Over the past two or three years, my wife and I have slowly started getting into gardening. We have a big enough yard that we can experiment. We started by building a couple garden beds in a side yard and buying some starter plants to grow. If I recall our first batch correctly, we started with nothing but tomatoes and squash. It went relatively well (once we learned to toss in some chicken manure in the box!). So the next year we tried it from seedlings... This was not as successful. The following season, I tried it from seedlings which we started inside. I also built two more boxes on our hill in a different area of the yard with even more exposure to the sun. This, however, ended terribly. Everything I transplanted died quickly thereafter. Frustrated, and wanting to give up, I just plopped some of the seeds into the original two beds (emptied out, but resupplied with more chicken poo), and surprisingly, things grew. Still, what came out wasn't quite right (a bit on the small side), but at least there was a sign of life.
So, before actually getting good at growing things, we decided to take that next step (the obvious thing to do). We decided it was time to get some kick ass soil of our own to put in our beds. Clearly the dirt mix we were working with sucked because anything I try to grow should grow! So, for our Christmas present to each other this year, we bought a dual tumbler composter. We ended up getting the Lifetime product: we had seen it at Costco a couple years back and loved how it looked, it had great reviews, and Home Depot was having a sale. http://www.lifetime.com/lawn-garden/gardening/composters/60072 if you're interested.
After assembling the thing (it is not for the feint of heart a it takes a while to build) I began my research on how one goes about composting; not the simple things, but the nitty gritty. But first, perhaps, a bit about me. I'm a bit on the obsessive side when it comes to hobbies. When I go in, I go ALL in. I like to research the hell out of things before I buy them and before I do them. So before actually putting anything into these bins, I researched and worried about what exactly to do.
What is the right mix?
What can go into this damn thing?
Where in the yard should I have it?
Well, the day finally came this past weekend where I said screw it, gotta try sometime. We finally loaded up one of the 50 gallon drums with an assortment of crap. What did we put into it in the end?
We left about 1/3 empty. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for the stuff to tumble around and with 2 50 gallon drums, and a theoretical 2-3 week turn around, I figured let's see how this goes.
Out of the remaining 2/3:
55% fresh cut green grass
35% Leaves from our rose bushes and lemon tree
10% Kitchen scraps (coffee grounds, orange peels, etc)
That's it. I'm going to check it to see how it's looking as I'm thinking of adding in a bit of chicken manure. I've read it's a good way to get the heat going. But if the thing is generating enough heat already, I may just leave it alone.
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