How To Start A Compost Pile

ATTENTION: Don’t miss the compost tumbler giveaway at the bottom of that post!!

Did you know that food scraps assemble up by 12% of the US waste stream?  According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, amounting to about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year! Yikes!

For starters, it sounds like as a nation we need to be more conscious about the amount of food we purchase and prepare to minimize waste.  And when we do need to toss out food scraps, we can do it in a way to reduce the impact on the environment.

No matter where you live, autumn is a great instance of year to start a compost pile. Compost piles break down food scraps (like vegetable peels, bread crusts, and egg shells) into super-rich, super-usable fertilizer for your flower beds and garden.  There are tons of resources out there that cover the composting process inside and out. Basically, to get started you will need 2 types of ingredients:

• Carbon (shredded newspapers, cardboard, and straw)
• Nitrogen (lawn clippings, food scraps, and weeds).

Combine them together and before lengthy you’ll have compost. whether you’re feeling lazy you don’t need to do anything else (but wait and wait). You’ll have usable compost

by next year even whether you never touch the pile again. whether you’d like things to move along a little more quickly, you’ll need to turn the pile and add a few drops of water every few weeks. Enclosed compost bins can help keep your pile neat and organized.

Personally, I have a compost tumbler, a self-contained composting unit that you simply spin every few days to mix. I love it considering it makes composting neat and easy and even my kids like to give it a spin!  So I’m really excited to be giving one away today!  That’s right, thanks to Clean Air Gardening, one lucky winner will get the Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler deleivered to their doorstep, just in date to take care of all of those autumn leaves!

There’s 3 ways to enter:

1. Subscribe to The Green Parent via RSS or Email. whether you’re already a subscriber, just leave me a comment below and say so!

2. Join The Green Parents Forum (already a member? leave a comment below!)

3. Spread the word about that contest via Twitter, Stumble, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Leave a comment below each duration you do one of these things...each comment equals one entry. The winning comment will be chosen by Random.org. Remember…US residents only.  Contest ends 9/30!

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