dustbunny responded June 16, 2008 at 11:18AM

  dishing the dirt, cleaning the chaos

I've been thinking about being a better citizen & composting but I have a dog who will eat everything...it might not work out...ideas?

  rockergirrl responded June 16, 2008 at 11:25AM

  www.findbarefootbooks.com

Yes we do both. I love gardening. We also compost. Dustbunny you need a covered enclosed composter if you have pets other wise they can get sick if they eat it. I have one covered plastic composter for our food and leaves and then a general open dump one for yard waste etc.

  Sticky_Mommy responded June 16, 2008 at 11:36AM

  I love my job, it gives me a break from my kids!

I have one and we put our food scraps in there, but I don't know how it works. Are we suppose to add stuff to the bid?

  vtmomof2 responded June 16, 2008 at 11:57AM

  Life is crazy but wonderful.

that is good question sticky. I have been telling my hubby that we should start composting. We already recycle everything we, and our piles are the biggest on the street. We try to keep as much out of the garbage as possible. With my garden I think composting would be great. I just have no idea how to do it.

  rockergirrl responded June 16, 2008 at 3:35PM

  www.findbarefootbooks.com

Yes you have to add more than just the food scraps. Composting to get an usable soil in the end requires doing what they call the lasagna method. Start with a layer of brown matter (leaves) and add green matter on top of it (grass clippings, food scraps etc) then keep layering. There are certain foods you cannot compost (meat, cheese for example) and there are cool things you can compost like tea bags and coffee grinds and filters. Just do a search online and it is easy to find out the basics on composting. I think composting is a wonderful lesson for kids. My kids have a great understanding of the cycle of getting our food from our local farm, growing it ourselves, composting it and then using that to help grow our vegetables next year.

  rockergirrl responded June 16, 2008 at 3:37PM

  www.findbarefootbooks.com

Here is a very basic website to get you started. http://www.composting101.com

  matty39 responded June 16, 2008 at 3:46PM

  

I keep my dog in the back yard for the most part because she'll chase the neighbors when they drive by. But I had her out with me the other day and she sniffed the compost pile but didn't act like she wanted any of it. Its mostly food scraps that are veggies/breads/coffee grounds/egg shells/dry left over cereal.... I do not put in any dairy products or meat scraps because it will call other pesty animals and my dog would have definitely eaten some. I also bag up my some of my grass clippings from time to time(I have the bag on my push mower), and I also add leaved that I raked. I throw in paper towels and paper plates, shredded paper and newspaper sometimes too. I hose it down every once in a while and then mix it up a bit from time to time so that air can get at it.