Kitchen Composting

What is Composting? It's when one-living things (plants, eggshells, leaves, grass, etc.) decompose to make "healthy dirt" - full of minerals and good things to make plants grow when added to soil. It's also a way to help save the earth: recycle yard and kitchen waste, and reduce what gets put to the curb to taken to landfills. Very necessary when doing container gardening, lasagna gardening, square foot gardening, and more.

What should be Composted? Here's a good alphabetized list:

Aquarium Plants
Bird cage or other vegetarian pet wastes
Bread, stale
Burned oats, rice, bread, etc.
Cardboard & cereal boxes (shredded)
Cereal and chips, stale or soggy
Coconut fiber
Coffee grounds
Corncobs (chop to help decompose)
Cotton and Cotton Swabs (no plastic)
Dead bees, flies, mosquitoes, etc.
Dried flower heads/leftovers from prunings
Egg shells (rinse)
Feathers
Fruit peelings
Gelatin
Glue, Elmer’s
Grass clippings
Hair, pet or human
Houseplants, dead
Kitchen waste: old salad, cheese, greens, fruit, veggies, bread, rice, pasta, etc.
Leaves
Lint from dryer, behind refrigerator
Liquid from canned fruits/veggies, old wine, old beer
Matches (paper or wood)
Moss
Nail clippings (fingernail, toenail, dog nails, etc.)
Newspapers, shredded
Nut shells (no salty ones)
Onion and garlic skins
Outdated spices or herbs
Paper napkins, notes, towels, junk mail, tissues, receipts, paper bags
Pasta, old
Pencil Shavings
Pickles
Pine needles
Pits, olive/date/cherry/etc
Popcorn (unpopped or popped)
Potato peelings or stale potato chips
Razor trimmings (beard, mustache)
Rotted vegetables, fruits
Shells (shrimp, crab, lobster, etc.)
Soil, from the yard
Straw, hay, wheat, bark
Sweepings: Whatever you sweet or dust-mop up or vacuum up
Tea bags, used
Toothpicks
Vegetable peelings
Watermelon rinds
Wood chips, ashes, saw-dust

Can Composting be done Inside? Yep. Not everybody has a backyard to compost. No problem... there are other ways to compost in even just your kitchen! We took a plastic gallon milk (or water!) jug, and cut a hole near the top, opposite side of the handle. Place in the fridge. Add things from list above. Then we have two small sealable trash cans just outside our kitchen door that we add potting soil, our scraps from the fridge-jug, and worms when we can find them. Mix it around every 60 days or so. Add to indoor planters after it's become dirt!

There are also actual countertop or other kitchen composters you can buy. Here's a few links:
- http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-9881204-32.html
- http://www.cleanairgardening.com/kitchen.html
- http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Compost-Crock/13006,default,pd.html
- http://www.gaiam.com/product/id/1006630.do?gcid=S18376x028&keyword=compost%20bucket

Happy Composting!