Focusing on your garden this summer? Enhance it by creating your own compost pile! Composting is super easy to do if you have the space to do it, and all you need is a container, scraps, and some time. You can create your own compost bin using refuse wood, old pallets, chicken wire, or other scraps. You can also purchase your own compost bin, and many come in fully closed/manually rotatable varieties.

By throwing food scraps in the trash, you are dooming them for the landfill. In the landfill food scraps do no good for the environment, and merely produce methane as they biodegrade alongside plastic bottles, old electronics, and second-hand clothes. When you compost your scraps, they readily degrade and become nutrient-rich compost that can be used to fertilize your garden, indoor plants, or local community growing projects.

Did you know…

• Compost piles need just a few ingredients: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and heat
• Carbon can be added to your compost pile in the form of dead leaves, paper/cardboard, eggshells, tea bags, etc.
• Nitrogen can be added to your compost pile in the form of coffee grounds and filters, melon and citrus rinds, corncobs, fruit pits, etc.
• Oxygen is added to your compost pile each time you rotate it, which also released heat and prevents overheating
• Heat occurs naturally within the compost pile as compostables break down, but piles must be aerated to prevent overheating or the development of harmful bacteria