under the sink compost/container garden

[Cam]

I love this site and hope this is an appropriate post.

My son lives in a suburb and hasn't the room for a formal garden.   So he uses containers from the many fruit trees I have planted.  He raises everything from corn to lettuce.   Quite successfully I must say.   So many people told him it wouldn't work and for the last two seasons his garden has grown by more of my sacrificial containers!! 

He uses a plastic ice cream bucket with a lid to compost food from the kitchen.  When it is full he dumps it outside into one of the containers for the following season.   Recycle, recycle the circle of life.   I found I had to remind myself to dump, scrap what ever into that bucket and it is now such a habit I would feel crooked placing any food items in the garbage can.   Even meat can be recycled into a long term pile.   

His success is stunning and wonderfully tasty..

So for those smaller families or those with limited space this might work well for them also.   

The backyard is regulated for the rotties and kids and the front is gorgeous with his container garden.  A win win situation.   

[livealittle]

That's awesome Cam. I use a plastic coffee container with a lid to catch my coffee grounds and vegetable scraps plus egg shells from our kitchen. When it's full, I dump in our compost bin out back.

[Cam]

I've composted since I can remember!  Until the birds, chickens, guineas, peacocks, turkeys came into the picture!!  The turkeys were the most picky eaters ever and the chickens were just piggys!!   So now without the birds I'm back to composting too.  You need to use a finer wire fencing than chick wire if you really want to compost outside the more of the bunny or even tinier is better.  Our wild birds love the compost heap too.   

If I pile it all up in the winter it mulches down really well by spring and sometimes I have volunteer plants to transplant in to my garden from my compost heap!! 

I used to bring in some of my garlic, chives and other spices to grow thru the winter months.   My kitchen and dining room face south east so it worked really well.   If you chop your chives then freeze them in an ice cube tray, store them in ziplock baggies.  When thawed for bakers they taste extremely fresh! 

[Lee Borden]

One of these days I'm going to post about the Compost Fairy. I thinks it's just magical to see how piles of garbage (and I'm with LiveaLittle, we compost chicken bones along with everything else), leaves, and shredded paper become rich, black yummy compost. I know exactly what you mean about getting into the composting habit. Kitchen scraps used to go in our garbage; now we go to great lengths not to throw away anything organic, even when we're away from home.

[Cam]

I love to fish and when I gut and bone them I use 'all' the pieces for my compost.  I used to keep two piles, one for fast compost and one for organic items that took longer, like bones and such.   Ashes from the wood stove or bonfire pit are good to mulch in as well.  I use an organic fertilizer on the yard and the deer and elk come in at times to munch it down!!  I seem to have lots of earthworms and bugs for the birds.  Bean bush plants planted closely together give the snakes a place to curl up on..  They seem to help keep the rodents and birds out of that area of the garden anyway..   

[Cam]

When you compost your egg shells, do you crush them, run them thru a blender or just throw em' in as they are?   Would you compost store bought egg shells? 

[livealittle]

When you compost your egg shells, do you crush them, run them thru a blender or just throw em' in as they are?   Would you compost store bought egg shells? 

just throw them in as they are - yes all egg shells.

They get very fragile and just kind of disinigrate when you turn the compost after a few weeks.

[Cam]

I usually crush mine then I figured why?  I used to crush them and feed them back to my chickens.  So I guess once I got in the habit there I be...  And I wondered about store bought.  I've always or for many years had ranch eggs.  Thanks Liv!  Makes thing a tad easier. 

[Lee Borden]

When we place egg shells in the compost, they stay intact for a couple of weeks and then just disintegrate. Ditto chicken bones and skin, and most everything else. Composting is a magical process.