Spring is around the corner and I've got an itch for a green thumb. I've wanted to compost for some time, but never spent the time or money getting a system going. Since my husband and I decided to stay at our current house for awhile, I thought we could go ahead and start a compost bin and a garden.
It started at Christmas, when T.J. and I returned a gift we already had at Crate and Barrel. We walk around the store for awhile, saying to each other, what do we need. After getting married, we've received all the necessities and were now looking for something to want. I spotted the compost pail and thought....oh I've been wanting one of these! T.J. agreed on starting this process. We got home and immediately started composting. Only problem was that we hadn't set up anything for all the kitchen scraps to go in.
I did some research and found out you can make a compost bin for little to no money using old wooden pallets. Some blogs suggested to go on Craig's List but that wasn't too helpful. One morning while I was at a work meeting T.J. set off on the adventure to find pallets. He picked up the phone and called Calloways. Low and behold they had tons and they said they would sell them for a dollar a piece! I got home and we put together the four pallets using only 14 gauge wire and some screws! The whole project cost about $6! TJ gets grossed out when dumping the compost from the kitchen into the compost bin outside. We put brown matter in the compost every 2 weeks. This might include paper grocery bags, leaves, weeds, and grass clippings. It's also a good place to put old potting soil.
