Urban farming and it’s desire to be sustainable has a few caveats: one being very little outdoor space, and two being living in close proximity to other people. This creates a problem when it comes to composting your food scraps. We tried having the compost pile be the corner the farthest from the house (and consequently other homes as well) but the chickens thought it was there’s and went crazy. It also drew a lot more flies than I would have liked, especially since it was right next to the chicken coop. So, we set out and made a smaller version that was way more efficient. It’s great for those with very little room.
What you’ll need:
Durable drill and drill bit (the largest size bit)
Instructions:
- Make sure your drill is all charged up and ready for use.
- Begin to drill holes along the sides of the trash can. We drilled from top to bottom (about and inch between each hole) creating four “lines” down the side of the trash can.
- Once done drilling on the sides, flip trash can upside down and drill holes in the bottom. We did a big “X” on the bottom, spacing the holes about an inch apart.
- Find a nice sunny spot to keep the compost can (preferably onto of dirt so worms or other bugs can crawl into it).
- Begin to save your cooking scraps and garden scraps and put inside, leaving the lid on at all times. If it’s really soggy or really stinky inside, add some ripped up newspaper or straw to even out the moisture.
- If you add some Red Wigglers it’ll break down faster. You may need to occasionally stir the composting bits around if you don’t add worms, but you won’t need to do this very often. Maybe twice a month.
- Compost should be ready in about a year. 🙂
Do you compost? What has been the most successful for you?
Elizabeth Horn 