Today’s Giveaway: A Handy Compost Pail and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting”
by Colleen Vanderlinden • June 23, 2010 • Miscellaneous • 38 Comments
We can’t do a giveaway of my favorite gardening things without devoting some time to compost! My friend, garden writer Chris McLaughlin, wrote a great book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Composting and has generously donated a copy to my blogiversary giveaway. I’ve read it, and if Chris’ book can’t make you get out there and start a pile or bin for your compost, nothing can. It’s very well-written, encouraging, and imbued with Chris’s enthusiasm for her subject.
And because I want you to have something prettier than the plastic coffee can I have on my counter, the folks at Clean Air Gardening have donated a very attractive stainless steel compost pail for your food scraps. This crock also has a built-in odor filter, so your kitchen won’t smell like onions and garlic the way mine does right now.
Huge thanks to Chris, and to Libba over at Clean Air Gardening for their generosity!
So, how do you win today’s prizes? Leave me a comment telling me whether you currently compost or not. Pretty easy, eh?
I’ll choose a winner by random number generator and announce it tomorrow morning. I need your comments by midnight, and (unfortunately) only residents of the contiguous 48 U.S. States are eligible.
Good luck!
Update: The winner of the composting prize package giveaway is lucky number 12! Congrats to Carri of Read Between the Limes! Thanks everyone for entering!!
i currently compost both indoors and out. i have a indoor composter from nature mill and then a makeshift compost bin in the backyard for yard trash.
I don’t compost on purpose, though I always want to..however, I do have a pile that I never get around to of clippings and such and by golly, it seems to compose itself!
I sure do compost! And the container I use to collect things inside has a cracked lid.
We sure do compost over here. My husband is the “Compost King”! lol
Yep I compost! That was pretty easy! Currently I use the old pallet system.
I currently compst outdoors. It would be helpful to have this dedicated container in the kitchen.
We compost. My husband has embraced it and made it his mission!
I am, sadly, not allowed to compost. My husband refuses to let me buy the supplies (he’s worried about the odor). However, if I WON a composter, then he couldn’t complain… right?
I’m embarrassed to admit, but I do not currently compost. It’s been on my list of “to do’s”, but haven’t committed just yet. This composting 101 might give me the kick in the pants to give it a try!!
If you shred bills & other paper, addthe
them to your pile as well.
I don’t compost yet, but I am researching it so I can present the concept to hubby with all of the facts. I already have a copy of the book on the way, so if I win, you could draw again and give the book to someone else.
We have worm bins in the backyard, but have been considering an indoor compost bin- they look much prettier than the ziploc bags I’ve been throwing all of my scraps into before I finally make my way out to feed the worms!
Funny you should ask, I just started composting two weeks ago. I used to compost (3 bin style) before I moved to this new home. I gave away my bins thinking they would not fit in my new back yard. Well 7 years later. . . I H A T E my “dead” soil. Sooooo I’m excited to say I can’t wait for my first batch of my new compost! Thanks for another great give-a-way!
Nope. Do not have the money to build a composter at the moment, so even though I WANT to compost, I can’t.
(
I do not compost. Don’t know how, but I do keep my used coffee grinds on a plate in my kitchen… thinking it is a start. Need a push in the right direction. :O)
Looking to compost without paying a lot of money to do it.
I want to start a regular compost pile/bin soon. Right now we’re just doing vermi-composting. Love my worms!
I currently compost, I love it. It’s so simple it’s almost criminal. Throw the food waste into a pile, let sit, next year you have soil. I built my compost bin out of old pallets that stores give away. I love how you can get all fancy with it, turning, introducing warms, hot composting. Or it can be as simple as you want (throw the food in a pile, DONE!).
We just started a compost pile this week, with plans to build bins soon.
Charlotte ~ You don’t have to build a composter!
Get some carbons (browns) like dried grasses or leaves, aged hay, straw, sawdust, shredded documents, newspaper, paper towels, cardboard, etc) and grab some nitrogen (greens) like green grass clippings, green leaves, coffee grounds, tea bags, alfalfa meal or hay, vegetable trimmings, etc. (Go for 3′ high, 3′ wide)
Now find an out of the way corner and mix it all together. Water it until it’s like a damp sponge. You’ll need air, but you added that while you were mixing (for now).
There’s your compost pile!
I’m a very lazy composter–no turning, minimal layering–but given enough time, it works.
Verti ~ That’s one of my favorite styles – cold composting. I always have a cold compost pile around here.
April F. ~ The little bucket in the giveaway is a handy dandy kitchen scrap container that sits on the counter collecting your kitchen scraps until you take it to the compost pile. It’s not big enough to actually do the composting.
Tell your husband that I can promise him NO ODOR!
Kelly ~ Yup – that’s cold composting and it works like a charm! Anything else you do just speeds the process up.
By the way, you don’t actually introduce worms into a traditional compost pile (build it and they will come *grin*).
Vermicomposting is just another type of composting system that contains worms as the predominate decomposers.
oh wow – fabulous give away! Thanks so much for the chance. I do currently compost. Just started this year. I don’t have anything in the house to collect things though so I have to run out to the backyard whenever I have something to go out – it’s tiring so one of these cans would be perfect for me!
I have a compost heap consisting of chicken litter (aspen shavings & poo), food scraps, & other random (degradable) stuff. What doesn’t get stolen by the squirrels and rabbits, eventually decomposes. More or less.
I use a ugly coffee can inside to compost, and used cat litter buckets outside. It works, just kinda ugly
I don’t compost, but I want to! A new pail would help me start!
I would LOVE to start composting! We’ve just started growing veggies this year, and my son loves it. I’m sure he’d like helping out with that too.
We compost, and have a big compost bin outside. I could use a better bin for the inside one!
I do not compost at this time but it is something I would like to try!
I compost sometimes. But my big compost bin outside has been overtaken by the shrubs and I can’t get to it until I trim the shrubs:) I would very much like an indoor collector like this!
I don’t compost since I rent and don’t have a garden here. If I win I would gift it to my daughter who battles the sugar ants with her compost tub by her sink… this would work so much better!
I currently have two different types of bins.
Why yes I do compost but I currently collect scraps in a bowl on the kitchen counter and it drives DH absolutely batty! HA! I wonder sometimes if squirrels, raccoons and opossums have taken over my outside bin and I never see any of my scraps in there the day after taking them out. hmmm
Yes yes and YES! I love my compost. My plastic coffee can that keeps my indoor scraps is getting awfully nasty.
I sort of compost I save grass clippings and leaves turn them over a couple of timesduring the year, and use the soil the next year
Yes! We have composted for years, recycled too!
Do chickens count as composting? Our little ladies make short work of all our kitchen scraps… Then the bottom of the coop goes on the plants about once a year.