Compost: You Can Do It!

We have a lovely (really, beautiful if I do say so myself) giant pot of compost on our porch.  Proof that apartment composting is achievable.

Despite what you may think, it does not stink.  You can't smell it at all unless you get right on top of it, and then the only thing you smell is that wonderful rich aroma of wet, fertile earth.  It is really quite nice.

We throw everything except meats into that compost bin.  Eggshells, crumbs, floor sweepings, ashes, used coffee grounds.  It all breaks down within a matter of days.

How did we do it?

We had an olive tree in a giant pot.  The olive tree did not make it, but the giant pot remained.  Full of dirt.  One day, we just decided to start throwing all of our compostable trash into the giant pot instead of into the garbage.  We turn it at least every day, but usually it gets turned a lot more than that because it's just fun to dig in good dirt and why not?  We're out there being dirty smokers anyway.  We keep it just barely damp, but not sopping.  And that's it.  It's that easy.  We don't even really chop things up into tiny bits or anything, we just dump it all in.  It breaks down just as fast.

The compost was going along just fine when we decided to go out on a digging expedition and dig up some earthworms and natural soil for the microbes and aeration.  We read that all good compost requires these two things, and although ours seemed to be working just fine without, it couldn't hurt.

The worms were visible for about the first four days but I couldn't tell you if there are any left alive in there.  I haven't seen any in months, but if they aren't, the compost is doing just fine without worms.

I can't wait to have a big yard compost bin, but for now, the giant pot on the porch suits our needs perfectly. The compost we have made in it could probably be sold, it's that good.

Apartment dwellers, fear no more.  You can compost!  We are proof.

Mmm.  Giant pot of really good dirt.

-L