We've had a great worm bin for about 7 or 8 years in our backyard. When we
recently remodeled the kitchen, it turned out that composting had saved us a
bunch of money! The plumber looked at our garbage disposal and the pipes
attached to it and was amazed that we hadn't had a major breakdown, because
the pipe was really too small to handle the job. He said there was no way
the disposal should have lasted 25 years, as it had.

The worm bin also has provided a great start for new planting gardens that
I've been adding to my backyard each year. We started out with a yard that
was just a big rectangle of bad lawn. Now we have a great veggie garden, a
raspberry patch, a rose garden, etc. I hope to eventually have a back yard
that is more garden than lawn.

I put everything in the compost bin except fats and meat. I also get my
husband to put a layer of grass clippings in a couple of times during the
summer. (We usually compost the grass in a separate pile from the worm bin,
but it "freshens up" the worm bin to add grass from time to time.)


"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
"Andrew McMichael" wrote

What do y'all put in your compost. Our pile is fairly far from the
house,
and
we don't have a garbage disposal, so I put most everything in
there--all
organics (veggie cuttings, scrapings from the plates, oils, meat
trimmings,
etc]. But I've heard that one should stick to vegetable material. Is
this
so?
Why?

As others have posted, a "hot" pile will probably consume an old boot.
More casual "cold" composting will turn leaves, grass, veg and fruit
waste, and an occasional spade- or potful of dirt into a lovely
mixture for digging into your garden. In addition to the above, I add
(rinsed and crumbled) eggshells, coffee grinds, and sometimes a teabag
or 3. The only time my pile has any odor at all is immediately after
adding something like canteloupe rind. Fats, proteins, bones, etc. may
attract rodents. I don't want oily stuff in my soil, so I keep that
out, too. Trimmings from making salad? Into the pile. Leftover salad
with dressing? Into the garbage.