. Hmmmm

I think I can hide one or two, in the 12'-18' deep flower garden late step mom had created. It goes the length of the property, covering the rock drainage ditch the subdivision had made. Dad won't be in on my design idea. He, even though he was born and raised in rural KS, in the 20's......is NOT a country boy. But I refuse to toss in the landfill anything that will create soil.

Soooooo...ideas?
At the simplest level, the composting process involves making a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass and food scraps, and waiting for the materials to break down into humus after a period of months.
 

Just-Moxie

Garden Addicted
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
1,057
Points
283
Location
Zone 6a
At the simplest level, the composting process involves making a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass and food scraps, and waiting for the materials to break down into humus after a period of months.

I have done composting since 1990, in varying different soils and zones. I love it, how it works, watching it work, and the end results. Basically, this new situation involves an HOA. I need to come up with a compost bin that basically doesn't look like one. Hmmm...... It's gonna be interesting, to say the least.
 

Latest posts

Top