Composting

I know almost nothing about composting.  Seriously.  But I was excited about the bins, because I've always WANTED to compost.  Unfortunately for me, the previous owner took most of the black gold you see above with him before they moved out.  He said it was two years in the making.

Not to be deterred, I have been faithfully adding our scraps to the now much-smaller pile (above).  I just turned it yesterday, then tossed some weeds from the garden on top.  Kitchen scraps, tea bags, laundry lint, paper towels, weeds that haven't yet gone to seed... you name it, it's in there (except for meat and oily things).  Every once in a while when I think about it, I'll grab the pitchfork and turn over the pile.  The more air that is in there, the quicker everything will decompose.  Supposedly, there is a perfect proportion between 'green' and 'brown'.  I didn't pay attention... Supposedly, you're supposed to wet the pile occasionally.  With the rain we've been getting, I'm not too worried about that, although perhaps I should be worried about it getting TOO wet, because then it will go anaerobic and not decompose. 

Depending upon how it goes, once the fall crop is harvested, I may just start dumping stuff in the garden beds.  That's how my folks have done it for years, and to my knowledge most everything is decomposed in time for spring planting.  Like everything else, I'm taking a wait and see, learn as you go approach to composting.